Nuclear Weapons, Scientists, And The Post-cold War Challenge: Selected Papers On Arms Control

This volume includes a representative selection of Sidney Drell's recent writings and speeches (circa 1993 to the present) on public policy issues with substantial scientific components. Most of the writings deal with national security, nuclear weapons, and arms control and reflect the author's personal involvement in such issues dating back to 1960.Fifteen years after the demise of the Soviet Union, the gravest danger presented by nuclear weapons is the spread of advanced technology that may result in the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Of most concern would be their acquisition by hostile governments and terrorists who are unconstrained by accepted norms of civilized behavior. The current challenges are to prevent this from happening and, at the same time, to pursue aggressively the opportunity to escape from an outdated nuclear deterrence trap.

Dr Sidney Drell is a physicist and arms control specialist. Since 1960 he has been active in providing technical advice to the US Government on national security issues, most recently as a member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. Currently he is Professor of Theoretical Physics (Emeritus) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Among many honors Dr Drell received a MacArthur Foundation prize fellowship; the Enrico Fermi Award "... for his major contributions to our understanding of elementary particles; and for his major contributions to arms control and national security, in particular for technical studies showing that a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty is compatible with maintaining the safety and reliability of US nuclear weapons"; and the Heinz R Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award "... For his sustained and extraordinary support of human rights of scientists throughout the world." In May 2005 he was awarded the 11th annual Heinz Award for Public Policy, as a "... tireless and effective spokesman and advisor to the United States government in efforts to reduce the danger and proliferation of nuclear weapons." He is one of ten scientists honored by the US National Reconnaissance Office as "Founders of national reconnaissance as a space discipline", and also received the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the highest award bestowed by the US Intelligence Community. Dr Drell is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Philosophical Society. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was its president in 1986. His most recent book, co-authored with Ambassador James Goodby, is "The Gravest Danger: Nuclear Weapons," published by the Hoover Institute Press in October 2003.