Americas Nuclear Crossroads

As the United States adjusts to a changing global balance of power, nuclear deterrence is poised to return to a level of importance in U.S. national security not seen since the end of the Cold War. However, U.S. nuclear strategy will have to contend with emerging issues like arms control in a multipolar world, the evolution of strategic technology, and the new contours of great power competition. America's Nuclear Crossroads: A Forward-Looking Anthology is a useful reference tool for policymakers and laypeople alike as they navigate an increasingly complex nuclear security environment. The debates and policy decisions that play out over the next few years will likely affect America's nuclear deterrence and arms control strategies for decades to come. This anthology offers a wide view of the most pressing challenges the United States is facing at this crossroads. While it cannot resolve every emerging problem, we hope America's Nuclear Crossroads sparks a broader dialogue and offers some initial recommendations for solving said challenges.

In this volume, Rhinelander and Scheinman examine the history of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, its effectiveness in controlling weapons proliferation, and what a possible extension of the treaty will mean for the U.S. and the rest of the world. The book also includes essays on the language of the treaty and how well the nuclear superpowers have complied with it as well as look at what effect the NPT has had on nuclear testing. Copublished with the Lawyers Alliance for World Security.

Global power is shifting to Asia. The U.S. military is embarking on an American "pivot" to the Indo-Pacific region, and the bulk of global arms spending is directed toward Asian theaters. India and Pakistan are thought to be building up their nuclear arsenals while questions persist about China's potential to "sprint to parity." China remains by far the world's largest market for new nuclear energy production, and India aspires to be on a similar trajectory. Despite these trends, The China-India Nuclear Crossroads is the first serious book by leading Chinese and Indian experts to examine the political, military, and technical factors that affect Sino-Indian nuclear relations. In this book, editor and translator Lora Saalman presents a comprehensive framework through which China and India can pursue enhanced cooperation and minimize the unintended consequences of their security dilemmas.

In 1946, approximately 40,000 U.S. military personnel participated in Operation CROSSROADS, an atmospheric nuclear test that took place at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Congress passed a law directing the Veterans Administration to determine whether there were any long-term adverse health effects associated with exposure to ionizing radiation from the detonation of nuclear devices. This book contains the results of an extensive epidemiological study of the mortality of participants compared with a similar group of nonparticipants. Topics of discussion include a breakdown of the study rationale; an overview of other studies of veteran participants in nuclear tests; and descriptions of Operation CROSSROADS, data sources for the study, participant and comparison cohorts, exposure details, mortality ascertainment, and findings and conclusions.

Weisgall (law, Georgetown U.) is the legal counsel for the people of Bikini and provides the first non-government account of the two atomic bomb tests on the Pacific island in 1946. He thinks that they were not a good idea, and argues that the government knew that at the time. He was also the executive producer of the film Radio Bikini. Includes lots of photographs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Presents a critique of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, arguing that it stemmed from misconceptions about the realities of the situation in Iraq and a squandering of the goodwill of American allies following September 11th.

Challenging prevailing media stereotypes, Generation at the Crossroads explores the beliefs and choices of the students who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s. For seven years, at over a hundred campuses in thirty states, Paul Loeb asked students about the values they held. He examines their concepts of responsibility, the links they draw between present and future, and how they view themselves in relation to the larger human community in which they live. He brings us a range of voices, from "I'm not that kind of person," to "I had to take a stand." Loeb looks at how the rest of us can serve young people as better role models, and give them courage and vision to help build a better world. This insightful book explores the culture of withdrawal that dominated American campuses through most of the eighties. He locates its roots in historical ignorance, relentless individualism, mistrust of social movements, and a general isolation from urgent realities. He examines why a steadily increasing minority has begun to take on critical public issues, whether environmental activism, apartheid, hunger and homelessness, affordable education, or racial and sexual equity. Loeb looks at individuals who have overcome precisely the barriers he has described, and how their journeys can become models. The generational choices he explores will shape our common future.

The report notes that in the near term nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security. For this reason it emphasizes the importance of maintaining a safe, secure, and reliable deterrent nuclear force and makes recommendations on this front. The report also offers measures to advance important goals such as preventing nuclear terrorism and bolstering the nuclear nonproliferation regime--Foreword.

"Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--

Three fascinating reports from the U.S. government provide exclusive details about early American atmospheric atomic tests: Trinity (the first atomic weapon ever exploded), Crossroads, and Sandstone.Project Trinity 1945-1946 - United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests - Nuclear Test Personnel Review - This report describes the activities of an estimated 1,000 personnel, both military and civilian, in Project TRINITY, which culminated in detonation of the first nuclear device, in New Mexico in 1945. Scientific and diagnostic experiments to evaluate the effects of the nuclear device were the primary activities engaging military personnel.Operation Crossroads 1946 - United States Atmospheric Nuclear Weapons Tests - Nuclear Test Personnel Review - Crossroads was the first peacetime nuclear weapons test series. It was conducted at Bikini Atoll in 1946. Report emphasis is on the radiological safety of the personnel. Available records on personnel exposure are summarized. Operation CROSSROADS was an atmospheric nuclear weapon test series conducted in the summer of 1946. The series consisted of two detonations, each with a yield of 23 KT: ABLE -- detonated at an altitude of 520 feet (158 meters) on 1 July * BAKER -- detonated 90 feet (27 meters) underwater on 25 July. It was the first nuclear test held in the Marshall Islands. The series was to study the effects of nuclear weapons on ships, equipment, and material. A fleet of more than 90 vessels was assembled in Bikini Lagoon as a target. This target fleet consisted of older U.S. capital ships, three captured German and Japanese ships, surplus U.S. cruisers, destroyers and submarines, and a large number of auxiliary and amphibious vessels. Military equipment was arrayed on some of the ships as well as amphibious craft that were beached on Bikini Island. Technical experiments were also conducted to study nuclear weapon explosion phenomena. Some experiments included the use of live animals. The support fleet of more than 150 ships provided quarters, experimental stations, and workshops for most of the 42,000 men (more than 37,000 of whom were Navy personnel) of Joint Task Force 1 (JTF 1), the organization that conducted the tests. Additional personnel were located on nearby atolls such as Enewetak and Kwajalein. The islands of the Bikini Atoll were used primarily as recreation and instrumentation sites.SANDSTONE was a three-detonation nuclear weapon test series held at Enewetak Atoll, the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Pacific Proving Ground (PPG), in the spring of 1948. Located in the Central Pacific Ocean, the PPG consisted principally of Enewetak and Bikini atolls in the northwestern Marshall Islands. X-RAY / 15 April / 200-foot (61-meter) tower on Enjebl Island / 37 * YOKE / 1 May / 200-foot (61-meter) tower on Aomon Island / 49 * ZEBRA / 15 May / 200-foot (61-meter) tower on Runit Island 18Operation SANDSTONE was the second test series to be held in the Marshall Islands, but it differed from the first series (CROSSROADS in 1946) in that it was primarily an AEC scientific test series with the armed forces serving in a supporting role. Its purpose was to proof-test improved-design atomic weapons, whereas the purpose of CROSSROADS was to test nuclear weapons effects on ships. The weapons were tested at Enewetak by a joint military and civilian organization designated Joint Task Force 7 (JTF 7). This was a military organization in form, but contained military, civil service, and contractor personnel of the Department of Defense (DOD) and the AEC. The commander of this force was the appointed representative of the AEC and reported to both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Commander in Chief, Pacific.