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The IAEA places importance on a state's intentions, something which its investigatory arm does not and cannot assess. The effect of emphasizing intent is to cause discussions about enforcement that descend into irresolvable arguments about ambiguous activities, thus reducing the chances of decisive action and, in turn, reducing the credibility and effectiveness of the nonproliferation regime.
The roots of the nuclear order's unraveling can be traced to four distinct factors that have evolved over the last six decades: weaknesses in the original NPT formula, changes in the global distribution of power, nuclear weapons technology proliferation, and complacency with the current regime.
U.S. President Barack Obama should pledge to keep U.S.-Russia relations at the top of his busy agenda. Ending American neglect of its relations with Russia is what is needed to mend the countries’ bleak relations. A constructive foreign policy toward Russia can begin with negotiating and renewing the 1991 START treaty as well as creating a meaningful Euro-Atlantic alliance that includes Russia.
The first public examination of open-source data shows that the U.S. spent at least $52.4 billion on nuclear weapons and programs in 2008; yet despite growing concern about the prospect of a nuclear 9/11 only 10 percent of that went toward proliferation prevention. The U.S. must devote less funding to upgrading its arsenal and more to securing and preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
The vision of a world without nuclear weapons has taken shape outside of governments, but is increasingly creeping inside governments.
Many key aspects of the recent Brazilian-Argentine nuclear cooperation agreement remain unresolved. This article reviews its main obstacles and future prospects.
In this paper commissioned by the International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament, George Perkovich and Patricia Lewis identify possible nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation steps that could take the world in the mid-term to a position from which the latter steps toward abolition of nuclear weapons could be charted.
"Global Zero" has become a well-known slogan to revive the decades-old idea of eliminating all nuclear weapons. Interest in abolition has been renewed by the concern that the use of nuclear weapons could become ever more likely. With nuclear deterrence we bought time, but it would be a tremendous mistake to believe that deterrence will always work.
The 1978 Nuclear Nonproliferation Act (NNPA) sought to tighten the criteria for nuclear cooperation and reshape the nuclear fuel cycle. Many of its provisions have been forgotten, but the NNPA regained notoriety this year with the approval of the U.S.-Indian nuclear cooperation agreement. The objectives of the NNPA are timeless and in no danger of being achieved soon.
In the wake of the Russia-Georgia conflict commentators often ask whether the U.S. and Russia can cooperate. The urgency of nuclear threats around the world, including Iran's ambitions, requires both countries to “wall off” their nuclear discussion from other issues that might hinder progress on finding solutions to common security challenges.
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