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The US government program to prevent nuclear materials from vanishing from insecure facilities into the hands of terrorists has scored several striking successes but is still far from accomplishing its goals.
Newly-minted Nobel Laureate Mohamed ElBaradei has been a resolute non-proliferation proponent. The Nobel Peace Prize is a vote of confidence in his independent voice and the vital role inspections play in verifying compliance with non-proliferation commitments. During his tenure the IAEA has toughened its inspection regime and he has advanced thoughtful proposals for reforming the nuclear fuel cycle to prevent nations from creeping up to the edge of nuclear weapon status.
The award may also reflect the critical efforts he and the IAEA undertook during the build-up to the war in Iraq. Though belittled at the time by some officials, UN intelligence proved more accurate than U.S. intelligence. The IAEA was just weeks away from certifying that Iraq had not reconstituted a nuclear weapons program--the chief justification for the invasion. We present below excerpts from the Carnegie study, WMD in Iraq, detailing the IAEA findings presented to the UN Security Council before the war.
We are delighted that the Director-General will deliver his first major address after receiving the Nobel Prize to the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Conference on November 7. (Read More)
The acquisition of nuclear weapons by terrorists or any additional states would shake the international system. The more strategically important the state, the greater the potential threat to global security.
Many U.S. officials and experts are surprised by India’s reluctance to support Iran’s referral to the Security Council. They should not be. Politically, no Indian government can afford to appear subservient to U.S. interests. New Delhi values an independent foreign policy shaped, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said, by its own geography, economics and domestic considerations. At a press conference in New York on September 16, Prime Minister Singh pointed out that India is located in the region neighboring Iran, that there are three-and-a-half million Indian workers in the Middle East and that India has the second largest Shiite population in the world, trailing only Iran itself. “Any flare up would present immense difficulties,” he said. (Read More)
The crisis is not over and there are important verification and implementation details to negotiate. But we have turned an important nuclear corner on the Korean Penninsula.
ISSUE BRIEF--The crisis is not over and there are important verification and implementation details to negotiate. But we have turned an important nuclear corner on the Korean Peninsula. The new agreement by North Korea to give up all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs and return to the Non-Proliferation Treaty is a major success for all the nations in the Six-Party talks. It is a victory for the United States who insisted on the complete end of these programs. It is a victory for North Korea, which has won a non-aggression pledge from the US and economic and energy aid. It is a victory for China, which patiently insisted on solving the stand-off through negotiations and played the key role in reaching the agreement. Finally, it is a victory for the “Libya model” over the “Iraq model”: end threats by changing a regime’s behavior, not by eliminating the regime. (Read More)