Critical Mass: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting WorldThe spread of superweapons - nuclear, chemical, and biological - and the means to deliver them is now out of control and is the single greatest danger facing the world. Critical Mass is the first comprehensive look at how this happened, where current and potential threats are, and what can be done to avert catastrophe. Third World superweapon proliferation is more frightening than the cold war arms race. This new arms race is a genocidal contest, fueled by hatred and meant to settle old racial, ethnic, and religious scores. Authors William E. Burrows and Robert Windrem disclose how Saddam Hussein planned an assembly line of fifteen to twenty atomic bombs a year, provided by an Arab Dr. Strangelove and atomic spies, cynical German industrialists with Nazi heritages, greedy Brazilian businessmen, and an impressive procurement network of arrogant Western politicians and Ph.D.s who consulted on death. Iraq is now a model for nations from Kazakhstan to North Korea, from Iran to India to Indonesia, nations that see Mutual Assured Destruction not as a deterrent but as a temptation. Dealing with proliferation, the authors say, is now Washington's highest foreign policy priority. Success will depend not so much on "techno-fixes" such as export controls as on resolving the underlying issues that divide the Third World. |
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CRITICAL MASS: The Dangerous Race for Superweapons in a Fragmenting World
User Review - KirkusA grim reminder that much of the post-cold war world remains armed and dangerous. Drawing on a variety of sources, Burrows (Deep Black, Exploring Space, etc.) and Windrem (an NBC News producer) offer ... Read full review
Critical mass: the dangerous race for superweapons in a fragmenting world
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictThis hefty volume covers more ground but is not as well organized as Martin van Creveld's Nuclear Proliferation and the Future of Conflict ( LJ 8/93) nor as speculative as Trevor DuPuy's Future Wars ... Read full review
Contents
Preface | 15 |
Lawrence of Arabia | 51 |
of Poisonous Snakes | 91 |
Copyright | |
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A. Q. Khan aircraft American analysts April Arab arms Arnon Milchan atomic bomb attack Baghdad ballistic missile BCCI Beijing Bhutto biological capability Cardoen chemical weapons China Chinese Condor-2 deal Defense Dimona Drogoul Egypt engineers equipment explosion export facility February force Foreign France fuel German guns IAEA India industry inspectors International interview Iran Iranian Iraq Iraq's Iraqi Islamic Israel Israeli Jafar January Japan Japanese June krytrons later launch Leybold Libya Middle East Milchan miles military million Minister Muslim nations North Korea nuclear program nuclear weapons program October Osirak Pakistan percent plant plutonium poison gas political produce proliferation Rabta reactor reprocessing rocket Russian Saddam Hussein satellite Saudi scientists Scud secret sell September South Africa Soviet Union strategic superpower superweapon Taiwan Third World told U.S. intelligence United wanted warheads Washington Week & Space Windrem York

