Barash, David P. 1987. The Arms Race and Nuclear War. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 365 pp., USD 26.00
| Published date | 01 June 1987 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234338702400209 |
| Date | 01 June 1987 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Book
Notes
Barash,
David
P.
1987.
The
Arms
Race
and
Nuclear
War.
Belmont,
California:
Wadsworth,
365
pp.,
USD
26.00
ISSN
0022-3433
Journal
of
Peace
Research,
vol.
24,
no.
2,
1987
’Just
as
literacy
is
fundamental
to
informed
de-
cision-making,
the
Nuclear
Age
demands
that
citizens
understand
the
fundamental
issues
sur-
rounding
nuclear
weapons’,
Barash
writes
in
the
opening
paragraphs.
Barash
has
written
a
good
introductory
text
and
reference
book
to
the
main
military
concern
of
the
nuclear
age.
Each
chapter
defines
a
series
of
’key
terms’
and
presents
a
set
of
major
’policy
issues’:
The
two
first
parts
present
the
basic
facts
of
the
issue
-
a
necessary
smattering
of
nuclear
physics,
descriptions
of
strategic
and
tactical
nuclear
weapons
and
their
delivery
systems,
and
an
overview
of
the
possible
effects
of
nuclear
explosions.
The
third
part
sketches
the
brief
history
of
the
superpower
doctrines
of
nuclear
deterrence.
This
discussion
focuses
on
the
American
side
of
the
story
and
does
not
succeed
in
bringing
out
the
interplay
between
the
superpowers.
It
contains
an
updated
expo-
sition
of
the
American
SDI
Initiative,
but
it
contains
no
comparable
coverage
of
the
Soviet
program.
The
fourth
part
discusses
the
nuclear
arms
race,
the
many
efforts
to
arrive
at
a
nego-
tiated
arms
agreement,
and
includes
a
chapter
on
the
proliferation
of
nuclear
weapons
to
smaller
countries.
The
fifth
and
last
part
of
the
book
discusses
the
arms
race
and
nuclear
war
under
headings
such
as
’Nuclear
Economics’,
’Nuclear
Psychology’,
and
’Nuclear
Ethics’.
This
is
a
good
book
to
keep
close
to
the
tele-
vision
set,
for
it
helps
the
concerned
citizen
to
distinguish
between
those
emperors
who
are
well
dressed
and
those
who
are
merely
dolled
up
in
fashionable
turns
of
phrase.
TLK
Gantzel,
Klaus
Jürgen
&
Jörg
Meyer-Stauber,
eds.
1986.
Die
Kriege
nach
dem
Zweiten
Weltkrieg
bis
1984:
Daten
und
erste
Analysen,
München-Köln-London:
Weltforum,
311
pp.
+
extensive
bibliography.
A
key
phenomenon
of
the
international
scene
since
World
War
II
is
the
dislocation
of
armed
conflict
and
war
from
Europe
to
Third
World
countries.
Die
Kriege
nach
dem
Zweiten
Weltkrieg
bis
1984,
a
product
of
a
collective
scholarly
effort
by
the
Research
Project
on
the
Causes
of
War
at
the
University
of
Hamburg,
takes
up
the
subject
of
armed
conflicts
and
wars
since
World
War
II
for
detailed
analysis
and
study.
It
presents
data
until
1984
and
tries
critically
to
review
existing
knowledge
on
these
conflicts
in
the
light
of
peace
research
theory.
It
starts
with
a
discussion
of
the
very
definition
of
wars
and
elaborates
the
nature
of
conflicts
fought
on
the
soil
of
Africa,
Asia
and
Latin
America.
The
book
contains
a
detailed
register
of
159
wars
between
1945-1984.
It
analyses
their
trends
and
characteristic
features.
It
brings
statistics
on
the
frequency,
regional
distribution,
duration
and
arts
of
conflicts.
It
then
offers
an
overview
on
the
substance,
out-
come
and
bibliographical
source
indication
for
each
of
these
conflicts.
In
sum,
it
is
a
highly
ambitious
research
project.
The
authors
never-
theless
qualify
the
publication
as
an
initial
’workshop
report’
to
be
still
improved
for
fol-
lowing
publications.
As
it
stands,
however,
this
is
one
of
the
most
comprehensive
and
best
scholarly
treatments
of
armed
conflict
after
World
War
II.
MT
Krippendorff,
Ekkehart
&
Christian
Bartolf
1986.
Pazifismus
in
den
USA.
In:
Materialen,
24.
Berlin:
John
F.
Kennedy
Institute
for
North
American
Studies,
Free
University.
719
pp.,
DM 46.
While
pacifism
in
recent
decades
has
been
far
off
the
American
mainstream,
pacifism
has
always
exercised
a
restraining
influence
on
the
militarization
of
American
foreign
policy
through
its
position
in
a
broader
American
peace
movement.
Thus,
this
anthology
of
US
pacifist
thought
should
be
of
considerable
inter-
est.
It
ranges
from
classics
(William
Penn,
John
Woolman,
Henry
David
Thoreau,
and
others)
to
contemporaries
(Martin
Luther
King,
Barbara
Deming,
Daniel
Berrigan,
and
others)
bound
together
by
comments
from
graduate
students
of
the
Free
University
in
Berlin.
The
comments
are
in
German
but
the
docu-
mentation
is
given
in
the
original
English.
NPG
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