Photonics and nanotechnology are popular emerging fields of technology. This proceedings volume contains over 12 selected papers from the International Workshop and Conference on Photonics and Nanotechnology (ICPN) 2007, held in Pattaya, Thailand, from December 16-18, 2007. The papers cover a wide range of topics, from optical and nonlinear optical physics to nanoelectronics.

This book focuses on subjects of great topical interest, such as nuclear disarmament, trade in arms, peacekeeping and conflict resolution, environmental security and sustainability. Major themes include the elimination of nuclear weapons, control of the arms trade, the role of multinational and international organizations in peace-keeping, environmental sustainability and security in the Nordic/Baltic region.

In this volume, scientists write on the desirability and feasibility of eliminating nuclear weapons, including reflections 50 years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs. The following topics are discussed: strategies for preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; ways and means to monitor and control the arms trade; the need for global governance; specific aspects of security in the Asia-Pacific region; and interactions between the problems of meeting the world's energy demand, reducing environmental pollution, and promoting sustainable development.

First published in 1999, this book describes what the International community of scientific institutions could do to reverse this trend, by pooling its know-how and resources in International and interdisciplinary working groups and standing committees, by preparing options for action and by standing the possibilities for overcoming the political and economic obstacles to the implementation of expert advice. The reasons are given why neighboring groups of people sooner or later start fighting each other unless certain conditions are fulfilled. These conditions are enumerated. Historical examples are presented. Since lack of mutual trust, often based on inherited enemy images, is at the roots of many conflicts is shown how trust among former opponents can be created by working on joint projects, particularly when both sides are threatened by the same danger. In previous history this danger was often a common enemy. Today we must learn that all of mankind is threatened by environmental and other global problems which can only be mastered by joint efforts, forgetting the enmities of earlier generations. Furthermore, it is explained that many catastrophes could be avoided if risks were properly assessed and taken seriously and necessary precautions not avoided for financial reasons, just hoping for the best.

Contemporary Peacemaking draws on recent experience to identify and explore the essential components of peace processes. The book is organized around five key themes in peacemaking: planning for peace; negotiations; violence on peace processes; peace accords; and peace accord implementation and post-war reconstruction.

The first comprehensive, empirically grounded, and independent study of the history of the IAEA. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which sends inspectors around the world to prevent states from secretly developing nuclear bombs, has one of the most important jobs in international security. At the same time, the IAEA is a global hub for the exchange of nuclear science and technology for peaceful purposes. Yet spreading nuclear materials and know-how around the world bears the unwanted risk of helping what the agency aims to halt: the emergence of new nuclear weapon states. In Inspectors for Peace, Elisabeth Roehrlich unravels the IAEA's paradoxical mission of sharing nuclear knowledge and technology while seeking to deter nuclear weapon programs. Founded in 1957 in an act of unprecedented cooperation between the Cold War superpowers, the agency developed from a small technical bureaucracy in war-torn Vienna to a key organization in the global nuclear order. Roehrlich argues that the IAEA's dual mandate, though apparently contradictory, was pivotal in ensuring the organization's legitimacy, acceptance, and success. For its first decade of existence, the IAEA was primarily a scientific and technical organization; it was not until the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons entered into force in 1970 that the agency took on the far-reaching verification and inspection role for which it is now most widely known. While the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the Iran negotiations made the IAEA's name famous, the organization's remarkable history remains strikingly absent from public knowledge. Drawing on extensive archival research, including firsthand access to newly opened records at the IAEA Archives in Vienna, Inspectors for Peace provides the first comprehensive, empirically grounded, and independent study on the history of the IAEA. Roehrlich also interviewed leading policymakers and officials, including Hans Blix and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, the agency's former heads. This book offers insight not only for students, scholars, and policy experts but for anyone interested in the history of the nuclear age, the Cold War, and the role of international organizations in shaping our world.