Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists articles from September 1998

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists archives from September 1998

Nine minutes to midnight. (concerns regarding nuclear conflagration)
September 1, 1998... JUNE 11, 1998--THE BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS has moved the minute hand of the "Doomsday Clock," its symbol of nuclear peril, five minutes closer to midnight. Yesterday it stood at 14 minutes to midnight. Today, it stands at nine....

'The problem was not hidden.' (nuclear waste reprocessing and safety)
September 1, 1998... In the March/April issue of the Bulletin, Sen. Pete Domenici suggested that the United States should reconsider its policy of not reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, in part because it was wasteful: "A spent fuel rod still has 60-75 percent of...

Marshall Islands: you can't go home again.
September 1, 1998... THE REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL Islands is a nation composed of more than 1,100 of the smallest, flattest, most fragile, numerous, and remote islands one can imagine--glorified sandbars anchored to coral reefs by stands of coconut and pandanus,...

Kashmir: caught in the crossfire. (India and Pakistan dispute over territory)
September 1, 1998... The rhetoric surrounding the recent nuclear tests by India and Pakistan ignited fears that the long-simmering conflict over Kashmir might suddenly boil over into a very hot war. In the wave of popular support that followed the first test, Indian...

Missile defense: rumbles from Rumsfeld. (Donald H. Rumsfeld)
September 1, 1998... Hoping to bolster their case for rapid deployment of a national missile defense, two years ago congressional Republicans used the 1997 defense authorization budget to commission a study on "the missile threat" that would carry the heightened...

Come down from the clouds. (US intelligence strategies)
September 1, 1998... Satellite images are useful, but US intelligence needs to get back to basics--namely, it needs more spies. India's nuclear tests on May 11, and Pakistan's tests soon after, have a number of regional and international security implications....

Sanctions: Lift 'em. (Pakistan)
September 1, 1998... Caught between a desire to match india's nuclear tests and the fear of devastating sanctions, Pakistan vacillated for two weeks before testing. Subsequently, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifwent on television and declared, "This auspicious day is...

Sanctions: modify 'em. (India and Pakistan)
September 1, 1998... U.S. sanctions against India and Pakistan are a classic case of how not to impose sanctions. While the U.S. ban on foreign aid and loans, military assistance, investment and credit support, and technology transfers will cause economic pain to...

Sanctions: hang tough.
September 1, 1998... The people of India and Pakistan, as well as those who depend on the nuclear nonproliferation regime the world over for their security, have been endangered by the emerging nuclear arms race in South Asia. By conducting nuclear weapon...

Inside Saddam's secret nuclear program. (Saddam Hussein) (includes related article on erroneous reports of the death of Khidhir Hamza)
September 1, 1998... A senior Iraqi scientist tells how Saddam Hussein, in a decades-long quest for the bomb, systematically hoodwinked the IAEA. In the early 1970s, Saddam Hussein, then Iraq's vice president and vice chairman of the ruling Revolutionary...

Check please! (cost of nuclear weapons development) (includes excerpts from Atomic Audit)
September 1, 1998... FOR 50 YEARS THE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM REGARDING nuclear weapons has been that, as awful as they are, they are at least cheap--"a bigger bang for a buck." But more than four years ago, the W. Alton Jones Foundation decided to test that...

Retooling Russia's nuclear cities.
September 1, 1998... Seven years after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the vast nuclear weapons complex Russia inherited is teetering on the brink of economic collapse. The continuing economic crisis in Russia and the Russian government's empty coffers...

And then there was one. (Israel is the last nuclear 'threshold state')
September 1, 1998... ISRAEL WAS THE SIXTH NATION IN THE world and the first in the Middle East to develop and acquire nuclear weapons. It initiated its nuclear program in earnest about four decades ago, when it constructed its nuclear infrastructure at Dimona. In...

Arns and the ANC. (South Africa's African National Congress)
September 1, 1998... On state visits early this year to several countries in Asia and the Middle East, President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa held formal discussions about the sale of South African armaments and defense...

To End a War.
September 1, 1998... To End a War By Richard Holbrooke Random House, 1998 403 pages; $27.00 This highly personal account of Richard Holbrooke's contribution to the Bosnian peace settlement is must reading for all serious students of the Yugoslav wars of...

Global Squeeze: The Coming Crisis for First World Nations.
September 1, 1998... Global Squeeze: The Coming Crisis for First World Nations By Richard C. Longworth Contemporary Books, 1998 292 pages; $24.95 Will the global economy usher in an age of prosperity for the next century, or will it bring about the destruction of...

Nuclear Weapons: The Road to Zero.
September 1, 1998... Nuclear Weapons: the Road to Zero Edited by Joseph Rotblat Westview Press, 1998 331 pages; $65.00 "The idea of a nuclear-weapon-free world has come in from the cold," begins Nuclear Weapons: the Road to Zero. "Twelve years ago, it was still...

The Gift of Time.
September 1, 1998... The Gift of Time By Jonathan Schell Metropolitan Books, 1998 240 pages; $25.00 "The idea of a nuclear-weapon-free world has come in from the cold," begins Nuclear Weapons: the Road to Zero. "Twelve years ago, it was still beyond the fringes of...

After the tests: India and Pakistan update. (nuclear weapons tests)
September 1, 1998... INDIA AND PAKISTAN'S RECENT demonstration of their nuclear capabilities raises a host of questions about the countries' plans for their forces, doctrines, and policies. Even before this milestone, it was evident that the two were involved in an...

Forces of the millennium. (Russian nuclear weapon policy)
September 1, 1998... In July, Boris Yeltsin's Security Council met in closed session to determine Russian nuclear force structure and financing for well into the twenty-first century. It reaffirmed that the nuclear arsenal is "a basic element" of Russian national...