Nuclear Proliferation: A Cross-Cutting International Security Issue

Abstract

This paper discusses nuclear proliferation as a cross-cutting international security issues in contemporary. The paper addresses four pertinent themes which include: The nature of nuclear weapons and their effects; the global diffusion of nuclear and ballistic missile technology; Theorizing nuclear proliferation and non-proliferation, and; Other weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and their impact on world politics. Whereas nuclear itself is very useful commercially, we argue that nuclear weapons represent mankind’s ultimate confrontation with the natural environment that sustains us. The purpose of these weapons is wholesale destruction on a massive scale, which affects most forms of life. It stands as a single human creation with such a great potential for harm. Such is the threat to life posed by nuclear weapons that the International Court of Justice, the world’s highest legal authority, in its 1996 landmark ruling on the general illegality of these weapons, stated: "The destructive power of nuclear weapons is hard to be contained. They have the potential to destroy all civilization and the entire ecosystem of the planet.” There are two overwhelming threats to life on earth as we know it. They are climate change and its security effects. The diffusion of nuclear weapons to additional countries might come about through indigenous development programs, through assistance from the present nuclear powers, or through a combination of both. This diffusion, sometimes called the "Nth country" problem, has been of great concern in discussions of disarmament and U.S. nuclear assistance programs. It has been widely held that the spread of nuclear capabilities is disadvantageous for U.S. security and that an effort to stop it should receive highest priority in disarmament policies. It is the purpose of this presentation to examine the validity of this proposition. To do so it will be necessary to estimate the political and military effects that might arise from a further diffusion of nuclear capabilities. Such an undertaking is necessarily fraught with great uncertainties. This paper also presents an analysis of the contemporary debate on the begging question, “is there a theory of nuclear proliferation?” The theoretical debate over how nuclear proliferation should be explained, and whether future nuclear proliferation can be predicted or not, has been given fresh impetus since the end of the Cold War. The debate has been particularly lively, as the new international environment has brought new challenges to conventional wisdom about the spread of nuclear weapons. However, although some very important contributions have been made, the dynamics of nuclear proliferation remain largely a mystery. This paper does not claim to have found the answers, but it does attempt to show the limitations of the existing debate, and in doing so, highlights areas which require further research. Finally the paper interrogates the questions; “With the rapid erosion of the prohibition on use by states of chemical weapons, and the rise of radical non-state groups seemingly willing to utilize whatever weapons of mass destruction they can obtain, what can the international community do to restrain their use? And what do advances in neuroscience portend for the development and use of new kinds of chemical control agents?”