Weapons of Mass Destruction: Major Wars,Regional Conflicts,and Terrorism

The twentieth century saw the creation and development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD): nuclear, chemical, and biological. In the following article, Ryukichi Imai, distinguished research fellow at the Institute for International Policy Studies and visiting professor at Kyorin University, Japan, describes the history of WMD and the international treaties that have been negotiated on their non-proliferation. He focuses on the history of the nuclear bomb from its first tests, to the nuclear arms race and the subsequent deterrence. He goes on to examine the issues surrounding the nuclear hot-spots of South Asia and North Korea, as well as the feasibility and effects of chemical and biological weapons. He argues that the suicide plane attacks on 11 September changed the very concept of WMD and that any future threat of a mass destruction is likely to come from terrorists beyond the reach of governments.     

2000 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference

The 2000 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference that was recently held in New York may have closed with a consensus on an "unequivocal undertaking" to eliminate nuclear weapons in accordance with Article VI of the NPT of 1968, but it did not discuss how this would be achieved. Ryukichi Imai, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for International Policy Studies (IIPS), Tokyo, argues in this article that despite the diplomatic success of the 2000 Review Conference, the results are in reality less satisfactory: the United States and Russia continue to conduct their business with a lack of transparency; there was no discussion of the current dangers of proliferation; and no agenda for the future was set, allowing the nuclear threat to remain, particularly in North East Asia.     

Nuclear energy fifty years after Hiroshima

Environmental restrictions are posing restraints on hydrocarbon fuel use. Barring widescale acceptance of limits to growth, or mass conversion to the ecology movement, it would seem that nuclear power is the only alternative energy supply today to achieve a measure of industrial capability. But whether the role of nuclear power can be disassociated from weapons in the next century's energy/environment complex remains to be seen. These issues are analyzed by IIPS Distinguished Research Fellow and Kyorin University Professor Ryukichi Imai, who has served as Japan's Ambassador to Kuwait, Mexico, and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva. He is the author of numerous books and articles on nuclear issues. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the July 1995 Pugwash Hiroshima Conference.     

The many phases of nuclear energy

Nuclear energy, stresses the author, whether used for peaceful or other purposes, is associated with a wide range of complicated and unresolved issues. Efforts to find solutions — indeed, even to take the next steps toward that end — will be successful only when these diverse but closely interrelated issues are clarified and understood. Ryukichi Imai, formerly Ambassador of Japan to Kuwait, to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, and to Mexico; Counselor to the Atomic Energy Commission of Japan; Professor of Social Sciences at Kyorin University; and author of many books and articles on nuclear issues, is a Distinguished Research Fellow at IIPS. He first presented this paper at the Oxford Energy Seminar cosponsored by OPEC and OAPEC at St. Catherine's College in September 1994. Some additions and deletions have been made since then.     

Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the twenty-first century

In 1945 two bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki shook the world as something whose explosive power was some 200,000 times a one thousand ton TNT bomb. The extent of damage has been extensively discussed. An exchange of a megaton-range strategic bomb could wipe out the earth and its civilization. It is possible that with the passage of time, the analysis of WMD war has become intellectually less real. It is time to carefully study a possible WMD world war in the 2030s.     

Can the earth sustain ten billion people? Problems of food,energy, and environment in the twenty‐first century

Ryukichi Imai, distinguished research fellow at IIPS and formerly Japan's ambassador to Kuwait, Mexico, and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, considers the impact that increasing population will have on humanity's food and energy needs and on the environment. Imai discusses whether technology, especially nuclear, can solve the problem of sustaining ten billion people. This paper was presented in September 1996 at the Oxford Energy Seminar, Oxford University.     

US‐Japan joint workshop to avoid nuclear anarchy

Since 1992, experts and officials from the United States and Japan have been meeting regularly to discuss a wide range of ongoing, emerging, or unresolved issues relating to nuclear weapons, nuclear proliferation, and nuclear power. Steven Miller of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University and Ryukichi Imai, Distinguished Research Fellow of the Institute for International Policy Studies, Tokyo, provide an account of this collaboration, a central focus of which has been concern about what would happen with the Soviet nuclear arsenal.     

IIPS initiative regarding the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan

In June, after the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan had shocked the world, IIPS Chairman, former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, proposed to German Chancellor Helmut Kohl that research institutes in both countries (later widened to include the US) join in a project aimed at influencing the governments of the world to make real progress toward nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. Ryukichi Imai, member of the Tokyo Forum for Nuclear Non‐Proliferation and Disarmament and Distinguished Research Fellow at IIPS, outlines what the project hopes to achieve.