A behind-the-scenes look at the environment for defense policy and budgeting--in Congress, the news media, and the defense industry--reveals that the appearance of stability is deceiving. Pressures are building for change. Defense spending has leveled off at about $265 billion a year in outlays. Current commitments to preserve the existing force while purchasing new weaponry are creating significant budget issues which must be addressed.

This book probes beneath the surface to show how the political base for defense spending is eroding. The economic benefits of defense...

Against all odds, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines helped to enact a global treaty banning antipersonnel mines in 1997. For that achievement it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

In this volume, Leon Sigal shows how a handful of NGOs with almost no mass base got more than 100 countries to outlaw a weapon that their armies had long used. It is a story of intrigue and misperception, of clashing norms and interests, of contentious bureaucratic and domestic politics. It is also a story of effective leadership, of sustained commitment to a cause, of alliances between...

In June 1994 the United States went to the brink of war with North Korea. With economic sanctions impending, President Bill Clinton approved the dispatch of substantial reinforcements to Korea, and plans were prepared for attacking the North's nuclear weapons complex. The turning point came in an extraordinary private diplomatic initiative by former President Jimmy Carter and others to reverse the dangerous American course and open the way to a diplomatic settlement of the nuclear crisis.

Few Americans know the full details behind this story or perhaps realize the devastating...