Chapter Six: Addressing Regional Challenges

Abstract

Rarely in the atomic age have hopes for genuine progress towards disarmament been raised as high as they are now. Governments, prompted by the renewed momentum of non-proliferation and disarmament initiatives, have put nuclear policy at the top of the international agenda.

But how can countries move from warm words to meaningful action? By what means could the world be weaned from its addiction to nuclear weapons and who should undertake the task of supervising this process? This Adelphi examines practical steps for achieving progress toward disarmament, assessing the challenges and opportunities associated with achieving a world without nuclear weapons. It places the current debate over abolition in the context of urgent non-proliferation priorities, such as the need to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of extremist regimes and terrorists. It distils lessons from states that have already given up nuclear programmes and from the end of the Cold War to suggest ways of countering the efforts of Iran and North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons. For the longer term, it offers policy recommendations for moving towards a reduced global reliance on nuclear weapons.

Notes

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Pervez Hoobhoy, ‘India's Nuclear Fizzle’, Dawn, 2 September 2009, http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawncontent-library/dawn/the-newspaper/editorial/indias-nuclear-fizzle-299

Congressional Quarterly, 16 May 1992, p. 1352.

Müller, ‘Challenges Faced by the NPT’, p. 14.

Sigal, ‘Negotiating with the North’, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, vol. 59, no. 6, November–December 2003, p. 20; Sigal, Disarming Strangers: Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea.

Quoted in Sigal, ‘Averting a Train Wreck with North Korea’, Arms Control Today, vol. 28, no. 8, November–December 1998, p. 14.

Quoted in Sigal, ‘Negotiating with the North’, p. 20.

Scott Snyder, ‘North Korea's Nuclear Program: The Role of Incentives in Preventing Deadly Conflict’, in Cortright (ed), The Price of Peace: Incentives and International Conflict Prevention (Lanham, MD.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1997), p. 69.

See Sigal, ‘Averting a Train Wreck with North Korea’, p. 12.

Quoted in Sigal, ‘Negotiating with the North’, p. 21.

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IAEA Board of Governors, ‘Implementation of the NPT Safeguards Agreement and Relevant Provisions of Security Council Resolutions 1737 (2006), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), and 1835 (2008) in the Islamic Republic of Iran: Report of the Director General’, paras. 12 and 17, and 31–2.

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Müller, ‘Challenges Faced by the NPT’, p. 13.

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