The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence: Could the U.S. War on Terrorism Go Nuclear? (Book Notice).

The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence: Could the U.S. War on Terrorism Go Nuclear? by Francis A. Boyle, foreword by Phillip Berrigan, Clarity Press Inc., 2002, ISBN 0-932863-33-7 Paper, 216 pp., $14.95 US.

The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence surveys the arms race, from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, through the Cold War and the SALT I and II, ABM, and START arms control treaties, to Star Wars, National Missile Defense, and the most recent developments under the current administration, with an analysis of relevant international law.

In the "Special Introduction" Boyle argues that the Bush Jr. administration, post-September 11, threatens to reverse all of the achievements in international treaty law. Considering this current climate and what Boyle calls 'nuclear nihilism', he argues: "humanity needs to galvanize anti-nuclear activism all around the world, and especially within the nuclear weapons states themselves."

This book makes its contribution to the anti-nuclear movement by outlining the relationship between international law and the arms control regime, demonstrating the criminality of nuclear doctrine. With detailed references and footnotes, Boyle examines domestic military policy, the Hague Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles, and the recent World Advisory Opinion. He argues that the only antidote for an American foreign policy directed by the geopolitical interests and power politics of the administration "is international law, the U.S. Constitution and the Rule of Law generally."

Francis A. Boyle is a professor of International Law at the University of Illinois, Champaign. He is an anti-nuclear advocate and the author of several works, including Defending Civil Resistance Under International Law, The Future of International Law and American Foreign Policy, Foundations of World Order: The Legalist Approach to International Relations 1898-1921, and The Bosnian People Charge Genocide.