Review: International Security: A Shield in Space?
| Date | 01 December 1991 |
| Published date | 01 December 1991 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209104600414 |
| Author | Joel J. Sokolsky |
| Subject Matter | Review |
734
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
needy
countries
to
give
them up
entirely
and
forever.
This
expectation
...
simply
will
not
be
fulfilled.
Either
all
countries
must
give
up
their
nuclear
weapons
or
all
countries
must
accept
than
any
country
that
wants
them eventually
will
get
them.'
(p
234)
I
think
this
view
is
essentially
correct.
And
it
is
a
major
reason
why
a
'world
without
war'
has
become
a
more
realistic
vision
of
future
security
than
many
war
planners
and
other
supposed
realists
have
been
prepared
to
allow.
Robert
W.
Malcolmson/Queen's
University
A
SI-HELD
IN
SPACE?
Technology,
politics,
and
the
Strategic
Defense
Initiative
Sanford
Lakoff
and
Herbert
F.
York
Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press,
1989, xvi,
4o9pp
With
the
international
security
environment
being
dramatically
changed
almost
daily
and
the
United
States
Senate
voting
to
cut
the
Bush
administration's
request
for
the
Strategic
Defense Initiative
(s
m
I)
by
one
billion
dollars,
it
might
seem
that
'Star
Wars'
is
destined
to
go
the
way
of
the
Cold
War.
Not
entirely
so.
Even
if
the
full
Congress
agrees
to
the
Senate
reductions,
there
will
still
be
US$
3
.7
billion
left
for
SDI.
Pointing
to
such
recent concepts
as
Brilliant
Pebbles,
theJune
199o
report
of
the
Strategic Defense
Initiative Organization
stresses
the accomplishments
since
1983
which
are
'reshaping
the
debate
over
defenses
from
one
based
on
broad statements
that
defense
won't
work
to
consideration
of
the
many
useful
military
missions
defenses
can
perform.'
Lakoff
and
York
would
consider
that
statement
indicative
of
the
kind
of'misplaced
faith
in
the
promise of
technological
salvation'
that
has
pervaded
SDI
from
the
start. This
was
a
project
begun
on
the
basis
of'political
rather
than
scientific
judgement.'
Bypassing the
accepted
procedure
by
which
innovations
in
military
technology
are
proposed,
reviewed,
and
adopted,
a
'popular
but
technically
uninformed
presi-
dent'
made
the
decision
without
even
consulting
the
Department
of
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