Limiting nuclear proliferation /

During the past year two outstanding books have appeared on nuclear proliferation: Leonard S. Spector's Nuclear Proliferation Today (CH, Apr '85) and this one, a collection of 13 scholarly papers commissioned by the Wilson Center. Disregarding the ominous ``vertical'' proliferation in the US and the USSR, the prospect for nuclear militarization is greatest in regions where tense political rivalries have simmered for decades. Accordingly, several chapters focus on developments in Latin America (Brazil and Argentina), the Middle East (Israel and Iraq), and Southwest Asia (India and Pakistan). These studies are competently done and complementary. There is also an analysis on South Africa but (regrettably) not one on Libya. Some contributors provide a more general overview of the problem by investigating germane superpower policies and organized international efforts to limit proliferation since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The perspective that proliferation is inevitable and an ongoing (not entirely undesirable) process is represented in one piece that urges the superpowers (particularly the US) to ``manage'' proliferation in a variety of regional settings. Arguments for a comprehensive test ban, and the upgrading of the Nonproliferation Treaty with tightened safeguard arrangements, more faithfully represent the editors' outlook. Snyder and Wells deserve credit for integrating these studies in a cohesive, useful collection. Generalists and specialized readers will appreciate this carefully indexed volume.-P.G. Conway, SUNY College at Oneonta