Togzhan Kassenova is senior fellow at the University at Albany, SUNY and a nonresident fellow of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Atomic Steppe is the untold story of how Kazakhstan rid itself of nuclear weapons-a remarkable accomplishment for a new nation. Togzhan Kassenova documents this momentous tale with depth, rigor, and skill. A revelatory, authoritative account of how the nuclear arms race went backwards, for once, making the world safer. -David E. Hoffman, author of The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy Togzhan Kassenova's moving Atomic Steppe offers one of the first complete English-language accounts of the devastating but little-known nuclear history of Kazakhstan. The author successfully blends meticulous research with her own family's personal experience. -Sarah Cameron, author of The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan In this wonderful book, Togzhan Kassenova provides an intimate account of Kazakhstan's nuclear history and an acute analysis of how it handled its post-Soviet nuclear inheritance. Atomic Steppe is a deeply researched and profoundly affecting book, which everyone concerned about the nuclear state of the world should read. -David J. Holloway, author of Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 With the sweeping and inspiring Atomic Steppe, Togzhan Kassenova has unearthed insights new even to those of us who had front-row seats to Kazakhstan's nuclear saga, telling a story both accurate and humane. Anyone interested in Eurasia or in health, environmental, and nuclear challenges should read this engrossing book. -William Courtney, former US Ambassador to Kazakhstan The beauty and magic of this brutalized landscape cannot be erased. Togzhan's book introduces us to the indomitable strength of itspeople, including those victimized by nuclear testing. They and we are in her debt. -- Michael Krepon * <i>Arms Control Wonk</i> * Togzhan Kassenova's review of 70 years of Kazakhstan's history in Atomic Steppe is the definitive study of that country's nuclear inheritance and its associated internal politics and international diplomacy. -- Laura Kennedy * <i>Foreign Service Journal</i> *