"Why Nuclear Weapons are Illegal and Must be Abolished" w Ron Kramer

In 2023, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the iconic Doomsday Clock to ninety seconds to midnight—the closest to midnight, or civilization-ending apocalypse, it has ever been. Designed at the onset of the Cold War amid new fears of atomic weapons, the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic countdown to annihilation. Now, a generation later, the world is more vulnerable than ever to the nuclear weapons it sought to warn against. In Apocalyptic Crimes, Ronald C. Kramer reconsiders the immense danger these weapons pose to humanity, examining the use, threat to use, and continued possession of nuclear weapons from a criminological perspective.
Kramer argues that any country holding on to its nuclear arsenal—including the United States—is committing a criminal act. Offering a sharp rebuke to the common claim that nuclear stockpiles serve to deter the escalation of conflict, Apocalyptic Crimes emphasizes the harm caused by the mere possession of these deadly weapons. It further considers the culpability of political officials, acting as representatives of the state, whose threatening statements about nuclear weapons contain actions or omissions that violate specific international laws. But Kramer also shows how a nuclear apocalypse might be averted and offers a pathway to disarmament. Through critical analysis and a specific criminology of nuclear weapons, Kramer outlines the political actions necessary to rewind the Doomsday Clock and pull the world back from the brink of destruction—before the clock strikes midnight.

About the Author:

Ron Kramer is Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His latest book is Apocalyptic Crimes: Why Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal and Must Be Abolished (Forthcoming, 2024). His previous books include: Carbon Criminals, Climate Crimes (2020); State-Corporate Crime: Wrongdoing at the Intersection of Business and Government (2006); Crimes of the American Nuclear State: At Home and Abroad (1998); and the edited volume, State Crime in the Global Age (2010). Kramer is a recipient of the WMU Teaching Excellence Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Division of Critical Criminology of the American Society of Criminology, the Larry T. Reynolds Award for Outstanding Teaching of Sociology and the Charles Horton Cooley Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Sociology from the Michigan Sociological Association. He hosts the award-winning cable television program Critical Issues, Alternative Views on the Public Media Network in Kalamazoo.

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