Stopping The Spread Of Nuclear Weapons

Fischer, who helped draft the original charter of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides a detailed historical account of current non-proliferation treaties and controls. He notes that originally the proliferation problem was how to permit the development of nuclear power (for cheap energy) without permitting countries to develop bombs; now the problem is how to prevent countries determined to build atomic bombs from acquiring the requisite technology. Many technologies (explosives, computers, nuclear energy) that are key to the development of nuclear weapons also have other legitimate applications. Fischer recommends reorienting the current non-proliferation regime, which is largely a Soviet-American invention, into one also supported by economic powers (the European Community and Japan); and that potential new nuclear states and "closet" nuclear powers be brought under broader IAEA controls. ISBN 0-415-00481-0: $66.95.

"Examines the history and effectiveness of US efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons"--

The first systematic look at the different strategies that states employ in their pursuit of nuclear weapons Much of the work on nuclear proliferation has focused on why states pursue nuclear weapons. The question of how states pursue nuclear weapons has received little attention. Seeking the Bomb is the first book to analyze this topic by examining which strategies of nuclear proliferation are available to aspirants, why aspirants select one strategy over another, and how this matters to international politics. Looking at a wide range of nations, from India and Japan to the Soviet Union and North Korea to Iraq and Iran, Vipin Narang develops an original typology of proliferation strategies—hedging, sprinting, sheltered pursuit, and hiding. Each strategy of proliferation provides different opportunities for the development of nuclear weapons, while at the same time presenting distinct vulnerabilities that can be exploited to prevent states from doing so. Narang delves into the crucial implications these strategies have for nuclear proliferation and international security. Hiders, for example, are especially disruptive since either they successfully attain nuclear weapons, irrevocably altering the global power structure, or they are discovered, potentially triggering serious crises or war, as external powers try to halt or reverse a previously clandestine nuclear weapons program. As the international community confronts the next generation of potential nuclear proliferators, Seeking the Bomb explores how global conflict and stability are shaped by the ruthlessly pragmatic ways states choose strategies of proliferation.

Describes the history of the nuclear arms race, examines the dangers of nuclear war, and discusses strategies for stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

First published in 1980, the original blurb read: In August – September 1980 the second Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) will take place in Geneva. As this Treaty is the most important barrier to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the results of the Conference will obviously have major effects in the field of arms control and disarmament. The implications of the recent International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation (INFCE) are that the technological capabilities of many countries are such that there is no technical solution to the problem of the spread of nuclear weapons to countries that do not now have them. Thus, it appears that if there is a solution at all, it must be political in nature. A possible element in such a political solution is the internationalization of the sensitive parts of the nuclear fuel cycle; that is, those parts that have the potential of producing fissile materials to make nuclear weapons. Although the intricacies of a system of internationalization are still unresolved, the concept, if realized, would provide another powerful political barrier to nuclear weapon proliferation – a reinforcement for the aims of the NPT itself. Against this background, and as a follow-up to its first symposium and the resultant book, Nuclear Energy and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation, SIPRI convened a second international group of experts to continue its discussions of issues pertinent to the forthcoming NPT Review Conference. The meeting took place at SIPRI in Stockholm, 31 October – 2 November 1979, when the feasibility of internationalizing the nuclear fuel cycle was examined. SIPRI’s views on this complex approach are expressed in Part 1 of this book - Internationalization to Prevent the Spread of Nuclear Weapons. Part 2 contains the papers that were presented at the symposium.