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Examines opposing positions on a central issue in the debate on a nuclear test ban agreement in the United States. Weapons design policy; Reasons a test ban would result in unreliable weapons; Possibility of a Soviet Union advantage developing after a test ban agreement: Confidence in nuclear stockpile without nuclear testing.

The Future of War: Power, Technology & American World Dominance in the 21st Century By George and Meredith Friedman Crown Publishers, 1996 464 pages; $30.00 Nobody will read this book [...]

Hung P. Nguyen states in his introduction that his purpose is to test 'whether Soviet-Russian description of programs to create a system for submarine detection from space and appropriate employment [...]

Discusses efforts to redefine the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), which are mostly aimed at building support for a system to defend U.S. land-based missiles. Scientific community's resistance to SDI because of its technically infeasibility; Author's argument that defending land-based missiles is dangerous and destabilizing; Proposed solutions to the vulnerability of land-based missiles.

Discusses the impact of Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) on the stability of relations between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Goals of SDI; Arms race stability; Antiballistic missile system; Survivability of the defensive system.

Comments on discussions between Lawrence Livermore Laboratory Director Roger Batzel and nuclear weapons consultant Richard Garwin on U.S. nuclear weapon stockpile reliability and the comprehensive test ban treaty. Arguments for and against the proposal by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to seek a five-year comprehensive test ban treaty with the Soviet Union; Effects of a comprehensive test ban treaty on U.S. national security interests.

Discusses the deployment of MX missiles in the U.S. Degree of survivability afforded by the MX missile system; Strategic stability associated with single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile; Impact of the MX missile system on the U.S.-Soviet Union strategic forces; Factors influencing the survivability of MX silo basing.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article about underground nuclear tests conducted by the Soviet Union, in the March 1983 issue.

The article presents the authors' comment on the classified document titled "National Security and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)," by Joseph K. Landauer, associate director of the Livermore Laboratory .The document had arguments for and against the CTBT to be signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The document contained photographs of weapon components showing corrosion. According to the author, CTBT can help in preventing nuclear war but is not useful for weapons laboratories.

Responds to reactions concerning the dangers of limited Strategic Defense Initiative.

The article focuses on issues related to the management of nuclear energy in the United States. The current attention of the U.S. Department of Energy is on the historic division of nuclear energy into "Atoms for Peace" and "Atoms for War" by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The two chief proposals under the department's consideration that are likely to affect this division are the result of expanded weapons requirements for plutonium and tritium in the latter part of this century. First offers the possibility of using existing commercial power reactors to produce weapons materials, while the second indicates that laser isotope separation could be utilized to enrich plutonium in commercial spent nuclear fuel.