Drawing on revealing new research, this richly informative volume is the definitive concise introduction to the crisis that took the world to the brink of nuclear war. Cuban Missile Crisis: The Essential Reference Guide captures the historical context, the minute-by-minute drama, and the profound repercussions of the "Missiles of October" confrontation that brought the very real threat of nuclear attack to the United States' doorstep. Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the crisis, it takes full advantage of recently opened Soviet archives as well as interviews with key Russian, Cuban, and U.S. officials to explore the event as it played out in Moscow, Havana, Washington, and other locations around the world. Cuban Missile Crisis contains an introductory essay by the author and alphabetically organized reference entries contributed by leading Cold War researchers. The book also includes an exceptionally comprehensive bibliography. Together, these resources give readers everything they need to understand the escalating tensions that led to the crisis as well as the intense diplomacy that resolved it, including new information about the back-channel negotiations between Robert Kennedy and Soviet ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin. 73 alphabetically organized entries that offer valuable insights into the leaders, events, and ideas that shaped the Cuban Missile Crisis More than a dozen expert contributors representing all countries involved in the crisis Seven primary source documents, including President Kennedy's speech to the American public and letters exchanged between Premier Kruschev and Fidel Castro Biographies of major figures, including the Kennedys, Nikita Khrushchev, Fidel Castro, Adlai Stevenson, and Valerian Zorin A thorough chronology outlining all key events before, during, and after the crisis A comprehensive bibliography on the crisis, including a significant number of recent publications that have brought new understanding of the conflict to light

The first instruments and machines of 'modern' war
For as long as people have formed themselves into factions there has been warfare. The nature of conflict changed little in its fundamentals until the industrial revolution. It is a sad but inevitable consequence of the age of industry and mass production that it introduced not only the benefits of manufactured goods and improved transportation, but the development of new and ever more efficient methods by which man could destroy his fellow man. It was during the American Civil War, with the introduction of the Mini ball and the emergence of the submarine and the ironclad warship that the science and technology of waging war took its first steps in a race which would result-just half a century later-in a transformation in the kinds and numbers of instruments of destruction employed on the field of battle, on and under the oceans and-for the first time-in the skies. The author of this book examines weapons of war employed in the first globally significant conflict of the 20th century-the First World War. Here the reader will not just read about mines, shells, bombs, guns, torpedoes, submarines and aircraft of the period, but also gain an understanding as to how they were constructed, their constituent parts, how they worked and their capabilities in battle. This book is an invaluable addition to the libraries of students of the Great War and will interest all those fascinated by the development of modern weaponry. Available in soft cover and hard cover with dust jacket.

This highly detailed and well-illustrated single-volume work documents the evolution of warfare across history through weaponry and technological change. In war, the weapons and technologies employed have direct effects on how battles are waged. When new weapons are introduced, they can dramatically alter the outcomes of warfare-and consequently change the course of history itself. This reference work provides a fascinating overview of the major weapon systems and military technologies that have had a major impact on world history. Addressing weapons as crude as the club used by primitive man to the high-tech weapons of today such as unmanned drones, Instruments of War: Weapons and Technologies That Have Changed History offers nearly 270 profusely illustrated entries that examine the key roles played by specific weapons and identify their success and failures. The book begins with an introductory essay that frames the subject matter of the work and discusses the history of weapons as a whole. The text is concise and accessible to general readers without extensive backgrounds in military history yet provides the detailed information necessary to convey the complexity of the evolution of warfare through technological change. Contains more than 260 entries of weapons and technological changes Features 25 sidebars that provide interesting insights as to the employment of the weapons and changes Appropriate for students in high school, college, and military academies as well as general readers interested in the history of weaponry Provides a bibliography and index

Cimbala argues that nuclear complacency is based on a misreading of history and on unsound political and military analysis. The stability factors built into the Cold War international system are now missing. The spread of nuclear weapons after the Cold War moved toward regional actors outside of Europe, some with religious or national scores to settle. Technology transfer of ballistic missiles and other delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical as well as nuclear weapons, brings the danger of nuclear eruption closer to reality. Finally, the mechanism of deterrence that seemed so dependable as a means of war prevention from 1947 to 1991 only seems so by virtue of nostalgia.

The early decades of the Cold War were made somewhat unpredictable by uncertain U.S.-Soviet political relations, by nuclear force building based on worst-case estimates, and by rickety command and control systems that could have failed both sides in a crisis. The Soviets and Americans gradually improved their relationship and stabilized Cold War competition, including nuclear rivalry, but they had more than 40 years to practice and no immediate territorial disputes. As Cimbala makes clear, it cannot be assumed that the Soviet-American nonbelligerence of the Cold War is transferable into a multipolar, post-Cold War international system marked by spreading weapons and trigger-sensitive control systems. This provocative analysis will be of interest to all scholars, students, and policy makers involved with defense, security, and foreign policy studies.

This volume reviews the debates surrounding the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) defense systems and their deployment by George W. Bush, allowing readers to assess for themselves the significance of Bush's decisions. The Missile Defense Systems of George W. Bush: A Critical Assessment asks and answers a number of pressing questions about Bush's decision to deploy ground-based missiles. Has the system become reliable? If not, what are the prospects for it to become effective? What have the fiscal costs been? What was the political impact of efforts to expand ABM systems to Europe? This is the only major book that brings together all of the factors—historical and current—to allow readers to assess President Bush's decisions for themselves. Opening with an extensive history of missile defense, the book analyzes Bush's efforts to establish ground-based missiles in Eastern Europe, as well as the impact of his decisions. Both the administration's policies and evaluations and those of critical observers are presented. President Obama's program for missile defense is reviewed as well. A final chapter evaluates the technical progress of the various ABM systems and weighs the political dimensions of the deployment decision and the cost of the undertaking to date.

Missiles for the Fatherland tells the story of the scientists and engineers who built the V-2 missile in Hitler's Germany. This text was the first scholarly history of the culture and society that underpinned missile development at Germany's secret missile base at Peenemunde. Using mainly primary source documents and publicly available oral history interviews, Michael Petersen examines the lives of the men and women who worked at Peenemunde and later at the underground slave labor complex called Mittelbau-Dora, where concentration camp prisoners mass-produced the V-2. His research reveals a complex interaction of professional ambition, internal cultural dynamics, military pressure, and political coercion, which coalesced in daily life at the facility. The interaction of these forces made the rapid development of the V-2 possible but also contributed to an environment in which stunning brutality could be committed against the concentration camp prisoners who manufactured the missile.

This book explores how human factors, in particular the contested notion of trust, influence the conduct and practice of arms control verification. In the nuclear arena, disarmament verification is often viewed purely in terms of a dispassionate, scientific process. Yet this view is fundamentally flawed since the technical impossibility of 100 per cent verification opens the door to a host of complex issues and questions regarding the process and its outcomes. Central among these is the fact that those involved in any verification inspection process must inevitably conduct their work in a space that falls well short of absolute certainty. The lines between scientific enquiry and human psychology can become blurred and outcomes have the potential to be influenced by perceptions. Drawing on extensive empirical evidence, the authors explore the complex interplay between evidence-based judgements and perceptions of intentions that frames the science of verification. The book provides new insights into the role and influence of human factors in the verification process, shedding light on this 'blind spot' of verification research. It is an invaluable resource for practitioners, academics and students working in arms control and disarmament.

This book provides a concise introduction to the increasingly important field of forensic mental health. It aims to set out both the key concepts in forensic mental health as well as the way the discipline operates in the broader context of criminal justice and mental health care systems. It will provide an ideal introduction to the subject for students taking courses in universities and elsewhere, for mental health practitioners in the early stages of their careers, and for professionals from other agencies needing an informed and up-to-date account of forensic mental health.

Dozens of states have long been capable of acquiring nuclear weapons, yet only a few have actually done so. Jacques E. C. Hymans finds that the key to this surprising historical pattern lies not in externally imposed constraints, but rather in state leaders' conceptions of the national identity. Synthesizing a wide range of scholarship from the humanities and social sciences to experimental psychology and neuroscience, Hymans builds a rigorous model of decisionmaking that links identity to emotions and ultimately to nuclear policy choices. Exhaustively researched case studies of France, India, Argentina, and Australia - two that got the bomb and two that abstained - demonstrate the value of this model while debunking common myths. This book will be invaluable to policymakers and concerned citizens who are frustrated with the frequent misjudgments of states' nuclear ambitions, and to scholars who seek a better understanding of how leaders make big foreign policy decisions.

This book, written with unique access to official archives, tells the secret story of Britain's H-bomb - the scientific and strategic background, the government's policy decision, the work of the remarkable men who created the bomb, the four weapon trials at a remote Pacific atoll in 1957-58, and the historic consequences.

An updated edition of ABC-CLIO's classic reference book on nuclear arms programs and proliferation in nations around the world. Fully updated and revised since its initial publication, Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation, Second Edition explores all key issues related to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and efforts to curb them, from the U.S. atomic bomb project during World War II to current debates on nuclear terrorism, North Korea's nuclear test, and Iran's enrichment program. Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation, Second Edition clarifies weapons-related policy debates from both U.S. and international perspectives, offering a detailed look at current technologies, arsenals, weapons tests, and nonproliferation efforts. Readers will find expert analysis of such crucial recent events as Libya's disarmament, the failed WMD search in Iraq, A.Q. Khan's nuclear technology black market, "dirty bombs," developments in North Korea and Iran, and the U.S. plan to aid India's nuclear program-plus recent progress (or lack thereof) on a range of treaties and initiatives. Primary documents include an excerpt from the 1945 U.S. report on the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the text of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the UN resolution sanctioning North Korea for its nuclear test A detailed and updated chronology highlights major events between 1939-2007 pertaining to the buildup of nuclear weapons and the efforts to control and dismantle them

This vivid volume describes the fascinating history of aircraft carriers, first deployed successfully in World War I by the Imperial Russian Navy, and indispensable to the Allied victory in World War II, now the strategic centerpiece of the world's most powerful navies. From their World War I deployment in the Black Sea by the Imperial Russian Navy, to their coming of age in World War II, to their role in recent conflicts in Vietnam, the Falklands, and the Persian Gulf, Aircraft Carriers: An Illustrated History of Their Impact charts the evolution of carrier systems both militarily and within broader political and diplomatic contexts. Covering both the ships and the planes they support, this convenient, authoritative handbook offers complete descriptions of carrier systems from all of the world's major navies-from their operational histories, strategic integration, and technological advancements, to the training of aircrew, the development of carrier command leadership, and the role of carriers as deterrents and diplomatic enforcers. Eighty photographs of all the important aircraft carriers from before World War I to the present, including many operated by lesser-known navies A reference section providing essential physical details, basic design information, modifications, and brief service histories for 80 aircraft carriers or classes from 1912 to the present

Banning Chemical Weapons, first published in 1993, provides a readable and brief outline of chemical warfare, its origins and the offensive and defensive aspects. The aim of this book is to give technical information to people interested in the wider aspects of disarmament, by showing how this technical material must be used in the negotiations to achieve a worldwide and enforceable ban on chemical weapons. While not a textbook, this volume provides accessible technical background to the issue of chemical disarmament.

For more than 400 years, the big-gun warship stood as the supreme naval war machine. It was not only a major instrument of warfare, but a visible emblem of a nation's power, wealth and pride. Battleships features 52 of the greatest warships to have sailed in the last 500 years. Beginning with English king Henry VIII's flagship, Henry Grace a Dieu, the book covers all the main periods of battleship development, including the great sail ships, such as Sovereign of the Seas, Santissima Trinidad and Victory. The advent of steam-driven warships provides the core of the book, beginning with the introduction of Gloire in 1859, and continuing through all the major pre-Dreadnoughts, such as Inflexible, Maine and Tsessarevitch. There is detailed coverage of the great battleships of the two world wars, including Derfflinger, Yamato and Iowa, while the book closes with the last new battleship to be commissioned, Vanguard, in 1946. Each entry includes a brief description of the battleship's development and history, a colour profile artwork, key features and specifications. Packed with more than 200 artworks and photographs, Battleships is a colourful guide for the military historian and naval warfare enthusiast.

In 2002 the Group of Eight industrialized nations - in which Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK, the USA and representatives of the European Union participate - formed the Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction. The G8 pledged to raise up to $20 billion to carry out the Global Partnership projects over a 10-year period, initially in Russia but with the intention to expand the scope of projects to include other countries. These projects will help to specify the quantities and locations of weapons and materials and ensure that stocks are held under safe and secure custody to prevent diversion to unauthorized users or inappropriate uses. If the weapons or materials are not required, this practical assistance can also help to eliminate the surplus.
The G8 initiative is only one of a number of activities sharing the same basic features: tailor-made measures jointly implemented on the territory of one state by a coalition including states, international organizations, local and regional governments, non-governmental organizations and the private sector.
This report reviews the current cooperative threat reduction activities with a particular focus on projects and approaches engaging European partners. It examines the organizing principles for cooperative threat reduction and the lessons learned from past project implementation. Finally, it examines how European countries might organize their cooperative threat reduction activities to increase their coherence and effectiveness.

Clarence "Cap" Cornish was an Indiana pilot whose life spanned all but five years of the Century of Flight. Born in Canada in 1898, Cornish grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He began flying at the age of nineteen, piloting a "Jenny" aircraft during World War I, and continued to fly for the next seventy-eight years. In 1995, at the age of ninety-seven, he was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest actively flying pilot.The mid-1920s to the mid-1950s were Cornish's most active years in aviation. During that period, sod runways gave way to asphalt and concrete; navigation evolved from the iron rail compass to radar; runways that once had been outlined at night with cans of oil topped off with flaming gasoline now shimmered with multicolored electric lights; instead of being crammed next to mailbags in open-air cockpits, passengers sat comfortably in streamlined, pressurized cabins. In the early phase of that era, Cornish performed aerobatics and won air races. He went on to run a full-service flying business, served as chief pilot for the Fort Wayne "News-Sentinel," managed the city's municipal airport, helped monitor and maintain safe skies above the continental United States during World War II, and directed Indiana's first Aeronautics Commission.Dedicating his life to flight and its many ramifications, Cornish helped guide the sensible development of aviation as it grew from infancy to maturity. Through his many personal experiences, the story of flight nationally is played out.

The immense impact of technology on both warfare and security has been clearly demonstrated and has heightened concerns relating to the proliferation of military technology and misuse by irresponsible actors. Technology control regimes are a vital component of national security strategies. This report presents evidence of the increasing relevance of technology in the 21st century and a brief review of the control regimes, as well as the perspectives of progressive developing nations. It highlights the need for a new approach to the management of technology and security issues. Meeting future challenges to arms control and non-proliferation will require wider cooperation among nations in a rapidly changing and interdependent world in which some of the new technologies will further accentuate security sensitivities. The report advocates the abandonment of cold war mindsets and makes a case for a broader cooperative approach to the management of technology controls. International cooperation will be vital for achieving the objectives of non-proliferation, disarmament and global socio-economic progress and will facilitate steps towards the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the dangers posed by terrorism, thereby fostering enhanced international peace and stability.

This book traces the development of the Russian Army in reaction to the rise of Hitler. Caught by surprise in 1941, the Red Army had achieved superiority over the Germans by 1943, and had no real need for Western military assistance. The Russians, as this book establishes, won because they had better organization and equipment--i.e., a better and more effective army. By delaying the second front, the Allies gave Stalin the opportunity to enslave Eastern Europe.

This is vital history, based on first-hand know-how, and thus not overtaken by current events. Students in the fields of history, political science, and military studies will gain by reading this prime. It gives a unique overview of the INF Treaty showing what happened and why in the 1980s in terms of arms control and offering some points about the future of arms control regimes at the turn of this century. George Rueckert delineates the origins of INF negotiations and how they proceeded in Geneva and Reykjavik. He analyzes the INF Treaty and gives a comprehensive overview of it and supplemental agreements and interpretations. He describes implementing organizations and structures, matters relating to on-site inspection and portal monitoring, and related measures. In the end he considers what may lie ahead of us in the 1990s in terms of arms control. Appendices list INF inspection sites in the United States and Russia, present documents describing appendices to the INF treaty. The selected bibliography is a good guide to further reading on the subject.

The author, a historian and former Swiss Armoured Corp officer, uses primary documents to describe tank tactics during the first two years of World War II, a period in which armour was employed in the Polish, Western and Russian campaigns. The first year of 'Operation Barbarossa' is examined in great detail using the files of the second Panzer Army whose commander, Guderian, who has been called the father of the German armoured force.