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1983 : The World at the Brink
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ISBN: 9781408710524 Year: 2018 Publisher: London : Little, Brown,

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Abstract

1983 was a supremely dangerous year - even more dangerous than 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the US, President Reagan massively increased defence spending, described the Soviet Union as an 'evil empire' and announced his 'Star Wars' programme, calling for a shield in space to defend the US from incoming missiles. Yuri Andropov, the paranoid Soviet leader, saw this as a sign of American aggression and convinced himself that the US really meant to attack the Soviet Union. When a Soviet fighter shot down Korean Airlines flight KAL 007 after the latter strayed off course, Reagan described it as a 'terrorist act' and 'a crime against humanity.' The temperature was rising fast. Then, at the height of the tension, NATO began a war game called Able Archer 83. In this exercise, NATO requested permission to use the codes to launch nuclear weapons. The nervous Soviets were sure that this was no exercise but the real thing. This is a largely unknown Cold war story of spies and double agents, of missiles being readied, of intelligence failures and misunderstandings and of the panic of world leaders.


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Between depression and disarmament : the international armaments business, 1919-1939
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ISBN: 1108560695 1108552722 1108636497 1108428355 9781108428354 110844850X Year: 2018 Publisher: Cambridge : Cambridge University Press,

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This business history analyzes the connections between private business, disarmament, and re-armament as they affected arms procurement and military technology transfers in Eastern Europe from 1919 to 1939. Rather than focusing on the negotiations or the political problems involved with the Disarmament Conferences, this study concerns itself with the business effects of the disarmament discussions. Accordingly, Schneider-Creusot, Škoda, Vickers, and their respective business activities in Eastern European markets serve as the chief subjects for this book, and the core primary sources relied upon include their unpublished corporate archival documents. Shifting the scope of analysis to consider the business dimension allows for a fresh appraisal of the linkages between the arms trade, disarmament, and re-armament. The business approach also explodes the myth of the 'merchants of death' from the inside. It concludes by tracing the armaments business between 1939 and 1941 as it transitioned from peacetime to war.


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The Price of Prestige : Conspicuous Consumption in International Relations
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ISBN: 022643334X Year: 2018 Publisher: Chicago : University of Chicago Press,

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If wars are costly and risky to both sides, why do they occur? Why engage in an arms race when it's clear that increasing one's own defense expenditures will only trigger a similar reaction by the other side, leaving both countries just as insecure-and considerably poorer? Just as people buy expensive things precisely because they are more expensive, because they offer the possibility of improved social status or prestige, so too do countries, argues Lilach Gilady. In The Price of Prestige, Gilady shows how many seemingly wasteful government expenditures that appear to contradict the laws of demand actually follow the pattern for what are known as Veblen goods, or positional goods for which demand increases alongside price, even when cheaper substitutes are readily available. From flashy space programs to costly weapons systems a country does not need and cannot maintain to foreign aid programs that offer little benefit to recipients, these conspicuous and strategically timed expenditures are intended to instill awe in the observer through their wasteful might. And underestimating the important social role of excess has serious policy implications. Increasing the cost of war, for example, may not always be an effective tool for preventing it, Gilady argues, nor does decreasing the cost of weapons and other technologies of war necessarily increase the potential for conflict, as shown by the case of a cheap fighter plane whose price tag drove consumers away. In today's changing world, where there are high levels of uncertainty about the distribution of power, Gilady also offers a valuable way to predict which countries are most likely to be concerned about their position and therefore adopt costly, excessive policies.


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Arms control and disarmament : 50 years of experience in nuclear education
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ISBN: 3319622595 3319622587 Year: 2018 Publisher: New York, New York : Macmillan Publishers Ltd,

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"Few volumes on nuclear weapons and nuclear policy can match the quality of the ISODARCO 50th Anniversary collection, which excels in the authors' thoughtfulness and the range and significance of the issues they clarify." - Bruce D. Larkin, Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of California at Santa Cruz, USA "This interesting volume brings together a stellar cast of international experts on nuclear policy and arms control. Their contributions echo the history of the nuclear age over more than five decades and display the evolution of thinking about the dangers and the imperatives associated with nuclear weapons. This collection also reflects the unique role that ISODARCO has played in the field for more than half a century." - Steven E. Miller, Director, International Security Program, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School "This collection of essays featuring many of the leading thinkers on nuclear disarmament, arms control and verification should be essential reading for both practitioners and researchers in the field.” - Tariq Rauf, former Head of Verification and Security Policy Coordination, International Atomic Energy Agency This volume is a collection of contributions by world-leading experts in the nuclear field who participated in the educational activities of the International School on Disarmament and Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO). It features some of most prominent scholars and practitioners who contributed in fundamental ways to shaping policies, strategies, theories, scholarly studies, and debates in the field of non-proliferation and disarmament. On the occasion of ISODARCO's 50th anniversary this book revisits a selection of contributions that capture the pressing issues during the five decades of continuous engagement in disarmament and non-proliferation education.

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