ISBN 92-808-0881-8 1995, 392 pages US$35, paper

The end of the Cold War and the easing of East-West tensions have created a unique opportunity for global disarmament. This volume examines world trends in military spending, explores possible arms reduction scenarios, and considers their impacts on the world economy, with particular emphasis on third world countries.

The world's foremost experts in the economics of arms trade and global development issues delineate the complex relations between military expenditures, conversion programmes, development, and demilitarization. They describe world trends in military spending of the 1980s and '9Os, contemplate changes that might occur if the peace dividend of the end of the Cold War is realized, and draw attention to important questions about the economic and social costs/ benefits of demilitarization.

The final chapters of the book consider the institutional frameworks for sustained reductions in military spending; such issues as the needed security conditions for sustained military cuts, connections between ODA and arms spending, and determining a minimum level of arms for national security are studied in depth.

This analysis of post-Cold War arms reduction will be of immediate interest to political scientists, economists, peace researchers, and policy makers, and to organizations of the United Nations and other concerned institutions.

Lawrence R Klein was the Nobel Laureate in Economics in 1980. He is former Benjamin Franklin Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is currently Benjamin Franklin Professor, Emeritus. Fu-chen Lo is former Chief of Comparative Studies at the UN Centre for Regional Development. He is currently Senior Academic officer at the United Nations University in Tokyo.

Warwick J. McKibbin is Professor of International Economics in the Research School of Pacific Studies at the Australian National University, Canberra, and a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.