December Feature Articles:

Special Issue: On Physics and National Security
Sidney D. Drell, Guest Editor

The Evolving Battlefield
National defense with maximum precision and minimum unintended damage should be an attractive challenge for scientists seeking to improve the human condition --John S. Foster and Larry D. Welch

The Continuing Debate on National Missile Defenses
Concerns about "emerging missile states" have spurred development of a system to defend the US from small-scale ballistic missile attacks. But the planned system could be compromised by simple countermeasures, and the security costs of deployment could be high -- Lisbeth Gronlund, George N. Lewis, and David C. Wright

Science-Based Stockpile Stewardship
With the end of nuclear testing, the US seeks to maintain its nuclear deterrent with a multifaceted program aimed at understanding more about the materials and processes of nuclear weapons -- Raymond Jeanloz

The Scientific Community and Intelligence Collection
Academic scientists continue to play a vital role in helping the intelligence community exploit technology for national defense -- Mark F. Moynihan

We are proud to present a collection of articles from our archives - covering more than 30 years of analysis on science and defense policy. More documents will be added to this archive over the following three weeks. Last update 22 December 2000.

To read files you will need an Adobe PDF reader. Many of the files are quite large and may take time to download (1.3-3Mb in size).

Strategic Defense Initiative

Senators and Scientists Object to SDI Costs and Uncertainties
Irwin Goodwin July 1985

What Should APS Be Doing About SDI?
Robert R. Wilson, President of the APS, August 1985

SDI: Political Realities : Part1 Part2
letters from Marilyn Lloyd (US House of Representatives), Marvin King (Riverside Research Institute, New York), Carroll B. Mills, Robert H. Good (California State University), Wolfgang K. H. Panosky (Stanford University), Richard L. Kaufmann (University of New Hampshire, Durham), George Wallerstein (University of Washington, Seattle) October 1985

Is SDI the Only Path to Nuclear Survival?
Review of How to Make Nuclear Weapons Obsolete by Robert Jastrow. Reviewed by Richard Garwin (IBM Watson Research Center), December 1985 p75

Making Nuclear Weapons Obsolete
letter from Robert Jastrow (Dartmouth College, Hanover) January 1986

Modified SDI Stresses Rockets and Free-Electron Lasers
William Sweet, January 1986

Britain and Germany Sign SDI-Research Agreements with the US
William Sweet, May 1986

Strategic Defense Initiative Part1 Part2
letters from Simon P. Worden (Special Assistant to the Director, SDI Organization, DOD), Robert Jastrow (Dartmouth College, Hanover),Kent Peacock (University of Toronto), Michael E. Green (City College of the City University of New York),   Perry Lee Anthony and Sam Park (MIT), Albert G. Petschek (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Richard Garwin (IBM Watson Research Center)  July 1986

SDI: Losing Momentum Over What is Affordable and Possible Part1 Part2
Irwin Goodwin, January 1987

APS Releases Report on Directed-Energy Weapons
Gloria Lubkin, May 1987

APS Study Group on Science and Technology of Directed Energy Weapons, Executive Summary and Major Conclusions Part1 Part2 Part3
APS study group: Nicolaas Bloembergen, C. Kumar N. Patel, Petras Avizonis, Robert Clem, Abraham Hertzberg, Thomas Johnson, Thomas Marshall, Bruce Miller, Walter Morrow, Edwin Salpeter, Andrew Sessler, Jeremiah Sullivan, James Wyant, Amnon Yariv, Richard Zare, Charles Hebel, Alex Glass, May 1987

SDI Attempts to Zap APS Directed-Energy Weapons Report
Irwin Goodwin June 1987

DOD Science Board finds SDI Phase I Reasonable But ‘Sketchy’
Irwin Goodwin, September 1987

Debate on APS Directed-Energy Weapons Study
Part1 Part2
Gregory H. Canavan (Los Alamos National Laboratory), Nicolaas Bloembergen (Harvard University) and C. Kumar N. Patel (AT&T Bell Laboratories) November 1987)

Making the Stars See Stars: DOD Adaptive Optics Work is Declassified
Part1 Part2
Graham P. Collins Feburary 1992

Inertial Confinement Fusion

Progress Toward Ignition and Burn Propagation in Inertial Confinement Fusion: Part1 Part2 Part3
John D. Lindl(ICF target physics prgram leader, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Robert L. McCrory (Director for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester) and E. Michael Campbell (Deputy Associate Director and ICF program leader at Lawrence Livermore) September 1992

Rochester and Naval Research Lab Start Running New Laser Fusion Facilities for Direct-Drive Experiments
Gloria Lubkin August 1995

Arms Control, START and CTBT

Nuclear proliferation-thirty years after Hiroshima
Bernard T. Feld, Secretary General of Pugwash Conferences on Science & World Affairs, July 1975

Iraqi Reactor Damaged in Israeli Bombing Raid
Barbara Levi August 1981

New reports warn of mounting nuclear proliferation threat
Irwin Goodwin January 1985

Science and Scientists for a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World Part1 Part2
Evgeny P. Velikhov, November 1989

Arms Control Physics: The New Soviet Connection
Part1 Part2
Frank von Hippel, Princeton University, November 1989

Fissile Material Security in the Post-Cold-War World Part1 Part2
Frank von Hippel June 1995

Despite Nuclear Tests by France and China, Prospects Rise for Comprehensive Test Ban
Irwin Goodwin October 1995

Bethe to Clinton: Halt All Nuclear Weapons Research, Even 'Creative Thought,' And Emphasize Stewardship
Irwin Goodwin July 1997