For Monday, 16 November: Weapons of Mass Destruction

For background information, look at "Day 11" in your syllabus. Lots of good research links!

Also, go to fpa.org or cfr.org and do some research into weapons of mass destruction on your own!

Here are some readings. But consult the syllabus for more if you wish...

Here is an excellent interactive primer by PBS (the American public broadcasting network) on weapons of mass destruction. Navigate around the site to learn about these weapons.

Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW)

Optional but highly recommended - The following article is challenging if you are not fluent in English, but it is an excellent and disturbing overview on the Soviet (and Russian) bioweapons program, one that continued long after the US and the USSR signed an arms control treaty that banned such weapons. In other words, the Soviets (and very likely, the Russians) engaged in massive cheating for years after they signed the agreement. WARNING: Some of the narrative in this article is VERY graphic, describing in detail the symptoms of smallpox. The article is here.

Check out this site from PBS. It has some fascinating information on CBW.

Nuclear Weapons

Read at least a couple of the following articles:

What about Iran? Lots of information on the web. Do some digging on your own.

Here is a useful article by Bernard Lewis that neatly sums up the essence of nuclear deterrence, but asks if these lessons are relevant to an actor such as Iran.

Here is a New York Times article from September indicating that Iran has virtually everything it needs to build a nuclear arsenal.

Go here for the Council on Foreign Relations' very useful background piece on the Iranian nuclear program. Click on some of the links for more information.

Optional but recommended, this article on how al Qaeda or a similar group might construct an atomic bomb.

Also optional if you are interested:

Not only do the Iranians have thousands of centrifuges (necessary for producing highly enriched uranium) but go here for apparent evidence of the assistance of a (lone?) Russian scientist in the design of Iranian nuclear weapons. The article mentions that the document in question "is described by officials familiar with it as a detailed narrative of experiments aimed at creating a perfectly timed implosion of nuclear material."

"Implosion" sounds like a plutonium device. You can ask me in class what this means.

Iran's "Arak" reactor is ideal for the production of plutonium. This article, for instance, delves into the potential of this reactor.