Avoiding Armageddon : our future, our choice : companion to the PBS series from Ted Turner Documentaries / Martin Schram.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schram, Martin.

Contributor:

Ted Turner Documentaries (Firm)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nuclear nonproliferation.

Biological arms control.

Chemical arms control.

Terrorism.

Physical Description:

xi, 356 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Basic Books, [2003]

Summary:

Since the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear, biological or chemical attacks -- the "weapons of mass destruction" in today's headlines -- being unleashed against civilian populations has loomed ever larger. A deadly combination of shortsighted mistakes by Western governments, chaos in the former Soviet Union, and virulent international terrorism has succeeded in making us all far more vulnerable than many would like to admit. Avoiding Armageddon is a world citizen's guide to the worst possible threats to our individual and national security -- from easily accessible uranium to smallpox outbreaks to a new breed of suicide bombers -- and what we can do to save ourselves, our country and the planet. Published in conjunction with the eight-hour PBS series, Avoiding Armageddon focuses our attention like never before on threats posed by terrorism and unsecured weapons of mass destruction. It delves into an exploration of those who endanger our national interest, the forms their threats might take, and what can be done to avert the kinds of disasters likely to ensue. Drawing on numerous interviews with world leaders, experts, former terrorists and would-be nuclear thieves, Martin Schram explains how and why biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare may very well be our next nightmare. Reporting from hot spots around the globe, Avoiding Armageddon is a riveting and sober story of America's -- and the world's -- vulnerability in an age of terrorism. Impeccably researched and compellingly written, it offers an original assessment of how the threats and solutions are intertwined -- and how world leaders and citizens must act boldly to ensure our personal, national, and global security.

Contents:

Part 1 Reversing the Nuclear Race: Sprinting Against Terrorists, Tempers and Time

1. Nuclear Thieves 3

2. Nuclear Nightmares 12

3. A Proliferator's History of Nuclear Proliferation: Naivete and Greed 23

4. South Asia's Nuclear Crisis: How "Atoms for Peace" Became "Atoms for War" 44

5. Nuclear Wasteland 63

6. Today's Nuclear Solutions: The Birth of a Notion: Securing an Old Enemy's Weapons 78

7. Just Minutes to Decide 97

8. Future Nuclear Solutions: Buying Time 104

Part 2 Zeroing In on Silent Killers: The Urgent Unmaking of a Century of Chemical and Biological Arsenals

9. The Horror of Halabja 114

10. When History Blinked: A Tale of Chemical Weapons Bans, Loopholes and Belated Resolve 122

11. Terror in Tokyo 153

12. Secret Sprayings: U.S. Gas Experiments Used Cities, Schoolkids and Sailors 158

13. Chemical Crisis and Response: A Challenge of Destruction 165

14. East Meets West: Germ Warfare's Historic Twists and Turns 179

15. Russian Bio-Shock: Soviet Secrets Dumbfound U.S. Intelligence 186

16. Threats: Bio-Terror USA: A Few Grams Fill a Nation with Fear 197

Part 3 Terror: How Mass Murder Became an Almighty Act

17. On the Fly with Osama 213

18. Terrorism Through the Ages: Evolution and Revolution 240

19. Suicide Bombers: What Makes Them Tick 258

Part 4 Future Solutions: Toward Feeling Safe Again

20. Securing Homelands 271

21. Nation-Building for Tomorrow's National Security 278

22. Combating AIDS as a National Security Crisis 292

23. Toward a Global Marshall Plan 299

24. Nuclear Future: Can We Get Down to Zero? 311

25. What Leaders and Citizens Can Do 322.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 335-338) and index.

ISBN:

0465072550

OCLC:

51752777