Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from October 1993

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from October 1993

Beyond the yurt. (economic relations of Kazakhstan) (Editorial)
October 1, 1993... The Bulletin's year began with a January/February issue called "The Russia Puzzle," put together with the help of Leonid Zagalsky, a Russian journalist who served as guest editor. In this issue, Leonid returns as guest editor, this time with a...

CTB: two paths, one goal. (comprehensive nuclear test ban)(includes related articles)
October 1, 1993... A comprehensive nuclear test ban (CTB), first proposed in 1954 by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, is beginning to look like an idea whose time has finally come. For the first time since the 1970s, a U.S. president has committed...

Just put it on our tab. (financing United Nations peacekeeping operations)
October 1, 1993... Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations has taken on an increasingly activist role--U.N. forces have been transformed from passive peacekeeping monitors to aggressive peace enforcers actively intervening between warring parties. ...

Atoms do not age. (analysis of criticisms of nuclear weapons test ban)
October 1, 1993... Testing advocates used to argue that nuclear testing was necessary to insure the reliability of the aging U.S. arsenal--which was wrong. Now they're arguing that shiny new weapons will not work unless tested, and they're wrong again. In a...

Fabricating guilt. (Russian scientist accused of revealing military secrets)
October 1, 1993... After Russia became an independent state, the old Soviet law coveting state secrets was no longer valid. Even attempts to reinstate the old secrecy law have failed--the new Russian constitution makes unpublished secrets lists illegal. So why...

Finding its own way. (Kazakhstan)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... From the very beginning of its emergence as a state in the aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, there has been something special about Kazakhstan: it has been peaceful. People in Kazakhstan are not killing each other in the kind...

Bridging east and west. (Kazakhstan's foreign relations and politics)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Kazakhstan, choosing evolution over revolution, has inherited a Soviet infrastructure but wants to dispose of the Soviet past. The tendency of the people of Kazakhstan to significantly overestimate the role of their country in the world...

Quiet tensions. (Kazakhstan's political groups)(includes related article)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Kazakhs and Russians are getting along--so far. Why has Kazakhstan escaped the conflicts that have occurred in so many other former Soviet republics? It seems paradoxical that in the face of deteriorating economic conditions Kazakhstan has...

A "temporarily nuclear state." (question of nuclear disarmament in Kazakhstan)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Kazakh law says that all objects on its territory belong to it-- including 1,400 nuclear warheads and bombs. Despite an early pledge to become a non-nuclear state, Kazakhstan is in no hurry to join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...

Test anxiety. (operational status of nuclear weapons test site in Kazakhstan)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Beginning in 1949, the Soviet Union used a considerable chunk of Kazakhstan to test its weapons. There have been 466 nuclear explosions at Semipalatinsk. The Soviet Union's first nuclear explosion took place in Kazakhstan on August 29,...

Notes from a dying spaceport. (Russian-controlled rocket launching center in Baikonur, Kazakhstan)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Commercial launches are Baikonur's last best hope--but other countries will think twice when they see the decaying, run-down site. Col. Yevgeni Aleksandrov and Col. Vladimir Ignalenko seem as odd a pair as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny...

Big oil moves in. (foreign investment in oil in Kazakhstan)(includes related article)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... The West is only interested in some Kazakh deals--the ABCs of Kazakh economic development are likely to be Agip, British Gas, and Chevron Corporation. People in Kazakhstan like to boast about how favorably the country's foreign investment...

An embarrassment of weapons. (defense conversion in Kazakhstan)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Conversion is a slow process, especially when weapons sales must be coordinated with Moscow. More than 40 enterprises in Kazakhstan manufacture military equipment. Before the disintegration of the former Soviet Union, they all took orders...

Imaginary billions. (foreign loans to Kazakhstan)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... As any economics major knows, you've got to spend money to make money. But after watching Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin ask foreign governments to extend more credit or defer repayment on loans to purchase foodstuffs, Kazakhstan's...

Gold and diamonds. (foreign investment in Kazakhstan's natural resources)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... Foreign investors are attracted by Kazakh gold, but the government, which wants to build a gold reserve, will go slow. Kazakhstan has large gold deposits in locations where mining is relatively easy. Only two companies have been in the gold...

Don't blame Moscow. (Kazakhstan's inability to go through with foreign investment projects)(Special Issue: Kazakhstan) (Cover Story)
October 1, 1993... It is too tempting to blame all the country's current troubles on the old Soviet Union. At a summer press conference, President Nursultan Nazarbaev listed Kazakhstan's natural resources--everything that could help make Kazakhstan a player...

Flying free - nuclear-free, that is. (Marine Corps nuclear disarmament) (Column)
October 1, 1993... With a literary flourish, the Marine Corps modestly announced that "July 31 marks the end of an era so secretive that most people, whose very lives may have depended on its existence, will be completely unaware of its demise." On August 1,...

French nuclear forces 1993. (disarmament statistics) (Column)
October 1, 1993... The French operational stockpile is estimated at 524 warheads, slightly below the peak of 538 reached in 1991 and 1992. Under current plans, the stockpile will decline to 482 warheads next year, then stabilize at 464 in 1997. Many of the...