Arms and Hunger

In this era of global interdependence, warns the former chancellor of the Federal Republic, we face the prospect of perishing together unless we take responsibility for each other's well-being. With copious statistics and projections, Brandt argues that we are more concerned with military security than with hunger and malnutritionwhich in the end may pose an even greater threat. Pointing out that a faster tempo of development in the have-not nations would also benefit the haves, he calls for a cooperative international effort to fight hunger in the Third World. Brandt faults the Reagan administration for failing to recognize the debt crisis as a long-term barrier to development that is slowly strangling economic growth worldwide. An international monetary system is a necessary precondition for peace, in his opinion, and would eventually supersede the present system which serves primarily to finance ""this obscene madness called the arms race.'' (June 16)