10nfl1-Nukes-Cover
NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE BEING DEVELOPED BY MANY NATIONS AS Ab bSELF DEFENSE MECHANISM
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| NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARE BEING DEVELOPED BY MANY NATIONS AS Ab bSELF DEFENSE MECHANISM. Ted Galen Carpenter, the Cato Institute's vice president for defense and foreign policy studies, is the author of six books and the editor of 10 books on international affairs. Not All Forms of Nuclear Proliferation Are Equally Bad Added to cato.org on November 21, 2004 http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=2886 Americas current nonproliferation policy is the international equivalent of domestic gun control laws, and exhibits the same faulty logic. Gun control laws have had little effect on preventing criminal elements from acquiring weapons. Instead, they disarm honest citizens and make them more vulnerable to armed predators. The nonproliferation system is having a similar perverse effect. Such unsavory states as Iran and North Korea are well along on the path to becoming nuclear powers while their more peaceful neighbors are hamstrung by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty from countering those moves. The focus of Washington's nonproliferation policy should substitute discrimination and selectivity for uniformity of treatment. US. policymakers must rid themselves of the notion that all forms of proliferation are equally bad. The United States should concentrate on making it difficult for aggressive or unstable regimes to acquire the technology and fissile material needed to develop nuclear weapons. Policymakers must adopt a realistic attitude about the limitations of even that more tightly focused nonproliferation policy. At best, US. actions will only delay, not prevent, such states from joining the nuclear weapons club. Washington's nonproliferation efforts should focus on delaying rogue states in their quest for nuclear weapons, not beating upon peaceful states who might want to become nuclear powers for their own protection. Download 1.23 Mb. Share with your friends:
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