Book Review: Military and Scientific Affairs: The Military Intellectuals in Britain 1918–1939
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200221 |
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
324
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Military
and
Scientific
Affairs
MUST
THE
BOMB
SPREAD
By
Leonard Beaton.
1966.
(London:
Penguin.
Toronto: Longmans.
14
6pp.
85c)
In
1962,
in
association
with
John
Maddox,
Leonard Beaton
published
one
of
the
earliest
book-length
studies
of
the
problem
of
nuclear
pro-
liferation
(Beaton
and
Maddox,
The
Spread
of
Nuclear
Weapons).
It
was
primarily
a
series
of
case
studies
of
the
individual
nuclear
policies
of
nine
nations.
In
the
volume
here
under
review,
Beaton
has taken
a
somewhat
broader
view.
He
analyzes
general
incentives
to
nuclear
status,
and
offers
policy
proposals
to
erode
or
channel
those
incentives.
The
first
recommendation
in
Beaton's
anti-proliferation
strategy
is
for
a
non-dissemination
agreement
which
binds
the
nuclear
powers
not
to
transfer
weapons and also
secures
the
acknowledgement
of
the
non-nuclear powers
to
maintain
their
non-nuclear
status.
This
is
the
core
of
both
the
U.S.
and
Soviet
draft
treaties
presently
before
the
Eighteen
Nation
Disarmament
Conference
at
Geneva.
It
would
seem
that
although
the
Americans
and
Soviets
have
not
yet
been
able
to
agree
on
a
formulation
which
can
be
submitted
to
the
Conference
as
a
joint
proposal,
the
superpowers
are
in
essential
accord on
the
need
for
such
a
pact,
and
hope
to
conclude
one
sometime
in
1967.
The
question
of
how
many
non-nuclear powers
will
sign
remains
open;
and
it
is
understood
that
China
certainly
and
France
probably
will
not
sign.
Thus
the
treaty
will
be
only a
first
step.
Supporting
it
is
another
of
Beaton's
objectives,
a
general
system
of
guarantee
by
the
nuclear
powers
which
would
assure
non-nuclear
nations
of
their
security against
nuclear
attack
or
blackmail.
Here
one
must
be
somewhat
less optimistic,
if
only
because
of
the
complexity of
the
problem:
It
is
possible
that
we
will
have
to
settle,
at
least
at
first,
for
a
series
of
bilateral
assurances
pending
the
complete acceptance
by
the international
community
of
the
principle
of
nuclear
guarantees.
Mr.
Beaton
also
stresses
the
importance
of
controlling
not
only
the
obviously
military
applications
of
nuclear energy
but
also
the
peaceful
uses
through
which
military
programs
may
be
indirectly
or clandestinely
approached. But
as
the
current
debates
in
West
Germany
and
Italy
indicate,
there
will
be
long
and
arduous
negotiations
required
before
non-nuclear
nations
can
be
satisfied
that
measures
designed
to
keep
them
out
of
the
weapons business
will
not
keep
them
out
of
more
pacific
nuclear enterprises
as
well.
Hudson
Institute
MICHAEL
E.
SHERMAN
THE
MILITARY
INTELLECTUALS
IN
BRITAIN-
1918-1939.
By
Robin
Higham.
1966.
(New
Jersey,
Rutgers
Umversity
Press.
Toronto: Ryerson.
xi,
267pp.
$8.25)
This
book
is
in
a
sense
a
sequel
to
the
same
author's
study
of
British
defence
policy
between
the
wars,
Armed
Forces
sn
Peacetime:
Britain
1918-1940
(1963)
Whereas
that
work
studied
the
development
of
official
policy
this
concentrates
on
the writings
of
the
independent
thinkers
about
military
affairs
who
flourished
during
the
two
inter-war
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