View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Trepo - Institutional Repository of Tampere University Marika Naumanen NO ROOM AT THE BUNKER A Critical Discourse Analysis on Civil Defence and Nuclear Disarmament Movement in Britain Faculty of Social Sciences Master’s Thesis November 2020 ABSTRACT Marika Naumanen: No room at the bunker – A Critical Discourse Analysis on Civil Defence and Nuclear Disarmament Movement in Britain Master’s Thesis Tampere University Master’s Degree Programme in Peace, Mediation and Conflict Research November 2020 The nuclear disarmament movement was among the most remarkable social turmoils during the Cold War in the United Kingdom. Although the movement has been explored extensively in academia, its take on civil defence systems has not been mapped in the previous research. This thesis examines preparedness, activism and civilian advisory relating to nuclear mishaps in the UK from the beginnings of the nuclear disarmament movement to the current day. I scrutinise these topics through the concept of risk society, a theory developed by sociologists Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens, which describes the birth of incalculable risks accelerated by the advancement of technology and constant need of expertise to contain the potential hazards it causes. I conducted seven semi-structured interviews with eight nuclear disarmament activists who live in different parts of Britain. The analysis of these interviews utilises critical discourse analysis, that is based on Norman Fairclough’s stance on discourse in modernity to support the theoretical approach to risk society. This study explored three different discourses that emerged from the interviews: the discourse of distrust, the discourse of injustice, and the discourse of worry of forgetting. The first of these is related to a governmental approach to addressing the public on civil defence and how the activists found this information unreliable. The second discourse involved presenting the social wrong created by nuclear weapons in different levels of governance. The last discourse presents concerns about the movement diminishing in the future. This worry results from the youth focusing on other fields of activism, such as climate change awareness, while the membership of nuclear disarmament movement declines. These aspects provide a viewpoint on the current state of civil defence in Britain and also shows how the public acknowledges it. All provided discourses connect to Beck’s organised irresponsibility, which highlights the absence of connection between the decision-makers and the rest of the population. Civil defence has dropped out from public discussion along with nuclear weapons, which is inimical for both the nuclear disarmament movement and preparedness level of the population. Keywords: nuclear disarmament movement, civil defence, United Kingdom, risk society, critical discourse analysis. The originality of this thesis has been checked using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. Acknowledgements This study would not have been possible without financial support from Teemu Tuominen Crisis Management Fund. With this I was able to meet my informants in person and have a sneak peek for the archives in the British Library and the London School of Economics. I am extremely grateful for Minna Vähäsalo from Finnish Committee of 100 for contacting me with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and its Secretary Sarah Medi Jones to forwarding my interview invitation, and all of the members of the movement who were willing to provide their help. I am thankful for my informants in particular, as they welcomed me to their homes and shared their interesting insights with me. I would also like to thank Joonas Lintunen, who supported me with the technical aspects of the thesis, such as recording the interviews and providing an application for transcription. Abbreviations and Acronyms C100 Committee of the 100 CDA Critical Discourse Analysis CDC Civil Defence Corps CND Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament DAC Direct Action Committee EMP Electromagnetic pulse END European Nuclear Disarmament H-bomb Hydrogen Bomb HMNB Her Majesty’s Naval Base HMO Her Majesty’s Office HO Home Office IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency ICAN International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IHL International Humanitarian Law INF Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty IR International Relations IWM Imperial War Museum LSE London School of Economics MAD Mutually Assured Destruction MOD Ministry of Defence NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NCANWT National Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapon Tests NFLA Nuclear Free Local Authorities NGO Non-governmental organisation NPT Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons SALT Strategic Arms Limitation Talks SNP Scottish National Party UK United Kingdom UN United Nations US United States WBGT Wet bulb global temperature WMD Weapon of mass destruction WoT War on Terror YCND Campaign for nuclear disarmament youth Table of contents 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 DEFINITION OF THE KEY CONCEPTS ......................................................................................................................... 3 1.2 NUCLEAR WEAPONS, CIVIL DEFENCE AND DISARMAMENT MOVEMENT TODAY ........................................................ 6 1.3 STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS AND CONNECTION TO THE PEACE RESEARCH ............................................................ 8 2 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ....................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 UK AND NUCLEAR CIVIL DEFENCE ............................................................................................................................ 9 2.2 CND AND BRITISH NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT MOVEMENT ......................................................................................15 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: RISK SOCIETY AND REFLEXIVE MODERNISATION .......................... 22 3.1 RISK SOCIETY – LIVING WITH INCALCULABLE THREATS .........................................................................................22 3.2 REFLEXIVE MODERNISATION – MODERNISATION OF THE MODERN ........................................................................24 3.3 TIME AND RISK SOCIETY..........................................................................................................................................26 3.4 RISK SOCIETY AND NUCLEAR WAR .........................................................................................................................28 3.5 PEACE MOVEMENTS – A RESULT OF REFLEXIVE MODERNITY ................................................................................30 3.6 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND RISK SOCIETY .....................................................................................................31 3.7 CRITICISM ................................................................................................................................................................32 4 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................... 35 4.1 CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS .............................................................................................................................35 4.2 DATA COLLECTION ..................................................................................................................................................39 4.3 LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................42 5 FINDINGS...................................................................................................................................................... 43 5.1 DEPICTIONS OF NUCLEAR WAR- DISARMAMENT MOVEMENT VERSUS THE HOME OFFICE ....................................43 5.1.1 Protect and Survive – The nuclear destruction and governmental viewpoint ....................................44 5.1.2 The War Game and the other stories of nuclear Armageddon .............................................................47 5.1.3 Risk society and discourse of distrust ......................................................................................................49 5.1.4 Discourse of distrust and modern representations of nuclear Armageddon ......................................51 5.2 FROM LOCAL TO GLOBAL: MOVEMENT STRATEGY IN REFLEXIVE MODERNITY .......................................................55 5.2.1 The case of Scotland – Localised threat in Faslane ..............................................................................56 5.2.2 International Humanitarian Law and other nominators of injustice -a global perspective ................62 5.2.3 Local authorities and nuclear civil defence – Preparing for the impossible. .......................................66 5.2.4 Discourse of injustice – from local to global ............................................................................................73 5.3. CHANGING CLIMATE AND YOUTH ENGAGEMENT- NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AND THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL ACTIVISM. .......................................................................................................................................................................75