In The News

How To Get Rid of Nuclear Weapons

May 5, 2010
As signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty gather to review its forty years’ performance, the danger posed by nuclear weapons remains undiminished. Gareth Evans, Co-Chairman of an International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, interviewed by Nayan Chanda, Editor of YaleGlobal Online, discusses the threat and urgent tasks ahead for the international community...

NPT Review Faces Challenges as Iran Knocks on Door

Leonard S. Spector May 3, 2010
Threatening to build, possess or use nuclear weapons does not do much to win friends or influence neighbors, as the old saying goes, particularly as more nations acquire the bomb. More than 180 nations convene at the UN this month, starting today, to continue regular five-yearly review and negotiations aimed at reducing these weapons. Progress is slow because decisions at the UN conference on the...

North Korea and Syria: A Warning in the Desert

Gregory L. Schulte April 28, 2010
Six-Party Talks began in 2003, with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the US teaming up to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear-weapons ambition. Talks continued on and off with isolated North Korea, as it inched forward with its own nuclear development and clandestine export of nuclear material. One example of North Korea’s nuclear proliferation emerged in 2007 when Israeli bombers...

Nuclear Security

Mohamed ElBaradei, Graham Allison, Ernesto Zedillo April 13, 2010
The biggest potential threat to civilization, these noted authors argue, is the possibility of terrorists acquiring a nuclear weapon and using it in a major urban center. Fortunately, this can be prevented by securing all the fissile material in the world. It is a steep task but one that is well within the capability of existing technology as Russia and the United States have demonstrated in...

How to Read Brazil's Stance on Iran

Matias Spektor March 16, 2010
Brazil is reluctant to impose sanctions on Iran, grounding its opposition on three major issues. First, Brazil sees sanctions as a prelude to military intervention and points to Iraq as the last time a UN resolution about weapons ended up in conflict. Second, Brazil thinks sanctions will be counter-productive and only spur development of nuclear weapons, much as Brazil tried to do in the 1970s....

Israel Presses China over Iran sanctions

Geoff Dyer March 4, 2010
Israeli officials are in Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders about Iran. It’s just one of many recent indications that China, which has a critical Security Council vote on Iranian sanctions, needs to step carefully in the Middle East. Beijing has largely supported Iran thus far having inked key oil deals, but also sharing similar attitudes towards what it considers international interference....

India Wants to Join the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a Weapon State

David P. Fidler, Sumit Ganguly January 27, 2010
The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) has suffered a lot of dents of late from its signatories: North Korea and Iran are just some examples. But the long standing refusal of India, Pakistan, and Israel – all possessors of nuclear weapons – to accede doesn’t help either. However, India has recently made overtures that it wishes to join the NPT as a nuclear weapon state (NWS...