Dangerous Weapons Desperate States

With the collapse of the USSR, fifteen fledgling sates inherited a massive Soviet arsenal, unstable political systems, and desperate economies. A "sell everything" mentality threatens to result in the largest arms bazaar in human history, and this potential "fire sale" includes weapons of mass destruction. This book addresses the challenges the new independent states (NIS) of the former Soviet Union (FSU) face in controlling and monitoring their sensitive, military-related exports.Dangerous Weapons, Desperate States explores the various theoretical approaches that help explain the development of nonproliferation export control systems in the NIS. The contributors, coming from both the FSU states and the US, provide a broad range of perspectives on the problems posed by the threat of proliferation.

Command of the commons : the military foundation of U.S. Hegemony / Barry R. Posen / - Why do states build nuclear weapons? Three models in search of a bomb / Scott D. Sagan / - Never say never again : nuclear reversal revisited / Ariel E. Levite / - Preventing nuclear entrepreneurship in russia's nuclear cities / Sharon K. Weiner / - Pathogens as weapons : the international security implications of biological warfare / Gregory Koblentz / - Dreaded risks and the control of biological weapons / Jessica Stern / - Beyond the MTCR : building a comprehensive regime to contain ballistic missile proliferation / Dinshaw Mistry / - Human security : paradigm shift or hot air? / Roland Paris / - Security, stability, and international migration / Myron Weiner / - HIV / AIDS and the changing landscape of war in Africa / Stefan Elbe / - Collateral damage : humanitarian assistance as a cause of conflict / Sarah Kenyon Lischer / - Market civilization and its clash with terror / Michael Mouusseau / - T ...

This book investigates what is driving Iran's nuclear weapons programme in a less-hostile regional environment, using a theory of protracted conflicts to explicate proliferation. Iran’s nuclear weapons program has alarmed the international community since the 1990s, but has come to the forefront of international security concerns since 2000. This book argues that Iran’s hostility with the United States remains the major causal factor for its proliferation activities. With the US administration pursuing aggressive foreign policies towards Iran since 2000, the latter’s security threat intensified. A society that is split on many important domestic issues remained united on the issue of nuclear weapons acquisition after the US war in Iraq. Consequently, Iran became determined in its drive to acquire nuclear weapons and boldly announced its decision to enrich uranium, leaving the US in no doubt about its nuclear status. This book underscores the importance of protracted conflicts in proliferation decisions, and underpinning this is the assumption that non-proliferation may be achieved through the termination of intractable conflicts. The aims of this work are to demonstrate that a state’s decision to acquire nuclear weapons depends largely on its engagement in protracted conflicts, which shows not only that the presence of nuclear rivals intensifies the nuclear ambition, but also that non-nuclear status of rival states can promote non-proliferation incentives in conflicting states inclined to proliferate. This study will be of great interest to students of Iran, Middle Eastern politics, nuclear proliferation and international relations theory. Saira Khan is a Research Associate in the McGill-University of Montreal Joint Research Group in International Security (REGIS).

This title was first published in 2002. Examining the development of and rationale behind the Ukrainian export control system, this text uses an original theoretically informed case study methodology to explain how and why Ukraine has continued to emphasize the importance of not only maintaining but augmenting its export control system. Furthermore, it assesses the utility of four international relations approaches in explaining non-proliferation export control development. This ground-breaking study on Ukrainian politics and economics is ideally suited to audiences of European, Ukrainian and US policy-makers, academics and specialists in security and political economy.

This text analyses the international law and international organisations that have been constructed to regulate the worldwide proliferation of weapons technologies, particularly those that have been classified as weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

More than 150 key social issues confronting the United States today are covered in this eight-volume set: from abortion and adoption to capital punishment and corporate crime; from obesity and organized crime to sweatshops and xenophobia.

These studies address the technical means and procedures for establishing transparency in nuclear warheads and materials in the nuclear weapons states.

Written by two preeminent authors in the field, this book provides an accessible global narrative of the nuclear arms race since 1945 that focuses on the roles of key scientists, military chiefs, and political leaders. The first book of its kind to provide a global perspective of the arms race, this two-volume work connects episodes worldwide involving nuclear weapons in a comprehensive, narrative fashion. Beginning with a discussion of the scientific research of the 1930s and 1940s and the Hiroshima decision, the authors focus on five basic themes: political dimensions, technological developments, military and diplomatic strategies, and impact. The history of the international nuclear arms race is examined within the context of four historical eras: America's nuclear monopoly, America's nuclear superiority, superpower parity, and the post-Cold War era. Information about the historical development of the independent deterrence of Britain, France, and China, as well as the piecemeal deterrence of newcomers Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea is also included, as is coverage of the efforts aimed at the international control of nuclear weapons and the diplomatic architecture that underpins the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.