Author Description

The Gulf War furnished a grisly testing-ground for new armaments technologies. To the military it signalled new threats that had to be countered. To arms salesmen: a new lease of life for their deadly merchandise. Programmes such as Star Wars, or the Strategic Defence Initiative, assumed enhanced significance. In the wake of its high-tech military victory in the Gulf, Washington openly declares SDI a "high-priority item". As Mark Thee reveals, despite the decline of the Cold War, spending on military research and development was already increasing even before the Gulf crisis unfolded. With the added impulse given by war, debates in Europe and elsewhere about conversion of military production and peace dividends are being overtaken by a new armaments fever focused on the race in military technology. What are the main features of this new arms race? What is happening inside the world's military laboratories? How can they be opened up to public scrutiny, and how can the enormous scientific resources they swallow up be liberated to serve more humane purposes? Mark Thee addresses his subject with characteristic thoroughness. Peter Crampton MEP, Vice-President of the European Parliament"s Political Affairs Committee, contributes a foreword.