{"id":3875,"date":"2021-04-19T16:54:36","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T20:54:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=3875"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:25","slug":"nuclear-exploration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2021\/04\/nuclear-exploration\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Exploration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Father Brian\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span><\/span> investigates how religious cultural heritage may have shaped the presidential approach to nuclear arms.<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

By Christopher Hann<\/p>\n

With a background steeped in science, religion and public policy, it might seem that Father Brian <\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0had been preparing all his adult life for the research project he\u2019s undertaken during a yearlong fellowship with the Council on Foreign Relations.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After all, starting in 1996,\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0earned\u00a0<\/span>bachelor\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0and master\u2019s degrees in engineering from Princeton and the California Institute of Technology, respectively, then a Master of Divinity degree in pastoral ministry and a second master\u2019s in systematic theology from Seton Hall.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ordained a Catholic priest in 2003,\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span> was assigned to serve a church in North Arlington, New Jersey, and became active in nongovernmental organizations at the United Nations. In 2008, <\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0began a doctoral program at the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Five years later, Ph.D. in hand, he returned to Seton Hall, where today he\u2019s an assistant professor in the School of Diplomacy and International Relations and the director of the Center for United Nations and Global Governance Studies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, as a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York\u2013based think tank,\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0is using his experience to conduct research he plans to develop into a book. The subject: four American presidents \u2014 Truman, Eisenhower, Carter and Reagan \u2014 and the impact of what\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0calls \u201creligious cultural heritage\u201d on their nuclear arms policies.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought looking at nuclear weapons would be a great way to bring together the technical background of an engineer, the ethical background of a priest, and my international background from the United Nations.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The four commanders-in-chief held office at two critical junctures \u2014 at the beginning and end of the Cold War. Each pair is a Democrat and his Republican successor, enabling him to draw sometimes surprising comparisons. Underpinning his research is the role of religious cultural heritage, which combines one\u2019s concept of right and wrong, one\u2019s notion of government, and what\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0calls one\u2019s philosophical anthropology \u2014 \u201ca fancy way of saying, \u2018What is your theory of human nature?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI call it religious cultural heritage to emphasize that you don\u2019t have to necessarily be an adherent to the religion\u00a0<\/span>in order for<\/span>\u00a0its ideas \u2014 the moral and ethical framework, etc. \u2014 to have an influence on people,\u201d\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0says. \u201cIt\u2019s about a spectrum of different nuclear decisions. How do I behave in a crisis? Or deal with a nuclear threat? What types of weapons should I develop or maintain?\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying that religious cultural heritage drives the decision,\u201d he says. \u201cBut if we leave that factor out of the analysis, we have an incomplete understanding of the decision-making the presidents do.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

James M. Lindsay, a senior vice president at the Council on Foreign Relations, says the research <\/span>topic<\/span>\u00a0Muz\u00e1s\u00a0chose was instrumental in his selection as a fellow. \u201cWhat struck me is that Father Brian is asking the most interesting question and the toughest one to answer,\u201d Lindsay says. \u201cUnderstanding American foreign policy, and American nuclear policy, is a lot about understanding why presidents made the decisions they made. What I liked about Father Brian\u2019s proposal is he\u2019s trying to come to grips with that big question.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Muz\u00e1s<\/span>, who spent three weeks at each of the four presidential libraries, recalls coming across drafts of Eisenhower\u2019s famous \u201cAtoms for Peace\u201d speech, delivered to the U.N. General Assembly in December 1953. Eisenhower called for reducing worldwide stockpiles and\u00a0<\/span>committing<\/span>\u00a0to human aspiration rather than arms accumulation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Poring through the files,\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0came across the typed draft on which Eisenhower had written the speech\u2019s substantive central passage \u2014 in pencil.\u00a0<\/span>Muz\u00e1s<\/span>\u00a0was stunned.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is Eisenhower himself, in his own handwriting, writing the part of speech that everybody comes back to,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing when you\u2019re going through archives and you find a president expressing his own thoughts in his own handwriting \u2014 and so much the better when it helps the crux of your argument. That was a moment like, \u2018Eisenhower, I\u2019ve got you.\u2019\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Christopher Hann is a freelance writer and editor in New Jersey.<\/i>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Brian Muz\u00e1s investigates how religious cultural heritage may have shaped the presidential approach to nuclear arms.<\/p>\n

Continue ReadingNuclear Exploration<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4972,"featured_media":3950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,259,9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-articles-2020-2024","category-catholicism","category-faculty","entry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4972"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3875"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3941,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3875\/revisions\/3941"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}