Nuclear proliferation Is it a losing battle?

World > Global Issues
from the September 15, 2004 edition

New cracks in nuclear containment

As North Korea, South Korea, and Iran test limits and raise risks of an arms race, the global challenge to nonproliferation grows.

By Peter Grier and Faye Bowers | Staff writers of The Christian Science Monitor

WASHINGTON – North Korea might test a nuclear weapon in the near future, though it apparently didn't explode one over the weekend. Iran is forging ahead with nuclear activities despite objections from much of the rest of the world. South Korea, it turns out, produced some fissile material a few years ago. The Seoul government didn't know what was going on - or so it says. The global effort to curb nuclear proliferation may now be facing some of its most daunting challenges in years. Taken separately, the news items above are bad enough. But some experts worry that, added together, they might spiral into a whole more dangerous than the sum of its parts.
That's because a few serious cracks could conceivably shatter long-held international taboos against acquiring an atomic arsenal. Even one overt new nuclear nation might produce others, as rivals and neighbors rush to arm themselves defensively.

But this outcome isn't necessarily inevitable. Today, the number of states with a nuclear weapon remains the same as 15 years ago, points out Matthew Bunn, a nuclear expert at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Are we and losing the battle against nuclear proliferation?

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