The Future of Land-Based Strategic Missiles

Extra: From copyright page: "This volume was prepared by a study group of the Forum on Physics and Society of the American Physical Society. The American Physical Society has neither reviewed nor approved this study." From the library of that arms control guy? Still in original packing box, with "Land Based Miss" printed on both ends. (Open, but no address label. Apparently, the book was packed in this, then this box was packed in a shipping envelope or another box for mailing.) . This is a new copy-still with its original packing box-of a report by a study group gathered under the auspices of the American Physical Society in the latter years of the Cold War to try to find an alternative to the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile force. There seemed to be a general consensus in 1989, when this report was published, that the Minuteman system had had its day. There was no consensus, however, on what, if anything, should take its place. The ten physicists in this study group, all working in nuclear arms policy, state upfront that they don't come to a conclusion in "The Future of Land-Based Strategic Missiles." Instead, what they intend to do is promote informed debate with factual background material on many of the viable options that are under serious consideration, and perform evaluations under a consistent set of criteria. Putting their reports together into one book would, they hoped, make the whole thing more coherent than publishing the paper separately, especially because publishing that way makes it easier to start with findings on which they all agree. In this case, that means such things as the historic and strategic context of land-based missiles and the purpose nuclear forces hold in the first place. It is not until Part V that the separate background papers, prepared by individual study group participants, begin, each representing the viewpoints only of the authors, though the rest of the participants did review the papers. They review ten options, ranging from no upgrade of land-based missiles at all to housing missiles on railroad trains to burying them deep underground. The study group which created this work came out of the American Physical Society's Forum on Physics and Society. It goes without saying that its ten members are physicists with impeccable scholarly credentials, but their careers, as a whole, do not seem to have been limited to the academy; most seem to have also spent time in government arms control agencies, national laboratories, think tanks that specialize in scientific or specifically armament policy, or otherwise in the public sphere. The three editors are prime examples. Barbara G. Levi-who also worked under the name Barbara Goss Levi-taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Georgia Tech, and Rutgers but spent most of her career as a writer and editor for the American Institute of Physics and as a consultant for the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Mark Sakitt worked at various positions at Brookhaven National Laboratory before taking on the job of director for the Center for International Security Studies when it opened there. At the time this book was published, he was a senior scientist in the physics department at the laboratory. Art Hobson has worked more steadily as a professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, where much of his work concentrated on physics, particularly nuclear physics and nuclear war, and its relation to society. Photos are forthcoming or available upon request. .…