Book Review: Military and Scientific Affairs: The Arms Debate
| Published date | 01 March 1964 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206401900115 |
| Author | N. Samir Ahmed |
| Date | 01 March 1964 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
90
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
to
support
Delhi's
stand.
On
the Canal
Waters
and
Kashmir
disputes,
by
contrast,
the
author
adopts
a
purist
legal
approach-which
happens
to
strengthen
India's
claims
in both
cases.
The
treatment
of
the
former
is
learned
and comprehensive.
It
is
also
a
convincing
demon-
stration
that
the
Indian
legal
case,
based
on
the
Harmon
Doctrine,
is
unassailable.
So
too
with
his
legal
analysis
of
the
Kashmir
question.
But
in
both
Dr.
Bains
weakens
the
effect by
irrelevant,
and
unnecessary,
encomia
to India;
for
example,
he extols
India's
concessions
in
the
Indus
Treaty
with
the
remark:
"true
to
her
idealism
and spiritual
heritage
she
has
agreed to
help
a
State
which
at
times
has
even
threat-
ened
to wage
war
..
."
(p.
61).
On
Kashmir,
it
seems
to
this
reviewer,
Dr.
Bains
tends
to weaken
India's
case
by
over-arguing
all
of
the
theoretical
nuances.
The
analysis
of
the
Ceylon
imbroglio
is
fair,
as
noted.
With
regard
to
Tibet,
he
shows
that
since
1951
at
any
rate,
the
land
of
the
Lamas
has
not
been
a
sovereign
state
and
that
India
has
not
violated
inter-
national
law
by
granting
asylum
to
the
Dalai
Lama
and thousands
of
refugees.
The
account
of
the
border dispute
with
China
is
sound
and
thorough.
Goa
reveals
an
effort
to
give
a
cover
of legality
to
India's
occupation-by
portraying Portugal's
violation
of
the
U.N.
Charter,
by denying
the validity of
rules
of
classical
international law
to
cases
involving colonialism,
and
by
reference
to
reputable
scholars,
notably
Julius
Stone.
No
less
striking
is
the
angry
tone
of
Dr.
Bains'
remarks
on
Portugal,
in
sharp
contrast
to
the
rest
of
the
book,
which
indicates
the
intensity
of
Indian
feeling
on
Goa
and,
more
generally,
colonialism,
even
among
academics.
A
strong
policy
orientation
pervades
the
conclusion,
with
criticism
of
the
failure
of
India's
officials
to
exploit
the
legal
claims
and
of
excessive
use
of
moralistic
arguments--often
to
the
detriment
of
India's
case,
adds
the author.
To
the
student
of
international
relations, this
volume
demonstrates
anew
that
the
rules
of
international
law
are
often
vague and
uncertain,
and
that
scholars,
like
states,
can
and
do find
evidence
supporting
their
views.
The
con-
troversy
over
the
legality
of
the
U.S.
quarantine
of
Cuba
in
October
1962
is,
perhaps, the
most recent
illustration
of
this
manipulative
function
of
international
law.
McGill
University
MICHAEL
BRECHER
Military
and
Scientific
Affairs
THE
ARMS
DEBATE.
By
Robert
A.
Levine.
1963.
(Cambridge:
Harvard
University
Press.
Toronto:
S.
J.
Reginald
Saunders.
xi,
347pp.
$6.50)
The
arms
debate
analysed
in
this
brilliant and
lucid book
is
not
the
"disarmament
debate"
going
on
between
East
and
West, though
it
certainly
sheds
much
light
on
the
position
of
one of
its protagonists.
It
is,
rather,
the
public
debate over
arms
policy
(and
disarmament
policies)
in
the
United
States.
(Some
relevant
ideas
from
the
United
Kingdom
are
also
brought
in.)
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