Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from November 1998

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from November 1998

Hopeful trends. (desire by India and Pakistan to develop more nuclear weapons seems to have declined as both countries move toward resuming peace and security talks)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
November 1, 1998... India conducted a series of nuclear tests last May, breaking A self-imposed moratorium on testing that had been in place since 1974. Perhaps even more worrisome than the tests was the bellicose government rhetoric about Kashmir and the need to...

Senseless policy. (dealing with terrorists)(Column)
November 1, 1998... "Likely targets" for U.S. nuclear weapons now include "nonstate actors" armed with weapons of mass destruction, according to Clinton administration military policy, as expressed in the joint Chiefs of Staffs "Doctrine for joint Theater Nuclear...

Speaking up or laying low? (how Indian scientists feel about the country's decision to test nuclear weapons)
November 1, 1998... On May 18, one week after India's first series of nuclear tests, a group of Indian scientists issued a statement expressing their "deep dismay and unhappiness" and arguing that exploding a nuclear device was not the crowning scientific...

The real mystery science theater. (current plays that depict science are examined)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1998... Physics, surprisingly, appears to be in vogue on the London stage the hit of the season is Copenhagen, a play about Werner Heisenberg's mysterious visit to Niels Bohr in Nazi-occupied Denmark in 1941. The Economist calls it "the best play...

Shedding light on the landmine problem. (attempts made by military organizations to improve landmines while others try to develop process to demine areas)(Brief Article)
November 1, 1998... With landmines as cheap as school-kid toys and efforts to outlaw them stymied by stubborn governments working on devious new devices, a lot of people are thinking about ways to improve the slow and dangerous business of demining. Some of...

Mediterranean countdown. (conflict between Greek and Turkish Cypriots)
November 1, 1998... The impending delivery of Russian S-300PMU-1 air-defense missile batteries to Cyprus poses a daunting challenge for international diplomacy. The planned deployment endangers the tense but stable stand-off between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot...

When the walls come tumbling down. (defense spending policy)
November 1, 1998... The so-called budget walls erected during the Bush administration, which have prevented funds being moved between military and social programs, are set to expire next year. Liberals had hoped their disappearance would provide an opportunity to...

Lifelines grow short.(Micronesia's economy)
November 1, 1998... The tropical sun was setting over the Pacific, casting reds and oranges over the reefs, beaches, and volcanic cones of the tiny, remote island of Kosrae. All week it had been peaceful at the Sandy Beach Hotel, a little family run place on a beach...

Sparring over Mochovce. (nuclear power station in Slovakia)
November 1, 1998... It was something the world had never seen: an operating nuclear power station designed and built with Soviet technology but retrofitted and completed with broad participation by Western firms. On June 8, the small Central European nation of...

Bad medicine: anthrax vaccinations of U.S. troops send a politically explosive message.(Column)
November 1, 1998... The U.S. Defense Department announced a year ago that it would vaccinate all 2.4 million members of the U.S. armed forces against anthrax. Last August, the program got into high gear with the first large-scale vaccinations. Nonetheless, the...

Aldermaston and nuclear disarmament. (Great Britain's Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston)
November 1, 1998... Britain's Labour government, elected in 1997, presented its Strategic Defense Review to parliament in July. The review has important implications for the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, where Britain's nuclear warheads are...

Smarter bombs, fewer nukes.(Cover Story)
November 1, 1998... The U.S. military is investing billions of dollars in developing and deploying a broad range of new conventional and electronic weapon systems. These systems -- made possible by dramatic advances in information and information-related...

The mystery of the sunken gyros. (Russia's complicity to sell missile parts to Iraq)
November 1, 1998... Although the U.N. special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) has exposed many dimensions of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, the full story of Iraq's secret efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction may never be known. Many of the best-kept...

What we did.(report by the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States)
November 1, 1998... Earlier this year I served as one of the nine members of the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, created by legislation in the Fiscal Year 1997 National Defense Appropriations Act and chaired by former...

What they didn't do.(report by the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States)
November 1, 1998... Missile-defense advocates argue that the Rumsfeld commission's report demonstrates that previous assessments of the ballistic missile threat to the United States were wrong. They also argue that it demonstrates a pressing need to rapidly...

Verification: the ways and means. (includes related article)
November 1, 1998... The Indian and Pakistan Nuclear detonations have raised several sets of issues that weigh heavily on the future of nuclear arms control. The most pressing issues concern the future of the Indian and Pakistani nuclear programs, the prospect...

China's Security: The New Roles of the Military.
November 1, 1998... The authors of China's Security say at the outset that "the China threat thesis is not supported by the evidence." But their discussion of China's civil-military relations, security policy since 1980, armaments and arms control, and military...

U.S. Nuclear History: Nuclear Arms and Policy in the Missile Age, 1955-1968.
November 1, 1998... Atomic Audit, a new study edited by the Brookings Institution's Stephen Schwartz, details how the United States has spent nearly six million dollars (adjusted for inflation) since 1940 to develop, deploy, test, and retire nuclear weapons and...

Blue Helmets: The Strategy of U.N. Military Operations.
November 1, 1998... For day-to-day practitioners of peacekeeping, bad news lurks in the pages of everything from the Washington Post to the CIA's National Intelligence Daily. Long-standing "friends" like Ethiopia and Eritrea chart a course toward war -- seemingly...

Known nuclear tests worldwide, 1945-98.(NRDC Nuclear Notebook)
November 1, 1998... Since the last update of Known Nuclear Tests Worldwide" (see May/June 1996 "Nuclear Notebook"), several tests have occurred and additional information has become available about several nations' nuclear programs. From 1945-98 we list 2,051 tests...

Flying solo.(US Air Force policy requires theater commanders to prepare for foreign threats with nuclear weapons)(Brief Article)(Column)
November 1, 1998... The U.S. Air Force no longer has many tactical nukes. The 350 B61 gravity bombs allocated for European, Korean, and Middle East contingencies are only a shadow of a once mighty tactical nuclear force. Some would argue that these non-strategic...