Book Notes
| DOI | 10.1177/00223433030406024 |
| Published date | 01 November 2003 |
| Author | Ola Tunander |
| Date | 01 November 2003 |
| Subject Matter | Notes |
Manipulated and International Law Violated].
Köln: Kiepenheuer & Witsch. 158 pp. ISBN
3462032550.
What was the true character of the sanctions
against Iraq? What were the intentions of the
USA and Great Britain, the main proponents of
strict sanctions? These are the questions that
Andreas Zumach asked Hans von Sponeck in an
interview conducted in January 2003, which
makes up the main part of this book. Hardly
anybody could be more qualified to answer such
questions than von Sponeck, the director of the
UN ‘food-for-oil’ programme from 1998 to
2000. He resigned from office because he – like
his predecessor Denis Halliday – came to the con-
clusion that the sanctions amounted to what he
considers the ‘severest punishment of the
innocent’. Von Sponeck points out that a
UNESCO study shows a catastrophic worsening
of the infant mortality rate in Iraq. About half a
million minors are believed to have died because
of malnutrition or the lack of medical supplies –
caused by the sanctions. The former director
accuses the governments in Washington and
London of having known these facts and pre-
vented UN officials from properly reporting to
the Security Council or the media. He assumes
that the sanctions were preparation for war
against Iraq. This ‘preparation’, von Sponeck
claims, went along with a barrage of misinforma-
tion, misrepresentations and even lies about
WMDs and no-fly zones. Von Sponeck thus gives
scathing testimony against US and British claims
to a just war against Iraq. Even if one does not
share von Sponeck’s assessments, his detailed
account gives an interesting insight into the actual
workings of the sanctions regime. Dieter Janssen
Vyborny, Lee & Don Davis, 2003. Dark
Waters – An Insider’s Account of the NR-1: The
Cold War’s Undercover Nuclear Sub. New York:
New American Library & Penguin. 243 pp. ISBN
0451207777.
NR-1 was as prestigious to Admiral Hyman
Rickover as Air Force One is to the president.
This $100 million nuclear-propelled mini-sub-
marine from the late 1960s – officially a ‘nuclear
research’ vessel – was primarily used for other
purposes: work with the SOSUS lines (sound
surveillance systems) on the ocean floor, for
recovering objects like airplanes and missiles, and
for conducting covert operations in territorial
waters of other countries. The NR-1 could drive
on the sea floor like a car and use manipulators
to move objects. Lee Vyborny, a member of the
original 12-man crew, describes operations from
the 1970s, but not much of the more sensitive
undercover operations that the title claims. At the
time, secrecy prevented the crew members from
disclosing which vessel they were sailing. Still,
much of NR-1’s activities are classified, and
scholars and intelligence officers who have been
able to follow the prints from its wheels on the
sea floor may be disappointed. However, to most
of us this book opens a window into the dark
waters of the US Navy. Ola Tunander
Young, Oran R., 2002. The Institutional
Dimensions of Environmental Change: Fit, Inter-
play, and Scale. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 237
pp. ISBN 0262740249.
Can institutions make a difference? This
question informs Oran Young’s methodological
discussion, the aim of which is to formulate a
shared analytical vocabulary among, and to
bridge the gap between, scholars of institutions
and policymakers. Drawing on the Institutional
Dimensions of Global Environmental Change
(IDGEC) research programme, the book shifts
our conception of institutional analysis from a
focus on regimes to a more detailed examination
of institutions according to the IDGEC themes
of fit, interplay and scale. Hence, the central
chapters explore the match of institutions and
natural systems, interactions among institutions,
and their temporal and spatial characteristics,
demonstrating these concepts with numerous
empirical examples throughout. Young seeks to
develop ‘useable knowledge’ in order to construct
more effective and durable institutions to address
global environmental change. Useable know-
ledge is found in ‘institutional diagnostics’, an
alternative to standardized design principles
which entails procedures to examine environ-
mental challenges on a case-by-case basis. Insti-
tutional solutions are thus formulated in
accordance with the identified characteristics of
environmental challenges rather than a fixed set
of principles that may be less applicable across
cases and issues. The result is a useful procedure
for institutional design that accounts for the
BOOK NOTES 753
68S 10bkrevs (ds) 3/10/03 1:26 pm Page 753
To continue reading
Request your trial