With a $1 trillion modernisation programme signed off and atomic scientists deeply worried about the future, American policy on nuclear weapons is pretty much business as usual.
In the third volume of The Official History of ASIO series, historians Dr John Blaxland and Dr Rhys Crawley examine the organisation's role in the years leading to the end of the Cold War.
The Non-Aligned Movement member states enjoy cohesion on few issues. Historically, their heterogeneity ranged from absolute monarchs to socialist presidents.
On September 27, 1956, an atomic mushroom cloud rose above the Maralinga plain - the first of seven British bomb tests. Why was Australia so keen to put UK military interests ahead of its own people?
Susan Williams, School of Advanced Study, University of London
The Soviet Union tested its own atomic bomb in 1949, to the profound shock of the US. This heated up the Cold War dramatically and thrust the Congo to the centre of American geopolitical strategy
Susan Williams, School of Advanced Study, University of London
The mine that produced the uranium that made the Hiroshima bomb has since been closed. But its troubling legacy continues to haunt the Democratic Republic of Congo and the local community.
Cuba’s National Capitol Building has been reclaimed as the seat of the National Assembly 54 years after it was abandoned by the new revolutionary government. There are lessons in this for others.
Over the past two decades, it has not been easy for any country – let alone a newly freed one, like post-apartheid South Africa – to understand the rapidly changing world.
Günter Schabowski’s press conference in November 1989 helped trigger the collapse of the Berlin wall. Was it really as much of an accident as we like to think?