This book is about the U.S. rush to arms in the Persian Gulf, the tragic loss of life on both sides, the destruction inflicted on Kuwait and Iraq, and the many uncertainties that confront America in the aftermath of the war. It reflects the views of millions who believe that the war could have been prevented through diplomacy and negotiation.

Menos concludes that the Persian Gulf war was unjust and unnecessary. To be just and necessary, it would have had to meet two key criteria: (1) the war would have had to be an act of last resort, after all efforts at a peaceful resolution had failed--which it was not, in view of the near-total absence of direct negotiations between the two sides; and (2) the good achieved from the war would have had to outweigh its harmful effects--which it did not, in light of the enormous destruction and loss of life caused by the fighting and its aftermath. Specialists in the fields of diplomacy, international relations, and the Middle East will find this book of particular interest.

The nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union are larger, better equipped, and deadlier than at any other time in history. This incisive book contends that the superpowers, while exhibiting enormous ingenuity in the area of arms development, have shown only a minimal interest toward the containment of arms. This is a carefully documented evaluation of the mismanagement of nuclear arms control by the superpowers, and of their failure to contain the nuclear arms race despite their involvement in the process for over a quarter of a century. Only the superpowers can reduce the proliferation of nuclear arms and in the process lessen the likelihood of nuclear war through accident, miscalculation, or crisis escalation. Yet forty-four years after Hiroshima, not a single wanted nuclear weapon has been eliminated by them.

"The Superpowers and Nuclear Arms Control" addresses a broad spectrum of nuclear arms control issues, beginning with the history of the nuclear arms race, the lukewarm attempts by the superpowers at nuclear arms control, and the role of the nuclear havenots. The book then considers current threats to arms control evidenced by the termination of the SALT regime and plans to discard the ABM Treaty. A discussion of the congressional-executive split on numerous key arms control issues is followed by conclusions drawn from observing decades of negotiation. Comprehensive appendices contain valuable charts and other documents that reinforce the content of the text. This resource is a useful tool for arms control and disarmament activists, students, and researchers, and for the many men and women everywhere who are at a loss to understand why so little is being accomplished in this critical area.

This is the story of the Church of Aghia Sofia in Constantinople, of its long and illustrious history and of the quest by a young seminarian to restore it to some of its earlier greatness. Built in 537 AD by Byzantine Emperor Justinian, Aghia Sofia served as the Mother Church of the Byzantine Empire and of the Orthodox East for nearly one thousand years. In 1453, on the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans it was converted into a Mosque. Since 1932 it has been serving as a museum and a major tourist attraction of the city. The story begins when Mark Jason, a seminarian and convert to Orthodoxy, travels to Mount Athos in search of some materials for use in his School thesis. While at Athos and later during a visit to Constantinople he hears references to the JUSTINIAN DIARIES, a unique collection of chronicles on Aghia Sofia dating back to the Byzantine era. The collection is rumored to be at the Monastery of Meghisti Lavra on Mount Athos but its precise location there is unknown. Troubled by the use of Aghia Sofia as a museum, Mark begins an active search for the JUSTINIAN DIARIES. Publicizing their contents, he reasons, will remind the world of Aghia Sofia's celebrated history and help free it from its present role. His search encounters numerous obstacles, including hostility on the part of the authorities at Mount Athos who insist that the JUSTINIAN DIARIES are a myth...

This highly informative and entertaining work of historical fiction focuses on the life and times of the Karyatis (Caryatid) statue, presently in the British Museum and of her longing to return home to the Acropolis. Presented in a series of vignettes spanning 2,400 years of Hellenic history, the story of the Karyatis makes for fascinating reading, beginning with the age when twelve Gods ruled the world from on top of Mount Olympus, to the day in 1802 when the statue was removed from her temple by Lord Elgin's crew and was shipped to London. In the intervening years, the Karyatis was eyewitness to some of the proudest but also darkest moments of Hellenic history, as a series of great empires -- Athenian, Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman -- rose and fell. The story opens in the British Museum, where the Karyatis bemoans the start of yet another day in captivity. She longs to return home to the Acropolis in Athens hence she was forcibly removed. In the Museum we also meet Sophia, an artist living in London and an admirer of the Karyatis whose painting she is working on. Eventually, Sophia and the Karyatis "connect" and a lively "dialogue" ensues between the two.....