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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Weapons & equipment
Biological Threats in the 21st Century offers a fresh understanding of contemporary biological threats to national security. Readers are introduced to the politics, people, science and historical roots of contemporary biological threats through up-to-date, rigorous and accessible chapters written by leading academics and supplemented by expert point-of-view contributions and interviews.The book provides inspiration and resources for students and researchers, as well as policy makers in government, the public policy sector and the wider community. It is particularly pertinent for those interested in biological disarmament, non-proliferation, counterterrorism and health security.
The fifth annual SIPRI review of developments in the field of chemical and biological warfare, this volume covers such topics as allegations of treaty violations during 1985; Western moves toward chemical warfare rearmament; the chemical warfare posture of the Soviet Union; proliferation of chemical weapons; and efforts made during the year to strengthen and extend the existing arms control regime.
Cobra! is a comprehensive, meticulously researched and fully documented history of Bell Aircraft Corporation and their piston engine fighters built during the Great Depression and through World War II. While the story centers on techincal aspects of the various fighters, significant attention is also devoted to those key individuals who conceived, built and flew these innovative designs. In addition to aircraft development, Cobra! surveys the combat use of the P-39 and P-63 fighters in the hands of American, French, Italian, and Soviet pilots. The story continues after World War II when a number of Bell surplus fighters were successfully modified for air racing. Birch Matthews is also the author of Wet Wings & Drop Tanks: Recollection of American Transcontinental Air Racing 1928-1970, and Mustang: The Racing Thoroughbred(with Dustin W. Carter). Both books are available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).
This book investigates the way that the molecular sciences are shaping contemporary security practices in relation to the governance of biological threats. In response to biological threats, such as pandemics and bioterrorism, governments around the world have developed a range of new security technologies, called medical countermeasures, to protect their populations. This book argues that the molecular sciences' influence has been so great that security practices have been molecularised. Focusing on the actions of international organisations and governments in the past two decades, this book identifies two contrasting conceptions of the nature or inherent workings of molecular life as driving this turn. On the one hand, political notions of insecurity have been shaped by the contingent or random nature of molecular life. On the other, the identification of molecular life's constant biological dynamics supports and makes possible the development and stockpiling of effective medical countermeasures. This study is one of the few to take seriously the conceptual implications that the detailed empirical workings of biotechnology have on security practices today. This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, bio-politics, life sciences, global governance, and International Relations in general.
Ships have been part of military campaigns since the Ancient world, and this expertly illustrated and detailed Spotter's Guide offers a look at the 40 most iconic and recognizable ships throughout history. From the Viking longship through to the powerful modern aircraft carriers, and from the ironclads of the American Civil War to the awesome fighting ships of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Each ship is beautifully illustrated and is accompanied by a brief history. A perfect gift, this book is a must-have for any naval enthusiast and historian.
Although the Cold War is commonly considered 'over,' the legacies of that conflict continue to unfold throughout the globe. One site of post-Cold War controversy involves the consequences of U.S. nuclear weapons production for worker safety, public health, and the environment. Over the past two decades, citizens, organizations, and governments have passionately debated the nature of these consequences, and how they should be managed. This volume clarifies the role of communication in creating, maintaining, and transforming the relationships between these parties, and in shaping the outcomes of related organizational and political deliberations. Providing various perspectives on nuclear culture and discourse, this anthology serves as a model of interdisciplinary communication scholarship that cuts across the subfields of political, environmental, and organizational communication studies, and rhetoric.
Most observers who follow nuclear history agree on one major aspect regarding Israel's famous policy of nuclear ambiguity; mainly that it is an exception. More specifically, it is largely accepted that the 1969 Nixon-Meir understanding, which formally established Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity and transformed it from an undeclared Israeli strategy into a long-lasting undisclosed bilateral agreement, was in fact a singularity, aimed at allowing Washington to turn a blind eye to the existence of an Israeli arsenal. According to conventional wisdom, this nuclear bargain was a foreign policy exception on behalf of Washington, an exception which reflected a relationship growing closer and warmer between the superpower leading the free world and its small Cold War associate. Contrary to the orthodox narrative, this research demonstrates that this was not the case. The 1969 bargain was not, in fact, an exception, but rather the first of three Cold War era deals on nuclear tests brokered by Washington with its Cold War associates, the other two being Pakistan and South Africa. These two deals are not well known and until now were discussed and explored in the literature in a very limited fashion. Bargaining on Nuclear Tests places the role of nuclear tests by American associates, as well as Washington's attempts to prevent and delay them, at the heart of a new nuclear history narrative.
Given recent controversies over suspected WMD programs in proliferating countries, there is an increasingly urgent need for effective monitoring and verification regimes-the international mechanisms, including on-site inspections, intended in part to clarify the status of WMD programs in suspected proliferators. Yet the strengths and limitations of these nonproliferation and arms control mechanisms remain unclear. How should these regimes best be implemented? What are the technological, political, and other limitations to these tools? What technologies and other innovations should be utilized to make these regimes most effective? How should recent developments, such as the 2015 Iran nuclear deal or Syria's declared renunciation and actual use of its chemical weapons, influence their architecture? The Politics of Weapons Inspections examines the successes, failures, and lessons that can be learned from WMD monitoring and verification regimes in order to help determine how best to maintain and strengthen these regimes in the future. In addition to examining these regimes' technological, political, and legal contexts, Nathan E. Busch and Joseph F. Pilat reevaluate the track record of monitoring and verification in the historical cases of South Africa, Libya, and Iraq; assess the prospects of using these mechanisms in verifying arms control and disarmament; and apply the lessons learned from these cases to contemporary controversies over suspected or confirmed programs in North Korea, Iran, and Syria. Finally, they provide a forward-looking set of policy recommendations for the future.
This book is a comprehensive study of the development of China's nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). It offers insights into the secretive world of nuclear submarines and ballistic missiles of the Chinese (PLA) Navy and studies how these are likely to grow in the next two decades. The volume examines the technological origins of the design and development of Chinese nuclear submarines, ballistic missiles, and their naval construction capabilities. It provides an analysis of the underlying Chinese nuclear doctrine, China's maritime geographical constraints for submarine operations, and the credibility of its sea-based deterrence. It draws upon strategy, nuclear policy, technology, geography, and operational considerations to holistically predict the likely SSBN force levels of the PLA Navy for various scenarios. The book also assesses the spectrum of threats likely from the undersea domain for India and other nations in the Indo-Pacific region. A key text on an obscure but vital facet of Chinese defence studies, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of strategic affairs, international relations and disarmament studies, peace and conflict studies, geopolitics, foreign policy, Indo-Pacific studies, and diplomacy.
In the closing days of World War II, scientists working for the U.S. government invented nuclear explosives by splitting the atoms of heavy metals. Germany had already surrendered, but the United States and its allies remained at war with Japan. In the summer of 1945, the Japanese city of Hiroshima was flattened by a single nuclear bomb. A second bombing occurred just a few days later, decimating the city of Nagasaki. These were the first nuclear weapons ever used in war. And - so far - they are the last. Since then, tens of thousands of nuclear weapons have been manufactured and deployed by governments around the world. Many of these weapons are much more powerful than the atomic bombs that destroyed the two Japanese cities. None have been used so far, and the absence of nuclear war among nations armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons is a great mystery. While the threat of a nuclear attack on the United States has receded, the possibility of a nuclear attack on an American city by terrorists has taken its place in our official nightmares. So far, no terrorist group has made a serious effort to buy, steal, or build a nuclear weapon. The absence of nuclear terrorism in a world swarming with fanatical terrorists is another great mystery. The slippery slope to a nuclear Armageddon has been present for more than sixty years. In secure locations in Washington, Moscow, Beijing, London, and Paris, there are buttons to push than could put an end to human civilization, but these buttons have never been pushed. Why not? What has so far kept us safe from these mortal dangers? Those are the questions that Caplow asks and answers in Armageddon Postponed.
A classic and poignant treatment of Japan's struggle between recognition of the kamikaze's futility and the country's pride in having made the attempt to stem the tide of the American advance in 1944-1945, this account, given by two former Kamikaze pilots, testifies to Japanese perspective of the last days of World War II. This book stands out among English-language translations of Japanese accounts of the Pacific war, and was translated by a former American officer who fought against the Japanese in the Pacific.
- offers most comprehensive and up to date0 history of the IAEA's six decades - features essay by leading academics and policymakers - makes an important contribution to security and nonproliferation studies, as well as to the field of international organizations and global governance
The origins, development and use of the two-edged knightly sword of the European middle ages, from the great migrations to the Renaissance. Forty years of intensive research into the specialised subject of the straight two-edged knightly sword of the European middle ages are contained in this classic study. Spanning the period from the great migrations to the Renaissance, Ewart Oakeshott emphasises the original purpose of the sword as an intensely intimate accessory of great significance and mystique. There are over 400 photographs and drawings, each fully annotated and described in detail, supported by a long introductory chapter with diagrams of the typological framework first presented in The Archaeology of Weapons and further elaborated in The Sword in the Age of Chivalry. There are appendices on inlaid blade inscriptions, scientific dating, the swordsmith's art, and a sword of Edward III. Reprinted as part of Boydell's History of the Sword series.
Covers the design and multiple uses of the Heinkel He 115.
This book shows how the Dutch accumulation of great wealth was closely linked to their involvement in warfare. By charting Dutch activity across the globe, it explores Dutch participation in the international arms trade, and in wars both at home and abroad. In doing so, it ponders the issue of how capitalism has often historically thrived best when its practitioners are ruthless and ignore the human cost of their search for riches. This complicates the traditional Marxist understanding of capitalists as middle-class exploiters in arguing for a much greater agency among lower-class Dutch soldiers and sailors in their efforts to benefit from skills that were in high demand.
This book explores evolving patterns of nuclear deterrence, the impact of new technologies, and changing deterrent force postures in the South Asian region to assess future challenges for sustainable peace and stability. Under the core principles of the security dilemma, this book analyzes the prevailing security environment in South Asia and offers unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral frameworks to stabilize peace and ensure deterrence stability in the South Asian region. Moreover, contending patterns of deterrence dynamics in the South Asian region are further elaborated as becoming inextricably interlinked with the broader security dynamics of the Asia-Pacific region and the interactions with the United States and China's Belt and Road Initiative. As India and Pakistan are increasingly becoming part of the competing strategies exercised by the United States and China, the authors analyze how strategic uncertainty and fear faced by these rival states cause the introduction of new technologies which could gradually drift these competing states into more serious crises and military conflicts. Presenting innovative solutions to emerging South Asian challenges and offering new security mechanisms for sustainable peace and stability, this book will be of interest to academics and policymakers working on Asian Security studies, Nuclear Strategy, and International Relations.
Organised chronologically by type, German Bomber Aircraft of World War II offers a highly-illustrated guide to the main types of aircraft used by the German Luftwaffe during World War II. The book offers a comprehensive survey of German aircraft, from the Junkers Ju 87A Stuka dive-bomber and Dornier Do 17Z-2 that participated in the invasion of Poland, to the more sophisticated Arado Ar 234B-2, Heinkel He 177 and Junkers Ju 88S-1 of the final months of the war. All the major and many minor types are featured, including dive-bombers, two-seater bombers, ground attack aircraft, night bombers, strategic bombers and maritime bombers. This includes both well-known models, such as classic Heinkel He 111 and Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, to the lesser-known Blohm und Voss Bv 141A ground attack aircraft and Heinkel He 111H-2 designed to launch V-1 flying bombs. Each featured profile includes authentic markings and colour schemes, while every separate model is accompanied by exhaustive specifications. Packed with 110 full-colour artworks with detailed specifications, German Bomber Aircraft of World War II is a key reference guide for military modellers and World War II enthusiasts.
This book, first published in 1983, contains articles written as a result of the UN 1978-81 study on the relationship between disarmament and development. They analyse the disruptive, retarding and weakening effects of large-scale military preparations on the economic and social fabric of societies around the world. They discuss the benefits of disarmament, and how resources could be converted into constructive civilian uses and national development, particularly in developing countries.
The effects of weapons of mass destruction cannot be contained, either spatially or temporally, are unpredictable, discriminate poorly between combatants and civilians, and are highly disruptive of ecosystems. This book, first published in 1977, examines several WMD and analyses the extent and duration of environmental damage to be expected from them. Chapters are devoted to the ecological impacts of nuclear weapons, chemical and biological weapons, and geophysical and environmental weapons.
The fabled treasures of China span thousands of years of history. From the exotic Silk Road to the mysterious Great Wall, China’s allure is as vast as the country itself. Here, Natasha Bennett introduces the fascinating world of Chinese arms and armour in the Royal Armouries’ collection. Offering a colourful insight into one of the world’s earliest civilisations, she chronicles the development of personal weapons and armour from the late Bronze Age to the early twentieth century. It is ideal for anyone interested in the military and material culture of this absorbing land.
The Tiger I and Tiger II tanks are probably the most famous German armoured fighting vehicles of the Second World War and despite the relatively small numbers produced, the heavy Panzer units of the German Army played a key role in the battles fought in North Africa, Italy, the Western Front and particularly in the East. In the seventh and final book on the Tiger in this series Dennis Oliver examines the first tanks that left the production line to go into service on the Eastern Front in an effort to break the Russian defences around Leningrad. As reinforcements steadily arrived, the same units played an important part in the blunting of the Soviet offensive efforts and in the retaking of Kharkov in eastern Ukraine in early 1943, a tactical achievement that is studied in military academies around the world today. In addition to archive photographs and painstakingly researched, exquisitely presented colour illustrations, a large part of this book showcases available model kits and aftermarket products, complemented by a gallery of beautifully constructed and painted models in various scales. Technical details as well as modifications introduced during production and in the field are also examined providing everything the modeller needs to recreate an accurate representation of the Tigers of 1942 and early 1943.
Siberia - infamous for its brutal winters, and larger than the entire United States - is not the only wilderness within the former Soviet Union. Harsh southern deserts, arctic islands, disputed border regions, and minority populations beligerent towards the their present government are spread all across the gigantic nation. Flying over Russia presents risks few other aircrews in time of peace must face. And while Russian combat aircraft are world renowned for their reliable performance, what happens when something does go wrong? Given their exceptional egress systems - odds are the pilot will eject safely, but how does he survive and advance under such potentially dire circumstances? MiG Pilot Survival: Russian Aircrew Survival Equipment and Instruction explores the components and details of Russian survival science with color photographs, in depth descriptions, and a full translation of the exact manual - with original illustrations intact - as used by Russian aircrews in time of crisis, Alan R. Wise is a consultant, writer, and photographer who has done work for the Department of Defense, Department of State, U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force Museum, and the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center. He has served as a military advisor and has written numerous articles for magazines such as National Defense, Journal of Defense and Diplomacy, Armor, and Behind the Lines: The Journal of Special Operations. He is also the coauthor with Michael S. Breuninger of Jet Age Flight Helmets (see page 5 of this catalog). He resides in Middletown, Ohio and is an experienced collector specializing in flight gear, survival and special operations equipment, and military vehicles.
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