Breaking the Nuclear Impasse

Breaking the Nuclear Impasse PDF Author: Jeffrey Laurenti
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
Curbing nuclear weapons has never been a more urgent priority for nations both great and small, but the global system of nuclear controls seems paralyzed. Have the instruments that once worked so well lost their efficacy? What can be done to clear the obstructions and break this impasse? In this volume, some of the world's most recognized thinkers on nuclear issues take on these questions. Can the market be harnessed as an early warning system for identifying risky nuclear behavior? Is an international fuel bank a solution against nuclear proliferation, or a Trojan horse opening the door to it? What hidden roadblocks might derail the India/U.S. nuclear deal? Is the era of arms control over, or will the new proliferation threats help nuclear disarmament find a place on the policy table? Readers who are new to the field, and those who are steeped in it, will find penetrating insights into today's nuclear challenges--and a glimpse of the road ahead. The contributors to the volume include: Hans Blix, chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission; Christopher F. Chyba, professor of astrophysical sciences and international affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University; Joseph Cirincione, senior fellow and director for nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress; Jayantha Dhanapala, former UN under-secretary-general for disarmament affairs from 1998 to 2003 and the president of the 1995 NPT Review and Extension Conference; Michael Krepon, cofounder of the Henry L. Stimson Center; William C. Potter, director of the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies; and Henry D. Sokolski, executive director of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center.

The Nuclear Ban Treaty

The Nuclear Ban Treaty PDF Author: Ramesh Thakur
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000516938
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
The contributors to this book describe, discuss, and evaluate the normative reframing brought about by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (the Ban Treaty), taking you on a journey through its genesis and negotiation history to the shape of the emerging global nuclear order. Adopted by the United Nations on 7 July 2017, the Ban Treaty came into effect on 22 January 2021. For advocates and supporters, weapons that were always immoral are now also illegal. To critics, it represents a profound threat to the stability of the existing global nuclear order with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty as the normative anchor. As the most significant leap in nuclear disarmament in fifty years and a rare case study of successful state-civil society partnership in multilateral diplomacy, the Ban Treaty challenges the established order. The book’s contributors are leading experts on the Ban Treaty, including senior scholars, policymakers and civil society activists. A vital guide to the Ban Treaty for students of nuclear disarmament, arms control and diplomacy as well as for policymakers in those fields.

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 48

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Book Description
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the premier public resource on scientific and technological developments that impact global security. Founded by Manhattan Project Scientists, the Bulletin's iconic "Doomsday Clock" stimulates solutions for a safer world.

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons PDF Author: George Perkovich
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351225960
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
Nuclear disarmament is firmly back on the international agenda. But almost all current thinking on the subject is focused on the process of reducing the number of weapons from thousands to hundreds. This rigorous analysis examines the challenges that exist to abolishing nuclear weapons completely, and suggests what can be done now to start overcoming them. The paper argues that the difficulties of 'getting to zero' must not preclude many steps being taken in that direction. It thus begins by examining steps that nuclear-armed states could take in cooperation with others to move towards a world in which the task of prohibiting nuclear weapons could be realistically envisaged. The remainder of the paper focuses on the more distant prospect of prohibiting nuclear weapons, beginning with the challenge of verifying the transition from low numbers to zero. It moves on to examine how the civilian nuclear industry could be managed in a nuclear-weapons-free world so as to prevent rearmament. The paper then considers what political-security conditions would be required to make a nuclear-weapons ban enforceable and explores how enforcement might work in practice. Finally, it addresses the latent capability to produce nuclear weapons that would inevitably exist after abolition, and asks whether this is a barrier to disarmament, or whether it can be managed to meet the security needs of a world newly free of the bomb.

Why Containment Works

Why Containment Works PDF Author: Wallace J. Thies
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501749498
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Why Containment Works examines the conduct of American foreign policy during and after the Cold War through the lens of applied policy analysis. Wallace J. Thies argues that the Bush Doctrine after 2002 was a theory of victory—a coherent strategic view that tells a state how best to transform scarce resources into useful military assets, and how to employ those assets in conflicts. He contrasts prescriptions derived from the Bush Doctrine with an alternative theory of victory, one based on containment and deterrence, which US presidents employed for much of the Cold War period. There are, he suggests, multiple reasons for believing that containment was working well against Saddam Hussein's Iraq after the first Gulf War and that there was no need to invade Iraq in 2003. Thies reexamines five cases of containment drawn from the Cold War and the post-Cold War world. Each example, Thies suggests, offered US officials a choice between reliance on traditional notions of containment and reliance on a more forceful approach. To what extent did reliance on rival theories of victory—containment versus first strike—contribute to a successful outcome? Might these cases have been resolved more quickly, at lower cost, and more favorably to American interests if US officials had chosen a different mix of the coercive and deterrent tools available to them? Thies suggests that the conventional wisdom about containment was often wrong: a superpower like the United States has such vast resources at its disposal that it could easily thwart Libya, Iraq, and Iran by means other than open war.

The US–India Nuclear Agreement

The US–India Nuclear Agreement PDF Author: Vandana Bhatia
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498506267
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 211

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Book Description
The United States–India nuclear cooperation agreement to resume civilian nuclear technology trade with India—a non-signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and a defacto nuclear weapon state—is regarded as an impetuous shift in the US nuclear nonproliferation policy. The 2008 nuclear agreement aroused sharp reactions and unleashed a storm of controversies regarding the reversal of the US nonproliferation policy and its implications for the NPT regime. This book attempts to overcome the significant empirical and theoretical deficits in understanding the rationale for the change in the US nuclear nonproliferation policy toward India. This nuclear deal has been largely related to the US foreign policy objectives, especially establishing India as a regional counter-balance to China. The author examines the US–India nuclear cooperation agreement in a bilateral context, with regard to the nuclear regime. In past discourse India has been mainly viewed as a challenger to the nuclear regime, but this reflects the paucity in understanding India’s approach to the issue of nuclear weapons. The author relates the nuclear estrangement to the disjuncture between the US and India’s respective approach to nuclear weapons, evident during the negotiations that led to the framing of the NPT. The change in the US approach towards India, the nuclear outlier, has been exclusively linked to the Bush administration, which faced considerable criticism for sidelining the nonproliferation policy. This book instead traces the shifting of nuclear goalposts to the Clinton administration following the Pokhran II nuclear tests conducted by India. Contrary to the widespread perception that the decision to offer the nuclear technology to India was an impromptu decision by the Bush administration, the author contends that it was the result of a diligent process of bilateral dialogue and interaction. This book provides a detailed overview of the rationale and the developments that led to the agreement. Employing the regime theory, the author argues that the US–India nuclear agreement was neither an overturn of the US nuclear nonproliferation policy nor an unravelling of the NPT-centric regime. Rather, it was a strategic move to accommodate India, the anomaly within the regime.

A Global History of the Nuclear Arms Race

A Global History of the Nuclear Arms Race PDF Author: Richard Dean Burns
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440800952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 666

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Book Description
Written by two preeminent authors in the field, this book provides an accessible global narrative of the nuclear arms race since 1945 that focuses on the roles of key scientists, military chiefs, and political leaders. The first book of its kind to provide a global perspective of the arms race, this two-volume work connects episodes worldwide involving nuclear weapons in a comprehensive, narrative fashion. Beginning with a discussion of the scientific research of the 1930s and 1940s and the Hiroshima decision, the authors focus on five basic themes: political dimensions, technological developments, military and diplomatic strategies, and impact. The history of the international nuclear arms race is examined within the context of four historical eras: America's nuclear monopoly, America's nuclear superiority, superpower parity, and the post-Cold War era. Information about the historical development of the independent deterrence of Britain, France, and China, as well as the piecemeal deterrence of newcomers Israel, India, Pakistan, and North Korea is also included, as is coverage of the efforts aimed at the international control of nuclear weapons and the diplomatic architecture that underpins the global nuclear non-proliferation regime.

The Nuclear Renaissance and International Security

The Nuclear Renaissance and International Security PDF Author: Adam N. Stulberg
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 0804785309
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
Interest in nuclear energy has surged in recent years, yet there are risks that accompany the global diffusion of nuclear power—especially the possibility that the spread of nuclear energy will facilitate nuclear weapons proliferation. In this book, leading experts analyze the tradeoffs associated with nuclear energy and put the nuclear renaissance in historical context, evaluating both the causes and the strategic effects of nuclear energy development. They probe critical issues relating to the nuclear renaissance, including if and how peaceful nuclear programs contribute to nuclear weapons proliferation, whether the diffusion of nuclear technologies lead to an increase in the trafficking of nuclear materials, and under what circumstances the diffusion of nuclear technologies and latent nuclear weapons capabilities can influence international stability and conflict. The book will help scholars and policymakers understand why countries are pursuing nuclear energy and evaluate whether this is a trend we should welcome or fear.

Legal Resolution of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Disputes

Legal Resolution of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Disputes PDF Author: James D. Fry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107658586
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 515

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Book Description
How viable is the resolution of nuclear non-proliferation disputes through the International Court of Justice and international arbitration? James Fry examines the compromissory clauses in the IAEA Statute, IAEA Safeguards Agreements and the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material that give jurisdiction to these fora and analyses recent jurisprudence to demonstrate how legal resolution can handle such politically sensitive disputes. In sum, legal resolution of nuclear non-proliferation disputes represents an option that States and commentators have all too often ignored. The impartiality and procedural safeguards of legal resolution should make it an acceptable option for target States and the international community, especially vis-à-vis the procedural shortcomings and general heavy-handedness of Security Council involvement under UN Charter Chapter VII.

Strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime

Strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime PDF Author: Paul Vorbeck Lettow
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
ISBN: 0876094833
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 61

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Book Description
Nuclear technology has long been recognized as capable of both tremendous benefits and tremendous destruction. With this in mind, countries have devised international arrangements intended to promote peaceful nuclear applications while preventing the spread of materials, equipment, and technologies useful for producing nuclear weapons. Today, however, it is clear that this global nonproliferation regime is falling short. North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 2003 and has since tested two nuclear devices. Iran, while still a party to the NPT, has developed the capacity to enrich significant amounts of uranium; many believe it is seeking to build nuclear weapons or at least attain the ability to do so. In addition, there is the challenge of facilitating the expansion of nuclear energy, something that could help reduce carbon emissions, while preventing countries from using related technologies for military purposes. Finally, the prevalence of nuclear materials only intensifies the fear that terrorist groups could acquire them through theft or a deliberate transfer from a state.Given these challenges, it is fitting that nuclear issues are near the top of today's foreign policy agenda. President Barack Obama organized a nuclear security summit in April to discuss ways to secure nuclear materials and reduce the threat of terrorism, and NPT signatories will gather in May for the five-yearly NPT review conference. The United States and Russia have reached a successor agreement calling for further reductions in their nuclear arsenals. And the United States and others continue to pursue both sanctions and negotiations with the aim of limiting Iran's nuclear capabilities.In this Council Special Report, Paul Lettow examines the shortcomings of the nonproliferation regime and proposes a comprehensive agenda to shore it up. He first explores the challenges facing current arrangements, chief among them the spread of enrichment and reprocessing technologies needed to produce fissile material. Lettow then makes a variety of recommendations. First, he calls for tighter sanctions on Iran with the goal of dissuading it from continuing its nuclear advances and discouraging others from following Tehran's path. To combat the spread of enrichment and reprocessing, the report urges the United States to lead nuclear suppliers in developing a system that would allow the sale of relevant equipment and technology only to countries that meet demanding criteria. As regards a potential multilateral nuclear fuel bank, the report argues for limiting participation to states that have a strong nonproliferation record and agree not to make their own nuclear fuel. Lettow further recommends a larger budget, more authority, and various policy changes for the International Atomic Energy Agency so that it can better detect dangerous violations of nonproliferation agreements. Finally, he urges a series of steps in the United Nations Security Council to punish violators and deal with countries that seek to withdraw from the NPT while in noncompliance with their obligations.Strengthening the Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime provides an authoritative look at today's nuclear-related concerns and what can be done to address them. With its thoughtful analysis and comprehensive recommendations, it makes a strong contribution on a subject of vital importance. And given the challenges now testing the nonproliferation regime, as well as the issue's prominence in the foreign policy debate, the report could not come at a better time.