International Network of Engineers and Scientists Against Proliferation

Bulletin 18 - New Publications

Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons

Edited by Martin Kalinowski

In 1996, the International Court of Justice in The Hague confirmed with an advisory opinion that the threat and use of nuclear weapons is generally illegal according to the existing international right. Nuclear weapon states do have a legally binding obligation to disarm completely.

This volume analyses why this goal has not been achieved yet and how the current deadlock could be overcome. To this end, unconventional disarmament proposals are presented, first of all the proposed Nuclear Weapons Convention that would ban nuclear weapons. This would follow the example of the Biological and Chemical Weapons Conventions. As an immediate step towards the ultimate goal, qualitative instead of the conventional quantitative disarmament measures are suggested. The control of the fusionable weapons material tritium is used as an example. It is further suggested that in addition to the USA and Russia, the other nuclear weapons states should join in the disarmament process. Nuclear Weapons Free Zones are a possibility to prepare for global elimination of nuclear weapons on a regional scale.

This collection of papers establishes a profound introduction to the position and the proposals of proponents for a complete nuclear disarmament. It is particularly suited for scientists, politicians and concerned citizens who are engaged in disarmament issues.

The authors are internationally well respected experts for nuclear disarmament with some emphasis on scientific expertise. Among them are co-initiators and main authors of the model Nuclear Weapons Convention that was introduced an official document of the United Nations in 1997.

Martin B. Kalinowski (ed.), Global Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Nomos 2000, ISBN 3-7890-6594-3, 278 pages , paperback, DM 78,-

Out Of The Nuclear Shadow

Edited by Smitu Kothari and Zia Mian

Outraged conscience, careful argument, poetry, political analysis - gathered here is the diversity of voices, traditions, and approaches that are weaving themselves into an anti-nuclear movement in India and Pakistan.

In these essays written before, during, and after the May 1998 nuclear explosions, scholars and activists from these two countries attempt to understand and challenge the nuclearisation of South Asia. These essays are an act of resistance against governments that see nuclear weapons as a currency of power, as symbols of prestige, as sources of security, as moments of glory in an otherwise dismal contemporary history.

The collection includes Mahatma Gandhi's response to the bombing of Hiroshima, and recent writings by Eqbal Ahmad, Rajni Kothari, Ashis Nandy, Arundhati Roy, Amartya Sen, and veteran anti-nuclear activists, academics and journalists. The volume also contains the texts of many of the historic public statements protesting the May 1998 nuclear tests that helped mobilise public opposition to the bomb in South Asia. There is a resource guide to books, films and websites on nuclear weapons, as well as information on many organisations now working on this issue.

Smitu Kothari is based at Lokayan in Delhi, where he coordinates research and campaigns on political, cultural and ecological issues, and co-edits the Lokayan Bulletin. He is a member of the Indian Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace.

Zia Mian is a physicist and writer from Pakistan at Princeton University's Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, and a visiting fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad. He has written extensively on nuclear weapons issues, and is active in the South Asian peace movement.

Published in 2001, 525 pages

India: ISBN 81-86962-25-5 (Hb) Rs. 500; ISBN 81-86962-26-3 (Pb) Rs. 275 Lokayan, 13 Alipur Road , Delhi 110054, tel. +91-11-39 69 380

USA and Europe: ISBN 184277, 0586 (Hb), $69.95; ISBN 1842770594 (Pb), $27.50, Zed Books, 7 Cynthia Street London, N1 9JF, tel. +44-2078 37 84 66, fax +44-78 33 29 60, www.zedbooks.demon.co.uk/home.htm

Pakistan and India Under the Nuclear Shadow

A video documentary from the Eqbal Ahmad Foundation, produced and directed by Pervez Hoodbhoy; script by Zia Mian

In May 1998, over a billion people were thrust into the nuclear shadow as India and Pakistan blasted their way onto the world stage as nuclear weapons states. This path-breaking 35 minute independent documentary made in Pakistan takes a critical look at what the bomb has done for the two countries since then. Senior Indian and Pakistani military leaders assess the consequences of nuclear testing in South Asia and the possibility of war. Heads of Islamic religious organizations and militant groups engaged in jihad explain the hopes they have for the bomb and why they believe it strengthens Pakistan and Islam. Leading peace activists, academics and journalists make the case that nuclear South Asia is spiralling into instability, an arms race, deepening poverty, and an ever-greater threat of nuclear war, both deliberate and accidental. Through interviews, graphics, and archive footage, the film spells out in stark and urgent terms the nuclear danger that now imperils the people of Pakistan and India and the desperate need for peace.

To order Pakistan and India under the Nuclear Shadow, $35 must be paid by check, drawn on a US bank, or money order.

Please indicate the correct format (VHSPAL for Europe and Asia, VHS-NTSC for USA and Canada, or Compact Disk for viewing on personal computer) and the language (English or Urdu).

Send your order to: Eqbal Ahmad Foundation, P.O.Box 222, Princeton, NJ 08542-0222, USA.

New publication in German

INESAP member Wolfgang Liebert and IANUS member Wolfgang Bender edited a collection of German papers on the approach to a nuclear weapons free world.

Wolfgang Bender und Wolfgang Liebert,
Wege zu einer nuklearwaffenfreien Welt,
260 pages, ISBN 3-89688-087-X, Münster, 2001.

Weapons in Space

by Karl Grossman with a foreword by Dr. Michio Kaku

Why is the U.S. moving forward with its program of weapons in space in the face of international opposition and the promise of an escalating arms race with Russia?

President George W. Bush's recent trip to Europe was an exploding cigar. Instead of increasing international support for Bush's 'missile defense' plan, Europe continue to denounce the U.S. plan to violate the ABM Treaty and militarize space. During a press conference, Bush was confronted with the embarrassing question of why he will not sign the Kyoto Treaty due to "lack of scientific evidence" when he is willing to spend billions of dollars on a weapons in space system for which there is even less scientific support. While thousands of protesters chanted protests against Bush during his stops in Spain, Belgium, and Sweden, Russia responded with the alarming promise to arms its single warhead missiles with multiple nuclear bombs in order to easily 'overwhelm' any missile defense system the U.S. could devise in the next 25 years. The Russians, offended by U.S. plans to violate the ABM Treaty, interpret U.S. actions as a challenge to their security, and are signaling that they will escalate. In Weapons in Space, award-winning investigative journalist Karl Grossman examines why the U.S. is so single-minded about the militarization of space. Based on excerpts from U.S. government documents, Grossman outlines the U.S. military's space doctrine, its similarity with the original Stars Wars scheme of Ronald Reagan and Edward Teller, and the space-based lasers it plans to deploy in its mission to 'dominate' earth. Grossman shows the intimate link between flow of billion of U.S. tax dollars to the corporations that research and develop weapons for space. His book explains the Outer Space Treaty and gives a history of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space: what it is doing, what it plans to do - and what the reader can do to challenge U.S. plans to turn the heavens into a war zone.

Karl Grossman, Weapons in Space, The Open Media Pamphlet Series, Seven Stories Press, 90 pages, ISBN 1-58322-044-5, paperback, US$6.95.

Star Wars Returns

Narrated by Karl Grossmann

The powerful documentary Star Wars Returns reveals how the United States is moving to make space a new arena of war. It presents military documents declaring the U.S. intention to "control space" and from space "dominate" the world below. It exposes U.S. development programs now underway to produce space-based laser weapons. And, it shows how the George W. Bush administration and, especially, its Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, is pushing ahead rapidly with Star Wars that far more than "missile defense" is involved. It tells how, at the UN, because of the U.S. program for space warfare, a vote was recently held to reaffirm the Outer Space Treaty the basic international law which sets aside space for "peaceful purposes." Some 163 nations voted yes. The U.S. abstained. Star Wars Returns explores the international opposition to Star Wars. It spotlights the strong challenge to Star Wars being made at the grassoots level worldwide by the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power In Space.

Star Wars Returns is narrated and was written by investigative reporter and journalism Professor Karl Grossman, directed and edited by Emmy Award-winner Steve Jambeck and produced by Joan Flynn.

To order the Star Wars Returns video, send $21.95 ($19.95 + $2 shipping and handling) (institutions $49.95 + $2 shipping and handling) to EnviroVideo, Box 311, Ft. Tilden, NY 11695, USA, call +1800-326-8846, or fax +1-718-318 80 45 24. www.envirovideo.com.

A Maginot Line in the Sky: International Perspectives on Ballistic Missile Defense

Edited by David Krieger and Carah Ong

This book brings together the views of eighteen contributors of different nationalities, including Americans, on the proposed US Ballistic Missile Defense plans.

Among the international authors of the book are Senator Douglas Roche and Michael Wallace from Canada, Sir Joseph Rotblat from the UK, Alla Yaroshinskaya from Russia, Samsung Lee from South Korea, Achin Vanaik from India, Nic Maclellan from Fiji. Views from the US are covered by Admiral Eugene Carroll, Bruce Gagnon, and Leah Wells.

In addition, many authors who wrote for this issue of the INESAP Information Bulletin have also contributed articles for A Maginot Line in the Sky: David Krieger, Dingli Shen, Hiro Umebayashi, Bahig Nassar, Andrew Lichterman and Jacqueline Cabasso, and Jürgen Scheffran.

These perspectives should be included in any intelligent discussion of whether or not the US should proceed with development and deployment of missile defense systems.

The book is available at $14.95 per copy plus shipping and handling ($4.00 US/$7.00 International).
To order a copy, please send an email to research@napf.org, call the Foundation at +1 (805) 965-3443, or send a letter to Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1, Santa Barbara, California 93108-2794, USA.