The April 2001 issue of Medicine & Global Survival -- the first as a fully owned journal of IPPNW -- leads off with a feature article by University of Texas professor Lloyd J. (Jeff) Dumas on the potential for fatal mistakes when fallible people and error-prone nuclear weapon systems mix. Japanese scholar Naoki Kamimura explores the evolution of Japanese civil society during the 1990s, and the ways in which partnerships between NGOs and local governments have fended off US nuclear domination.

Canadian researchers Wendy Cukier and Antoine Chapdelaine review the massive damage to health and society worldwide from the unrestrained proliferation of military-style light weapons and domestic firearms. The ICRC's Robin Coupland offers a theoretical framework for reducing the impact of armed violence by prohibiting entire classes of especially lethal weapon systems. The continuing devastation caused in Russia and the former Soviet Union by one such weapon -- antipersonnel landmines -- is documented by Roman Dolgov.

IPPNW's assessment of the potential health effects of depleted uranium weapons is published in full, along with critical commentaries from Frank von Hippel, Steve Fetter, and Gunnar Westberg.