Books of Note

India’s Nuclear Bomb and National Security
By Karsten Fey, Taylor & Francis Books, August 2006, 208 pp.

Karsten Fey, a research fellow at the Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals, probes the motives and dynamics of India’s nuclear policymaking by examining more than 705 editorial and opinion articles published in India’s major newspapers from 1986 to 2005. Fey argues that considerations besides security drove India’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, downplaying, for example, the role played by attempts to counter China’s nuclear arsenal. Rather than focusing on security issues alone, Fey says other factors played a significant role, including India’s pursuit of international recognition and the strong, often obsessive sensitivities of India’s elite regarding “acts of discrimination” or “ignorance” by the West toward their country.

Japan’s Nuclear Disarmament Policy and the U.S. Security Umbrella
By Anthony DiFilippo, Palgrave-Macmillian, October 2006, 288 pp.

This book appears at a particularly timely moment as North Korea’s Oct. 9 nuclear test has prompted renewed debate in Japan over whether Tokyo should consider developing nuclear weapons. Until now, Japan, the only country ever to be attacked with nuclear weapons, has been a global leader in efforts to abolish nuclear weapons. Indeed, Japan has championed nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation even as the U.S. nuclear umbrella has played a vital role in maintaining Japan’s security throughout the Cold War and into the 21st century. Tokyo has also become a “virtual nuclear-weapon state,” able to produce such weapons quickly if it so chooses. Anthony DiFilippo, a professor of sociology at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, examines this paradox. He provides an in-depth analysis regarding the internal and external dynamics shaping Japan’s international nuclear policy, worldwide counterproliferation efforts, and technological advancements in its civil nuclear program and the prospects that it will develop its own nuclear deterrent.

Verifying Treaty Compliance: Limiting Weapons of Mass Destruction and Monitoring Kyoto Protocol Provisions
By Rudolf Avenhaus et al., eds., Springer, July 2006, 629 pp.

This volume of expert analyses includes a comprehensive overview of arms control treaties, a unified framework for analyzing their performance, and an approach for improving the structure and operation of existing and future treaties. Based on results from meetings of the European Safeguards Research and Development Association’s Working Group on Verification Technologies and Methodologies conducted over a two-year period, the volume seeks to lay the groundwork for forming a specialized discipline in compliance verification. It aims to fill the gap in existing literature on arms control, which the editors say either focuses on political analysis or technological tools. Their verification framework brings together treaty objectives, operation, monitoring, and evaluation, as well as proposed improvements to the treaty process. Such an interdisciplinary approach, they say, would build confidence in international treaties, encourage the establishment of binding commitments from member states, and enable appropriate compliance verification, all critical to stemming the spread of sensitive technologies that can be used to produce weapons of mass destruction.

Are you interested in purchasing these books? You can help support the Arms Control Association by visiting one of our partners.