Fighting proliferation new concerns for the nineties
Iraq`s threatened chemical missile strikes against US forces, combined with its efforts to build nuclear weapons, have quite literally put issues about the proliferation of strategic weapons on the map. Indeed, after Operation Desert Shield, both the Bush and Clinton administrations focused considerable attention on the need to dismantle Iraq`s strategic weapons capabilities and to assure that the strategic weapons complex in the former Soviet Union doesn`t end up helping future Iraqs. Since Operation Desert Storm, though, additional proliferation concern devising an effective strategy against proliferation, coping with the spread of space technology, and curbing Iran`s and North Korea`s strategic programs have emerged. Fighting Proliferation examines these challenges and their implications for US policy. The first of these concern how best to reform existing non- proliferation efforts-is examined in part 1. With the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) indefinitely extended, just exactly how the treaty will be implemented remains unclear. The Clinton administration is on record arguing that the NPT is a model for how the US will curb the proliferation of not only nuclear but all other kinds of strategic weapons. But what does the NPT and its obligations actually mean. Its key proscriptions in Articles 1, 2, and 3 are ambiguous. The treaty also lacks any clear enforcement measures and is nearly impossible to amend.
- Research Organization:
- Department of Defense, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 432685
- Report Number(s):
- AD-A--316644/4/XAB
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Rethinking the NPT
Director`s series on proliferation