World Security: The New Challenge Edited by Derek Paul, Carl G. Jacobson, Morris Miller, Metta Spencer, and Eric Tollefson for Canadian Pugwash Group. Toronto : Science for Peace / Dundurn, 1994. 282 pp.
A review of this book, by Newton R. Bowles of the United Nations in New York, will appear in the January/February issue of Peace Magazine. The reviewer praises the book, which he says “not only combines rational urgency with informed insight, but even reads well”. He points out that the 13 essays in the book are “somewhat arbitrarily put into four categories: Towards a Sustainable Peace, Towards a Sustainable Society, Towards a Sustainable Environment, and Costs and Benefits”. He then goes on to comment on the individual essays, with a brief summary of the main points raised and occasional mild criticism.
His principal criticism of the book as a whole is that it lacks a serious discussion of why people behave as they do, and how behaviour can be manipulated and changed. He says Pugwash would benefit from the participation of behavioral scientists and some media hucksters. Nevertheless he concludes that “Pugwash is finding a new identity, an identity that includes and transcends security, a modern pilgrimage toward the commonweal of all peoples”.
It is most gratifying that this book, the first produced for Science for Peace by Dundurn Press, has been so well received by such a knowledgeable critic.
This book is available through the Science for Peace office. The price for members is only $12 plus $2 postage.
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