Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from January 1997

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from January 1997

Isolate Helms; push treaties. (Sen. Jesse Helms; arms treaties)(Column)
January 1, 1997... In a 48-hour span last September, President Bill Clinton reluctantly pulled the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) from the Senate's agenda and proudly signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTB). As a consequence, the politics of treaty...

Eastern cheers, Russian jeers, American silence. (expansion of membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
January 1, 1997... Any passerby on the streets of Warsaw, Bratislava, Vilnius, or Bucharest could probably, if asked, explain the arguments, pro and con, for his country joining NATO. In Eastern Europe, the question of NATO expansion is a matter of passionate...

A fictional state of being. (life during the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina)
January 1, 1997... My friend Jasenka says being Sarajevan nowadays is like being an animal in a zoo. Foreigners come and go--soldiers, journalists, aid workers, bureaucrats, and politicians--popping in and out of Bosnia on military aircraft on their...

Sharing secrets. (nuclear weapons information exchange between France, Great Britain and the United States)
January 1, 1997... The U.S. administration's costly "stockpile stewardship program" is widely seen as the price it had to pay to get the U.S. weapons laboratories' cooperation in achieving the Comprehensive Test Ban (CTB) Treaty. Less well advertised are the...

Kinda good, kinda bad. (how results of 1996 election will affect military and nuclear weapons policies)
January 1, 1997... The 105th Congress, which convenes January 7, will test President Bill Clinton's legislative skills. Although the president was reelected by a wide margin, the Republicans strengthened their hold on the Senate to a 55-45 majority. They maintained...

It's time to lay this waste to rest: there's not going to be a perfect site for disposing of spent reactor fuel.
January 1, 1997... There's not going to be a perfect site for disposing of spent reactor fuel. It's time to move forward anyway. Another frustrating chapter in the long history of efforts to deal with spent reactor fuel was written before the 104th Congress...

Chemical treaty deserve ratification: no one's constitutional rights are going to be violated by the Chemical Weapons Convention.
January 1, 1997... No one's constitutional rights are going to be violated by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Four years after the United States signed it, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) will soon enter into force. The treaty represents a global...

East Asia's arms races.(Cover Story)
January 1, 1997... With the end of the Cold War and the general relaxation of military tensions in many areas of the world, global military spending has undergone a significant decrease--falling from a peak of $1.3 trillion in 1987 to $840 billion in 1994, the...

The Chinese way: in the next century, the world's most populous nation will set the pace in East Asia.(Cover Story)
January 1, 1997... In the next century, the world's most populous nation will set the pace in East Asia. The East Asian arms race has two primary causes. The first is Chinese irredentism. The second is America's lack of a serious long-term vision regarding...

For Hong Kong, the horn blows at midnight.
January 1, 1997... Buried in a Beijing alleyway near Tiananmen Square, opposite a seedy Sichuan restaurant once frequented by Deng Xiaoping, stands the China Club--mainland China's latest import from Hong Kong. Kevin Costner, Michael Caine, the Duchess of York,...

The once and future superpower: at some point, Japan is likely to build a military machine that matches its economic might.
January 1, 1997... At some poit, Japan is likely to build a military machine that matches its economic might. Japan has risen from defeat and occupation over the past 50 years, its dazzling technology, huge banks, and trade surpluses emblematic of its...

The decline and fall of pacifism. (Japan's military policy)
January 1, 1997... My heart sank when Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo on July 29. This was the first prime ministerial visit to the shrine since one made almost 11 years earlier by Yasuhiro Nakasone. Yasukuni is not like...

Where the cold war never ends. (North Korea)(includes related article on military might of South Korea and North Korea)
January 1, 1997... Odd and usually inexplicable news items from Korea seem to come and go with regularity these days. In September, a 325-ton North Korean submarine--said to be made of plastic--materialized on a beach east of Seoul in the dead of night. It was...

Nobel hears East Timor: the Norwegian Nobel Committee thrust a generation-long rebellion into the spotlight, but is anyone watching?
January 1, 1997... The Norwegian Nobel Committee thrust a generation-long rebellion into the spotlight; but is anyone watching? "I feel humbled to be [honored] next to people like Nelson Mandela," said Jose Ramos-Horta who, at age 26, was briefly the...

Troubled waters: oil is only one reason for Asia's many-sided disputes over tiny, uninhabitable islands. (includes related information on military build-up by Asian nations)
January 1, 1997... Oil is only one reason for Asia's many-sided disputes over tiny, uninhabitable islands. The aroma of oil and a whiff of potential conflict mingle in Asian seas, where promising oil and natural gas areas are claimed by two or more nations....

East Asia's militaries muscle up: East Asia's new-found riches are purchasing the latest high-tech weapons.
January 1, 1997... East Asia's new-found riches are purchasin the latest high-tech weapons. Throughout East Asia, countries are spending more on their military forces, making this the only region in the world where military expenditures have been rising...

Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II.
January 1, 1997... By Yuki Tanaka Westview Press, 1996 267 pages; $28.00 Battlefield stress and military tradition conspired with cultural and historical factors to turn ordinary soldiers into war criminals, writes scholar Yuki Tanaka in Hidden Horrors: Japanese...

History Wars.
January 1, 1997... There is an old saying that history is written by the winners. If only it were that simple. History Wars recounts 1995's biggest battle in the culture wars, the struggle over the Smithsonian Institution's plan to mount an exhibit surrounding...

The Gorbachev Factor.
January 1, 1997... In October 1980, approximately 10 months after Soviet troops moved into Afghanistan and two weeks before Ronald Reagan was elected president, Mikhail Gorbachev was promoted to full membership in the Soviet Politburo. The event was ignored by many...

U.S. strategic nuclear forces, end of 1996.
January 1, 1997... The number of operational nuclear weapons decreased slightly from last year's level of nearly 8,000. Bombers and bomber weapons were being removed from the active force, although their removal was partially offset by the addition of a new...

Bring on the radiation. (effects of radiation from nuclear weapons)(Column)
January 1, 1997... Writing in the pages of this magazine in May 1992, Paul Nitze rejected the targeting of cities and civilians as a viable nuclear strategy: "I do not believe such a retaliation would be morally acceptable." So why is Strategic Command...