Nuclear Proliferation - Hope for the World

North Korea's nuclear weapon test (or "nuk you ler" if you're George Bush) has revived concerns over widespread proliferation.

Some atomic experts believe there are up to 40 nations with the skills, technology and even, in some cases, the materials to build a bomb. According to the New York Times:

"The spread of nuclear technology is expected to accelerate as nations redouble their reliance on atomic power. That will give more countries the ability to make reactor fuel, or, with the same equipment and a little more effort, bomb fuel — the hardest part of the arms equation.

"Signs of activity abound. Hundreds of companies are now prospecting for uranium where dozens did a few years ago. Argentina, Australia and South Africa are drawing up plans to begin enriching uranium, and other countries are considering doing the same. Egypt is reviving its program to develop nuclear power.

"North Korea’s reported test has shaken the nuclear status quo and raised anew the question of whether Asia will be the first to feel a nuclear “domino effect,” in which states clandestinely hedge their bets by assembling the crucial technologies needed to make a bomb, or actually cross the line to become new weapons states. In the Middle East, the confrontation with Iran has focused new attention on countries like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, both of which fear that an Iranian bomb would make Tehran the greatest power in the region."

Is the rapid spread of nuclear weaponry inevitable? Perhaps not, if a genuine will exists to stop it. One thing is clear - trying to tackle the problem on a piecemeal, country by country basis, isn't going to work. There are simply too many players now to go after them individually even if that might work on individual states, and it won't.

One of the big stumbling blocks to nuclear disarmament is the blatant hypocrisy of the major, nuclear powers. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, they agreed to work to get rid of all nuclear weapons, their own included. While beating newcomers over the head with the NNPT, the key nuclear states conveniently overlooked their own obligations.

Now the very nation the smaller countries fear most, the United States, is led by a man who supports America developing brand new types of nuclear weaponry. To smaller countries, America becomes a growing threat and the experience of India and Pakistan has shown the path to their security may lie in joining the nuclear club.

There may be a solution, one propounded by a Canadian. This comes from Embassy, Canada's Foreign Policy Newsweekly:

"Former senator Doug Roche has a good idea of what needs to be done to reduce the threat of a nuclear catastrophe. He perseveres in reminding nations in his role as chairman of the Middle Powers Initiative that the critically important Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) has existed for 10 years, but still has no force. The problem is several key nuclear powers have so far refused to sign the treaty: The United States, China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea.

"With leadership like that from the U.S., there is every reason to expect that any state that wants to enter the nuclear club as a deterrent to invasion will simply do so. And that is the second reason the North Korean test is bad news in Washington because it smacks of clear diplomatic failure.

"But it's not too late for a remedy. One way the U.S. could seize the initiative in this dangerous situation would be to sign on right away to the one treaty, the CTBT, that offers a hopeful solution. At the same time, Washington needs to put its weight behind increasingly reliable scientific verification programs, unequivocally agree never to use nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear state, and remove, along with Russia, the thousands of nukes that are still on hair-trigger alert.

"If the U.S. and the other six nuclear rogues will come to the table over this important treaty, the day may still be saved."

Think about it. Can you come up with anything that makes more sense?