THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY 1230 YORK AVENUE NEW YORK, NY 10021 April 4, 1989 JOSHUA LEDERBERG PRESIDENT Mr. Nicholas A. Sims Lecturer in International Relations London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London London, England , Dear Mr. Sims: Some weeks ago I noted reference to your book on "The Diplomacy of Biological Disarmament" in a series published in Boston by the Christian Science Monitor. I promptly ordered it, and three and a half months later it arrived(within the last few days). In fact I was in London just yesterday and am sorry your book had not arrived earlier. I would have taken note’ that you were at LSE and tried to ring you up before. I have not as yet had time to study your book closely -- as I intend to do -- but I can already take note of its being an invaluable compilation and commentary on the recent efforts in this field. I also want to thank you for your very kind attributions to my own address on the same subject. Indeed, out of painful necessity, I have again been spend- ing quite a bit of time on BW related issues during the. last few years. My meeting in London was with a group of Soviet scientists and it is a pleasure to report what a difference glasnost is making! Having missed you on this occasion, I just wanted to in- vite you to look me up should you bé in New York during the next few months; failing that I will try again when (as I may hope) I find myself in London again, perhaps in July and in October. Even more consequentially, I hope we might arrange that you meet with the National Academy of Sciences group that I chair and brief us on your deeply informed perspectives. If you have any further writings on the subject I would very much appreciate knowing of them. For my own part I am‘hot sure that I have been able to advance very far beyond what I Mr. Nicholas A. Sims April 4, 1989 -2- expressed almost twenty years ago. For the first time we can hope to speak sensibly about self inspection playing a central role in verification arrangements. To that end: I was urging on my Russian scientific colleagues the publication in detail of the epidemiological accounts of the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax epidemic, having particularly in mind that Soviet scientists would then be in a position to assess the credibility of the account far-more effectively than anyone from abroad. While that would be salutary it is equally. important to move forward and implement a mutual understanding about the open access that is the only way in my view that the BWC can ultimately be inforced. ‘However, as I do look forward to some opportunity to discuss these matters of deep mutual in- terest I will remain now, You cordially, Jéshua Lederberg It really is too bad that your book is not more widely known. I will certainly commend it to my committee. I would not have known of it were it not for the reference in the Christian Science Monitor. Do you know whether it has been reviewed? Encls. Z% 497 e7T 37? SAM 2?