Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy consists of 3 volumes, each derived from Nuclear Shadowboxing. Volume 1 of Nuclear Insights is a timely history of the development of nuclear weapons.
Volume 1: Nuclear Weaponry (An Insider History), published January 2009. Available from www.Amazon.Com
Volume 2: Nuclear Threats and Prospects (A Knowledgeable Assessment), published September 2009, provides an assessment of residual nuclear threats and prospects. Available from Amazon.Com
Volume 3: Nuclear Reductions (A Technically Informed Perspective) tells how to make long-lasting reductions in arsenals. Published October 2009. Also available from Amazon.com
All three volumes of NUCLEAR INSIGHTS are derived from the two volumes of NUCLEAR SHADOWBOXING (each 8-1/2x11). NUCLEAR INSIGHTS is smaller (6x9 in.) with much technical detail and citations omitted. Nevertheless, it faithfully tracks the substance of NUCLEAR SHADOWBOXING. Nuclear Insights is the more readable version.
NUCLEAR SHADOWBOXING discusses the primary concerns that dominated the Cold War. We do not shy away from controversy — many of the issues are still being debated by politicians, analyzed in the news media, and discussed at the highest international levels.
Concerns abound about “dirty bombs,” earth-penetrating nuclear weapons, ballistic-missile defense, and environmental consequences of the Cold War legacy. By describing the relevant history and technology of the last half century, we have set the stage for the reader to be able to understand such issues as they are confronted in contemporary times.
We have been crafting the book so it will belong on military-history shelves and living-room tables, incorporating many details to make it comprehensive. It is illustrated with figures, graphs, and tables.
We have retained an extensive set of endnotes. Detailed explanatory material is relegated to appendices. We have divided the book into a 2-volume set of about 950 printed 8-1/2x 11 in. 2-column pages. To make the book more readable, expanded explanations and technical definitions are provided.
The book is written in English, with a few Russian contributions ranslated to English. We hope there will be a Russian edition. It took us 12 years of part-time collaboration to complete both volumes.
The Introduction and first four Chapters of the book are on the nuclear history of the Cold War. They comprise a standalone Volume 1 that became available 1 December 2004.
The three Chapters in Volume 2 describe the contemporary situation: existing nuclear arsenals, proliferation risks, the cleanup legacy, and what we think should be done to reduce dangers of accidental or unauthorized nuclear explosions.
The Trinity Nexus; Trinity Minus 50; Trinity; Trinity Plus 50; Current Nuclear Policy; Secrecy and Policy; The New Millennium; Organization of the Book
Nuclear Events Through World-War II; Post-War Years; Emergence of Detente; Collapse of the Soviet Union; Cold-War Leadership
National Defense; The Weapons; Deterrence-Support Technology; Arms Developments and Limitations
Myths and Realities; The Unthinkable; The Nuclear Priesthood; Cost of the Cold War
Public-Interest Organizations; Arms-Control Issues; Political Forces; Intimidation of Opposition
"Congratulations to the team that produced Nuclear Shadowboxing, Vol. 1. They have done a brilliant job of recapitulating the history of the first six decades of the so-called "Atomic Age" -- hitting all the major milestones to date of this ongoing chronology. Noteworthy is the scholarly and well-documented step-by-step progression of the text, helping the reader to recall accurately events that already have fallen victim to fuzzy memory. Moreover, the entire presentation avoids the pitfalls of arcane, professional jargon -- it is laid out in the sort of plain language that is perfectly comprehensible to the lay person. " --- Fred W. Spurrell
"I have started to read Nuclear Shadowboxing and find it to be fascinating. I did not know the history of the nuclear build up, its vast dimensions, or the fact that enormous nuclear weaponry still exists. I did not realize how close this world has come on several occasions to nuclear conflagration, or how close it still is. Your book is sobering. I hope it is widely read." – Thomas G. Burish
"...I would recommend the book to history teachers in order to present a more balanced picture of the Cold War and its consequences to their school students all over United States, including my son. The book contains contemporary information free from the post-Cold-War stratagms in service of current political agendas in Washington....
"Nuclear Shadowboxing deserves to be on the shelves of every pubic and school library in the United States. I look forward to the second volume with great interest." -- Peter H. Lerner for Physics & Society.
Radiation Legacies; Institutional Legacies; Deteriorating Nuclear Security in Russia; Nuclear-Armed Nations; Beneficial Impact of Nuclear Technology
Current Nuclear Balance; Other Nuclear-Weapons States; Conventional Forces; Mutual Security Arrangements; Military Development and Spending; Nonproliferation; Security Technology.
Current Policy Debate; Treaties and Negotiations; Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle; Deep Cuts; Disposition of Nuclear Materials; Verification Issues; Time-Bound Nuclear Disarmament
In the controversial category, we suspect, will be our policy recommendations regarding topics such as:
* advising deep cuts in nuclear weapons, * reducing the risk of nuclear detonation, * avoiding pre-emptive nuclear attacks, * stabilizing Russia’s nuclear deterrent, * defending against ballistic missiles, * eliminating weapon-quality fissile materials, * banning the testing of nuclear explosives, * promoting nonproliferation, * cleaning up Cold War radiation legacies, * maintaining the nuclear stockpile, * strengthening protection of sensitive data, * relaxing unnecessary secrecy,and * prevailing against nuclear, chemical, and biological terrorism
Iraq, Iran, WMD, radiation hazards, "dirty" bombs, bunker busters, nuclear-waste storage, Chernobyl consequences, nuclear-power generation? We cover these and more.
Read either NuclearInsights, Nuclear Shadowboxing, or our related Google Knol about demilitarization of fissile materials.
"I have just had a chance to look at the two volumes of Nuclear Shadowboxing. What an extraordinary accomplishment!" -- Randy Forsberg, Director, Institute for Disarmament Studies (www.idds.org)
Who better than an experienced nuclear physicist — Dr. Alexander DeVolpi, educated as a journalist, practiced in experimental diagnostics, and involved in Cold War events — to supply a readable first-hand report and analysis of the world’s nuclear-weapon legacy? Nuclear Weaponry (An Insider History) supplements this lore by assembling, firstly, a technically qualified counterpoint, and, secondly, an insiders’ perspective about scientists and citizens at several tiers of participation. Nuclear Shadowboxing, an annotated book that originated with two American associates and a Soviet colleague. One coauthor, a nuclear engineer, emigrated from the former Soviet Union; the other, a physicist, was born in Canada. The Soviet contributor, a nuclear-weapons physicist, headed up weapons design and testing at their national laboratory in western Siberia. All of us went through episodes of personal and professional risk, even disdain and reprimand.Nuclear Shadowboxing and in its forthcoming counterparts of Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy.
Because of diverse backgrounds, we’ve been able to address a wide range of issues, technologies, traditions, and lessons resulting from collapse of the USSR. We weren’t bureaucrats or academics, but working laboratory scientists who occasionally took on reluctant and modest leadership roles, sometimes official, sometimes unofficial.
Following a liberal-arts education and three years active duty as a U.S. Navy officer, I earned graduate degrees in nuclear engineering and physics — just as the fission process was beginning to be harnessed for peaceful applications. Then began my 40-year technical career at a government laboratory, engaging in experiments and measurements that became increasingly relevant to both peaceful and military applications of nuclear phenomena.
A knowledgeable insider, I became appalled at the increasingly dangerous Cold War confrontation and the untempered nuclear-arms race — thus getting directly involved: professionally in arms-control and nonproliferation, privately as citizen and activist.
This brought me into never-imagined, awesome circles of non-government and government individuals and officials in the United States, the Soviet Union, and elsewhere. Being one of a few available technical experts with relevant hands-on laboratory experience, I became a sympathetic and knowledgeable resource to irregular bands of citizen petitioners, while remaining a reliable asset for government officials.
Now, opportune to disclose some unique experiences, this is the first of three corresponding volumes condensed from Nuclear Shadowboxing.
Though retired from our national laboratories, we each remain concerned about the Cold War aftermath, discussed in the second volume of
Top-level accounts of the eventful Cold War — its nerve-wracking transition, and now the aftermath — have been capably rendered by historians, political scientists, and professional journalists.
In team sports, there’s a hierarchy of primary players: forwards, quarterbacks, pitchers, heavy hitters, dunkers; they get plenty of press. The secondaries consist of linemen, fielders, subs, as well as bench-warmers, bleacher bums, water-carriers, and cheerleaders. Volume 1 recognizes both first-stringers and back-ups who earned their role in the history of nuclear sensibility.
The Cold War, nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union, anti-communism, nuclear reactors, arms control, atomic radiation — all complex, but still important issues of the past half century. Who besides a quartet of transnational nuclear scientists that experienced and participated in these events first hand could write knowledgeably about them? Who else can provide a foundation for modern nuclear policy better than individuals that understand and once helped formulate nuclear policies?
This book is part of a trilogy that transcends generations, from World War II and its abrupt termination by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the new millennium, with its abiding nuclear hangover. Volume 1 of NuclearInsights is an explanatory history, one that describes in understandable terms, the complexities of modern nuclear events, those that took place during the Cold War, and those inherited by now-depleted economies.
This second volume provides a knowledgeable assessment of residual nuclear threats and future prospects. While the first volume told of events and circumstances that took place during the Cold War, especially about nuclear weaponry, Nuclear Threats and Prospects (A Knowledgeable Assessment) analyzes its legacy in understandable terms. It is not a technical book, as such; it is an explanatory analysis of where we are now with modern nuclear technology, both the bad and the good.
What policymakers shouldo do next is the substance of the third volume in this trilogy: a technically informed perspective on not just what, but how to carry out effective and abiding nuclear-weapons reductions. Volume 3 can be used as a guidebook or checklist for reducing arsenals.
While a single responsible author is listed for Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy, the three volumes reflect combined efforts of four nuclear scientists whose careers transcended the Cold War: One, Dr. Vadim A. Simonenko, was a Soviet designer of thermonuclear weapons who once helped negotiate a strategic arms-control treaty; a second, Dr. Vladimir E. Minkov, having served in the Soviet Navy, is an emigre who became a valuable resource for American policymakers during the Cold War; a third coauthor, Dr. George S. Stanford, is an Americanized Canadian who became immersed in nuclear technology and beneficial applications of nuclear reactors; and the fourth, Dr. Alexander DeVolpi, is a former U.S. Naval Officer who participated with anti-war peace groups and who became, along the way, an international expert in nuclear-weapons arms control and nonproliferation.
This is a book that probably no one else could put together. You’ll not find any cadre of colleagues better qualified to examine, report, and analyze the Cold War nuclear legacy.
The Cold War transitioned or morphed without nuclear trauma, leaving a legacy of perceptible threats, accompanied by expectations for a better future. Nuclear Insights: The Cold War Legacy is a trilogy that began with an insider history of nuclear weaponry, followed by a knowledgeable assessment of nuclear threats and prospects.
Volume 3, Nuclear Reductions (A Technically Informed Perspective), is about reducing arsenals.
Although worthy assessments have been offered by historians and political leaders. Nuclear Insights is the product of nuclear physicists. We not only have a consummate understanding of the underlying and operative technology, but were directly involved at various working levels during much of the Cold War and its aftermath.
For Volume 1 we were witnesses, participants, and historiographers: As insiders with unique perceptivity based on scientific upbringing and experience, our analysis of nuclear development serves to complement other historical treatments of the Cold War. Volume 2 evaluated present-day nuclear weapons and nuclear technology — some of which endangers society, some contributes immensely to human progress. Volume 3 focuses on what to do with the nuclear legacy and how to go about it.
This is an informed perspective. Although there is a ground swell of support for cutting, even eliminating nuclear weapons, it takes some substantial technical experience to address the practical details and present them in a simplified manner.
Well-meaning political figures, a few of them instrumental in building up nuclear arsenals during the Cold War, now realize a common threat from the mere existence of mutually destructive arsenals. With the historical East-West confrontations having turned to collective interest and mutual cooperation, nuclear arsenals have become counterproductive, even dangerous — especially the huge ones inherited from the Cold War.
This culminating volume provides orientation and analysis of complexities in ridding the world of huge, potentially self-destructive nuclear warheads. Political will or fiat cannot do it alone; reductions and possible abolition depend not only on planning, money, and good will; they require a well-chosen means to eliminate — to reimbursably consume — the fissile materials at the core of nuclear weaponry.
A peaceful transition is reflected on the front covers of these three books: progression from the most dramatic and destructive of applications, represented by the characteristic mushroom cloud, to the most benign use of nuclear technology and materials, transformed into electrical power. These volumes testify to converting nuclear swords into plowshares, rocket fuel into fertilizer, and atoms into electricity.
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Fidlar Doubleday in Kalamazoo, Michigan, printed the original copies of Nuclear Shadowboxing for us. Nuclear Insights is being produced by CreateSpace, associated with Amazon.Com
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