Reducing And Eliminating Nuclear Weapons

Delhi Policy Group has worded for a decade on nuclear policy in India. It has generated an informed debate to influence policy by emphasizing the need for nuclear restraint and responsibility. The DPG was chosen as a research institution to assist in the deliberations of the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, constituted by the Australian and Japanese governments. The support of the NTI to DPG’s efforts has been immense and definitive. The first decade of 21st century has seen a resurgence of support of global nuclear disarmament. A cascade of nuclear disarmament proposal has emerged from different sources. India has consistently favored complete global nuclear disarmament, even as it laid the foundations of a nuclear energy programme. Notwithstanding the nuclear tests, Indian policy on global nuclear disarmament has not been disavowed. Global nuclear disarmament is closely linked to geo-political conditions. Unless such conditions are favorable, states are unlikely to take initiatives to either reduce or eliminate their nuclear weapons stockpiles. This book examines the geopolitical necessities which will encourage nuclear disarmament globally. It also contrasts them with the geopolitical realities currently prevailing which impact on nuclear disarmament. The papers in the book bring forth both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

The debate about appropriate purposes and policies for U.S. nuclear weapons has been under way since the beginning of the nuclear age. With the end of the Cold War, the debate has entered a new phase, propelled by the post-Cold War transformations of the international political landscape. This volumeâ€"based on an exhaustive reexamination of issues addressed in The Future of the U.S.-Soviet Nuclear Relationship (NRC, 1991)â€"describes the state to which U.S. and Russian nuclear forces and policies have evolved since the Cold War ended. The book evaluates a regime of progressive constraints for future U.S. nuclear weapons policy that includes further reductions in nuclear forces, changes in nuclear operations to preserve deterrence but enhance operational safety, and measures to help prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons. In addition, it examines the conditions and means by which comprehensive nuclear disarmament could become feasible and desirable.

The Challenges of Nuclear Non-Proliferation is an exhaustive survey of the many aspects of non-proliferation efforts. It explains why some nations pursued nuclear programs while others abandoned them, as well as the challenges, strengths, and weaknesses of non-proliferation efforts. It addresses key issues such as concerns over rogue states and stateless rogues, delivery systems made possible by technology, and the connection between nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, examining whether non-proliferation regimes can deal with these threats or whether economic or military sanctions need to be developed. It also examines the feasibility of eliminating or greatly reducing the number of nuclear weapons. A broad survey of one of today’s great threats to international security, this text provides undergraduates students with the tools needed to evaluate current events and global threats.

The contributors to this book - including policymakers, diplomats, scientists, regionalists and academic specialists - have joined in an effort to survey nuclear arms control successes, ongoing initiatives, and future prospects for reducing and countering nuclear proliferation.

In this volume, scientists write on the desirability and feasibility of eliminating nuclear weapons, including reflections 50 years after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by atomic bombs. The following topics are discussed: strategies for preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; ways and means to monitor and control the arms trade; the need for global governance; specific aspects of security in the Asia-Pacific region; and interactions between the problems of meeting the world's energy demand, reducing environmental pollution, and promoting sustainable development.

This is an up-to-date analysis of the movement to eliminate nuclear weapons. It considers the range of nuclear weapon states (USA, UK, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and likely Iran) and systematically examines the theory of deterrence.