The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has long been key in non-proliferation and disarmament activities. The Treaty is the major international legal obstacle for states seeking nuclear weapon capabilities. In retrospect, and despite setbacks, the overall impact of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has been significant and gratifying. Its continued success is by no means guaranteed. As old nuclear dangers persist and new ones evolve, policies to halt nuclear proliferation are more disparate than at any other time. Nuclear weapons remain an essential part of the security policies of leading states and many developmental states maintain strong nuclear weapon ambitions, while terrorists have actively been seeking nuclear capabilities. In search of an overarching strategy that recognizes both the flaws of the existing non-proliferation regime, and the value of some of the corrections proposed by regime critics, this volume assesses contemporary efforts to stem nuclear proliferation. In doing so, Nuclear Proliferation and International Security examines a number of cases with a view to recommending better non-proliferation tools and strategies. The contributors comprise renowned international scholars, who have been selected to obtain the best possible analyses of critically important issues related to international non-proliferation dynamics and the future integrity of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has long been key in non-proliferation and disarmament activities. The Treaty is the major international legal obstacle for states seeking nuclear weapon capabilities. In retrospect, and despite setbacks, the overall impact of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has been significant and gratifying. Its continued success is by no means guaranteed. As old nuclear dangers persist and new ones evolve, policies to halt nuclear proliferation are more disparate than at any other time. Nuclear weapons remain an essential part of the security policies of leading states and many developmental states maintain strong nuclear weapon ambitions, while terrorists have actively been seeking nuclear capabilities. In search of an overarching strategy that recognizes both the flaws of the existing non-proliferation regime, and the value of some of the corrections proposed by regime critics, this volume assesses contemporary efforts to stem nuclear proliferation. In doing so, Nuclear Proliferation and International Security examines a number of cases with a view to recommending better non-proliferation tools and strategies. The contributors comprise renowned international scholars, who have been selected to obtain the best possible analyses of critically important issues related to international non-proliferation dynamics and the future integrity of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

This book examines the state of the nuclear non-proliferation regime and the issues it faces in the early 21st century. Despite the fact that most countries in the world have signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) there is growing concern that the NPT is in serious trouble and may not be able to stop the further spread of nuclear weapons. If so, international stability will be undermined, with potentially disastrous consequences, and the vision of a nuclear weapon-free world will become utterly unrealistic. More specifically, the NPT is exposed to four main challenges, explored in this book: challenges from outside, as three countries that have not signed the Treaty – Israel, India and Pakistan – are known to possess nuclear weapons; challenges from within, as some countries that have signed on to the Treaty as non-nuclear weapons states have nevertheless developed or are suspected to be trying to develop nuclear weapons (North Korea and Iran being cases in point); challenges from below in the shape of terrorists and other non-state actors who may want to acquire radioactive materials or even nuclear weapons; and, finally, challenges from above due to the perceived failure of the five legal nuclear weapons states to keep their part of the ‘double bargain’ made by the parties of the NPT and take serious steps towards nuclear disarmament. This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, international security, war and conflict studies and IR in general.

This volume brings together more than three decades of research and writings by Professor Ramesh Thakur on the challenges posed by nuclear weapons. Following an introduction to the current nuclear state of play, the book addresses the challenge of nuclear weapons in three parts. Part I describes the scholar-practitioner interface in trying to come to grips with this challenge, the main policy impact on security strategy, and the various future nuclear scenarios. Part II addresses regional nuclear challenges from the South Pacific to East, South and West Asia and thereby highlights serious deficiencies in the normative architecture of the nuclear arms control and disarmament regime. In the third and final part, the chapters discuss regional nuclear-weapon-free zones, NPT anomalies (and their implications for the future of the nuclear arms control regime) and, finally, assess the global governance architecture of nuclear security in light of the three Nuclear Security Summits between 2010 and 2014. The concluding chapter argues for moving towards a world of progressively reduced nuclear weapons in numbers, reduced salience of nuclear weapons in national security doctrines and deployments, and, ultimately, a denuclearized world. This book will be of much interest to students of nuclear proliferation, global governance, international organisations, diplomacy and security studies.

These essays offer conceptual, historical, and analytical perspectives on one of the most significant challenges to global security in the twenty-first century: controlling nuclear proliferation. The spread of nuclear weapons is one of the most significant challenges to global security in the twenty-first century. Limiting the proliferation of nuclear weapons and materials may be the key to preventing a nuclear war or a catastrophic act of nuclear terrorism. Going Nuclear offers conceptual, historical, and analytical perspectives on current problems in controlling nuclear proliferation. It includes essays that examine why countries seek nuclear weapons as well as studies of the nuclear programs of India, Pakistan, and South Africa. The final section of the book offers recommendations for responding to the major contemporary proliferation challenges: keeping nuclear weapons and materials out of the hands of terrorists, ensuring that countries that renounce nuclear weapons never change their minds, and cracking down on networks that illicitly spread nuclear technologies. Nearly all the chapters in this book have been previously published in the journal International Security. It contains a new preface and one chapter commissioned specifically for the volume, Matthew Bunn's "Nuclear Terrorism: A Strategy for Prevention." Contributors Samina Ahmed, Chaim Braun, Matthew Bunn, Christopher F. Chyba, Matthew Fuhrmann, Sumit Ganguly, S. Paul Kapur, Ariel E. Levite, Peter Liberman, Austin Long, Sean M. Lynn-Jones, Alexander H. Montgomery, Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova, William C. Potter, Whitney Raas, Scott D. Sagan, Etel Solingen

The first systematic look at the different strategies that states employ in their pursuit of nuclear weapons Much of the work on nuclear proliferation has focused on why states pursue nuclear weapons. The question of how states pursue nuclear weapons has received little attention. Seeking the Bomb is the first book to analyze this topic by examining which strategies of nuclear proliferation are available to aspirants, why aspirants select one strategy over another, and how this matters to international politics. Looking at a wide range of nations, from India and Japan to the Soviet Union and North Korea to Iraq and Iran, Vipin Narang develops an original typology of proliferation strategies—hedging, sprinting, sheltered pursuit, and hiding. Each strategy of proliferation provides different opportunities for the development of nuclear weapons, while at the same time presenting distinct vulnerabilities that can be exploited to prevent states from doing so. Narang delves into the crucial implications these strategies have for nuclear proliferation and international security. Hiders, for example, are especially disruptive since either they successfully attain nuclear weapons, irrevocably altering the global power structure, or they are discovered, potentially triggering serious crises or war, as external powers try to halt or reverse a previously clandestine nuclear weapons program. As the international community confronts the next generation of potential nuclear proliferators, Seeking the Bomb explores how global conflict and stability are shaped by the ruthlessly pragmatic ways states choose strategies of proliferation.