Military Technology, Armaments Dynamics and Disarmament

This book offers theoretical analysis on the context and on the dual function of military technology, as well as case studies on the third generation of nuclear weapons, on the Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference, on the driving forces of chemical armament and on the military use of nuclear energy as a possible propellant for bombers and in outer space. Five chapters written by three physicists from the USA, USSR and UK and two peace researchers from Japan and West Germany focus on SDI: its technical foundations, consequences for strategic stability and war as well as on its contradictions and on a case of armament dynamics theory. The book concludes with three chapters on the implications of the military use of outer space for international law from a Western, an Eastern and a Third World perspective, with views from West Germany, Hungary and Barbados, respectively.