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Domination and Resistance: The United States and the Marshall Islands during the Cold War
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About Domination And Resistance: The United States And
Product Description Domination and Resistance illuminates the twin themes of superpower domination and indigenous resistance in the central Pacific during the Cold War, with a compelling historical examination of the relationship between the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. For decision makers in Washington, the Marshall Islands represented a strategic prize seized from Japan near the end of World War II. In the postwar period, under the auspices of a United Nations Trusteeship Agreement, the United States reinforced its control of the Marshall Islands and kept the Soviet Union and other Cold War rivals out of this Pacific region. The United States also used the opportunity to test a vast array of powerful nuclear bombs and missiles in the Marshalls, even as it conducted research on the effects of human exposure to radioactive fallout.Although these military tests and human experiments reinforced the US strategy of deterrence, they also led to the displacement of several atoll communities, serious health implications for the Marshallese, and widespread ecological degradation. Confronted with these troubling conditions, the Marshall Islanders utilized a variety of political and legal tactics―petitions, lawsuits, demonstrations, and negotiations―to draw American and global attention to their plight. In response to these indigenous acts of resistance, the United States strengthened its strategic interests in the Marshalls but made some concessions to the islanders. Under the Compact of Free Association (COFA) and related agreements, the Americans tightened control over the Kwajalein Missile Range while granting the Marshallese greater political autonomy, additional financial assistance, and a mechanism to settle nuclear claims.Martha Smith-Norris argues that despite COFA's implementation in 1986 and Washington's pivot toward the Asia-Pacific region in the post–Cold War era, the United States has yet to provide adequate compensation to the Republic of the Marshall Islands for the extensive health and environmental damages caused by the US testing programs. Review Martha Smith-Norris’s book supplements our collective knowledge about US Cold War activities in the Marshall Islands in many important ways. The sixty-five pages of endnotes and bibliography, as well as many photos in the text, include resources not discussed in other examinations of this topic and bring into clarity large-scale patterns of US behavior. Rather than treat US nuclear weapons testing and US missile testing in the Marshall Islands as two separate activities, the author shows how the missile testing is an evolution of US actions and motivations at its Pacific proving grounds that began with nuclear weapons tests in 1946 and continue with contemporary US activities on Kwajalein Atoll. . . . Smith-Norris brings forward a much-needed focus on the resistance of Marshallese people. -- Holly Barker ― The Contemporary Pacific, 29:2 (2017) A welcome addition to the interdisciplinary conversation examining the unequal power dynamics between Marshall Islanders and the United States. . . . Domination and Resistance is a necessary and timely book. The Republic of the Marshall Islands continues to struggle with the legacy of nuclear and ballistic experiments, seeking redress most recently in the United Nations’ International Court of Justice. The Marshallese are now also facing the urgent consequences of climate change: the sea is rising there faster than anywhere else in the world. It is a good thing that scholarly attention to Marshallese environmental and political struggles is increasing. Smith-Norris’s book joins the chorus as an invaluable resource for historians and other scholars, as well as for activists in the work ahead. -- Collier Nogues, University of Hong Kong ― Postcolonial Text, 12:2 (2017) Smith-Norris presents a complex and uncomfortable chapter in Cold War history of which most Americans, even students of history, are unawa
