Politics and physics: Epistemic communities and the origins of United States nuclear nonproliferation policy

This project tests whether hypotheses generated by the literature on epistemic communities can help explain the sources of international cooperation in nuclear nonproliferation. The main question driving this study is how the United States came to define its interests in nuclear non-proliferation as being best served by moving from a policy of unilateral denial to a multilateral regime based on information sharing and inspection.; The argument presented here is that United States preferences were shaped in significant part by the influence of an epistemic community on policy processes. The study uses structured, focused case comparison methods to examine several significant non-proliferation decisions: the initial decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan; the decision to pursue international control; the decisions to accelerate development and deployment of the hydrogen bomb; and the decision to pursue what became the Atoms for Peace policy. Taken together, the outcomes of these decisions form the foundations of United States interests in the non-proliferation regime as we see it today.; The study concludes that the United States' interests in non-proliferation cooperation were not the direct, immediate result of epistemic community influence. The community was limited in its influence by the strength of Realist concerns over the central security issues raised by the advent of atomic weapons. However, the community did help frame issues in accordance with their beliefs in information sharing and inspection, and thereby exert long-term influence on United States policy.; The study also offers modifications of several epistemic community hypotheses, including those concerning community unanimity, the effects of splits within communities, and the effects of timing and access on community influence. For further research, the study proposes both a continuation of the study of United States preference formation over time (through the negotiation and ratification of the Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1970), as well as an extension of the work to investigate the possible influence of a transnational epistemic community on the preferences of other nations.