Dangerous Weapons, Desperate States: Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan, and Ukraine

Edited works on arms-export controls are usually not compelling reading for anyone other than experts. The result of an international collaborative effort, this work also has some long arid patches, including descriptions of bureaucratic procedures that may operate better in theory than in practice. But one comes away from this work with a renewed sense of just how porous those regulations are. The consequences of the leakage of Soviet military technology -- material and know-how for conventional and unconventional weapons alike -- are only now being felt. This book acknowledges the truly grim possibilities and informs the reader about the obstacles to effective control over this kind of proliferation. Worse yet, it may be too late to remedy much of the problem.