Readers Resurface Hidden Proliferation Histories

Short public reading lists by influential intellectuals can pull obscure but consequential historical episodes — for example South Africa’s covert atomic weapons program and its ties to the Angolan war — back into mainstream attention. These curated pointers often synthesize recent archival or regional scholarship and can shift which historical facts enter policy conversations. — Bringing little‑known proliferation episodes to a wider readership can change how policymakers and the public think about nonproliferation, rollback possibilities, and regional drivers of weapons programs.