The Unfinished Twentieth Century: The Crisis of Weapons of Mass Destruction [Paperback]

In this work, Jonathan Schell, the author of The Fate of the Earth, proposes that the defining characteristic of the twentieth century was the uncontrolled acceleration of humankin’s capacity for self destruction, manifested in policies of extermination, which culminated in the construction of the species-threatening nuclear arsenals of the Cold War.

Schell examines the legacy this leaves for the new millennium: the more than 30,000 nuclear weapons that remain in existence, the crisis of nuclear arms control that has arisen with the unraveling of the ABM treaty, the stalemate of the START talks, the attractive illusion of missile defense,

the arrival of nuclear weapons in South Asia, and the threat of their spread to East Asia and the Middle East. Schell suggests that the world now faces a difficult but inescapable choice between the abolition of all nuclear weapons and their rapid proliferation as nuclear technology and materials seep around the world.