Dangerous ground : on the trail of America's failed arms control policy from FDR to Obama

America's failed Arms Control Policy, from FDR to Obama. 2009 In Dangerous Ground , Scott Ritter, one of the world's leading experts on arms control, tells a bold and revisionist account of the inseparable histories of the post-World War II American presidency and nuclear weapons. Unpacking sixty years of nuclear history, Ritter shows that nuclear weapons have become such a fixture that they define present-day America on economic, military, political, and moral grounds. And despite fears of global nuclear proliferation, the greatest threat to international stability, Ritter argues, is the US's addiction to nuclear weapons. Even in light of Barack Obama's historic speech in April 2009which called for the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons America continues to guard a significant and dangerous nuclear stockpile. The notion that we are more secure with nuclear weapons is deeply entrenched in the American psycheand virulently protected by forces in the US establishment. As long as this paradigm persists, Ritter suggests, there will be no fundamental US policy change, and as such, no change in global nuclear proliferation.

From one of the world’s leading authorities on arms control, a probing look at America’s failed attempts at arms control, from the Truman administration to the present

Library Journal

In what he considers a revisionist account of the spread of nuclear weapons and the economic, military, political, and moral consequences of America's nuclear arsenal, Ritter, who was chief weapons inspector for the UN Special Commission in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, argues that the U.S. addiction to nuclear weapons is the greatest threat to international stability. Best for foreign affairs specialists.

More than a comprehensive history of America's trouble relationship with nuclear weapons, Ritter also provides a clarion call for an informed citizenry from which will emerge a leadership and government driven not by fear, but reason Analyzes security issues facing America, covering the importance of the United Nations and the creation of an international corps of weapons inspectors.