January 11, 2006 Jonathan Tucker to Discuss His New Book on Chemical Warfare on March 8
Press Contact: Donna Urschel (202) 707-1639
Public Contact: Margaret Clifton (202) 707-7450
Jonathan Tucker will discuss his new book “War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare from World War I to Al-Qaeda” at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 8, at the Library of Congress in the West Dining Room of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.
Sponsored by the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division, the event is free and open to the public; no reservations are required. There will be a book signing after the discussion.
In “War of Nerves” (Pantheon, 2006), Tucker, a senior researcher at the Monterey Institute’s Center for Nonproliferation Studies, writes about the discovery, development, proliferation and control of the most lethal class of chemical weapons: nerve agents such as Tabun, Sarin, Soman and VX. The book also provides insights into current issues, including the 2003 Iraq War and the continuing threat of chemical terrorism.
Tucker’s work is based on extensive research with primary sources, including declassified U.S. government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act; archives in the United States, Britain, Germany and France; and personal interviews with individuals formerly involved in the U.S., British and Soviet chemical weapons programs.
Tucker previously served with the Department of State, the Office of Technology Assessment, and the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. In February 1995, Tucker was a U.N. biological weapons inspector in Iraq. In addition to his new book, Tucker is the author of “Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox,” which the Washington Post named a “best book” of 2001, and the editor of “Toxic Terror: Assessing Terrorist Use of Chemical and Biological Weapons.”
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PR 06-013
2006-01-12
ISSN 0731-3527