The author takes issue with the complacent belief that a happy mixture of deterrence, arms control and luck will enable humanity to cope adequately with weapons of mass destruction, arguing that the risks are ever more serious.

This timely introduction to the study of international relations places special emphasis on the politics of international economics and the nuclear threat. Written for beginning students, the book combines comprehensive and realistic introductory material basic to the study of international relations with in-depth case studies of major issues and problem areas such as management of the world economy and management of world military power, East-West and North-South (rich nation vs. poor nation) conflicts, and the struggle for resources and ways and means of preventing World War III. Readers untrained in economics will find the subject matter introduced before it is discussed in its applied form. Henry L. Bretton has published widely on Western and non-Western government, politics, and international relations. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York College at Brockport.

The advent of the nuclear age in 1945 fundamentally altered the course of human events. The oceans are not the focus of the nuclear age, but the affairs of the oceans are deeply woven into the history of that age. Knowledge of what the nuclear age has meant for the oceans, however, is highly fragmented and there exists a surprising gap in research on the impact of the nuclear age on the oceans and on ocean law and policy. Ranging from dumped wastes to transportation to security, this study frames the complex multidimensional set of relationships between the oceans and the nuclear age and illuminates patterns of impact and response in ocean law. This timely expanded edition includes a new chapter by Lt. Todd Hutchins, USN, on “Nuclear Risks in Coastal Areas: Legal and Regulatory Responses.” It provides a full discussion of the 2011 coastal Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster, together with analysis more generally of the challenges to the environment and to the legal order globally that are posed by coastal siting of nuclear power plants.

A comprehensive look at the hundred-year history of the Cold War, from the rise of Lenin and communism to the foreign policy of George W. Bush. -- CNN's 24-part series, telecast in late 1998, is still alive and well on CNN Interactive. -- Who says the Cold War is over? Heard about the collision between the Chinese freighter and the U.S. Navy spy plane? New York Times political columnist Maureen Dowd said in April, "One veteran cold warrior who served under several presidents told me he was shocked that Bush II had refrozen the cold war." -- The Cold War International History Project Website at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars has up-to-date info on books published about the Cold War, as well as conferences, news, etc. The Complete Idiot's Guide "RM" to the Cold War covers: origins of the Cold War -- Karl Marx, the Treaty at Versailles, the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II; the China Lobby and the Marshall Plan, "American Caesar" in Korea and "Tail-Gunner Joe"; the birth of "talking head" journalism; those Happy Days 1950's; the Cuban Missile Crisis and death in Vietnam; the turbulent Sixties; Nixon visits China; Cold War America in the Seventies and Eighties -- the "Evil Empire, " Grenada, Nicaragua, and KAL Flight 007, and Post-Cold War policy, the Cold War legacy.

In September 1980, eight Catholic activists made their way into a Pennsylvania General Electric plant housing parts for nuclear missiles. Evading security guards, these activists pounded on missile nose cones with hammers and then covered the cones in their own blood. This act of nonviolent resistance was their answer to calls for prophetic witness in the Old Testament: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war.” Plowshares explores the closely interwoven religious and social significance of the group’s use of performance to achieve its goals. It looks at the group’s acts of civil disobedience, such as that undertaken at the GE plant in 1980, and the Plowshares’ behavior at the legal trials that result from these protests. Interpreting the Bible as a mandate to enact God’s kingdom through political resistance, the Plowshares work toward “symbolic disarmament,” with the aim of eradicating nuclear weapons. Plowshares activists continue to carry out such “divine obediences” against facilities where equipment used in the production or deployment of nuclear weapons is manufactured or stored. Whether one agrees or disagrees with their actions, this volume helps us better understand their motivations, logic, identity, and ultimate goal.