Development and Disarmament Roundtable | Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Real threats, real solutions

Sunday Jonah — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:17:44 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

The authors in this Roundtable have all argued, albeit in different ways, that significant changes should be made to the global nonproliferation regime in order to achieve the goals set out in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Changes seem necessary partly because the world in recent years has witnessed a broad diffusion of technology, which has allowed many nations, including developing countries, to harbor ambitions for nuclear power. That has led to the possibility of a global nuclear renaissance -- and also to renewed concerns about nuclear proliferation.

Universality for the NPT’s objectives and principles

Adel M. Ali — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 06:45:18 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

Naeem Ahmad Salik notes that participants in this spirited debate have largely maintained the positions that they espoused when the discussion began. Salik did not deviate from that pattern in his final essay and neither will I. Instead, I will offer a few new observations to buttress my earlier arguments and challenge those of my colleagues.

Critical issues provoke enduring disagreements

Naeem Ahmad Salik — Thu, 31 May 2012 08:43:15 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

Throughout this Roundtable's lively debate, the participants have vigorously contested one another's positions and largely stuck to their own. I will not deviate from that pattern now. Indeed, I would like to revisit some of my earlier arguments, trying to articulate them in a way that is perhaps more understandable and persuasive.

Expanded powers, greater security

Sunday Jonah — Thu, 24 May 2012 08:43:39 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

One thing on which all participants in this Roundtable agree is that certain elements of the noproliferation regime require fundamental strengthening. In order to achieve this, the Roundtable authors have proposed wide-ranging ideas such as altering the structure and expanding the powers of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); allowing some countries that stand outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to join the treaty as nuclear weapon states; and establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones in the Middle East and South Asia.

Toward a transformed treaty

Adel M. Ali — Thu, 17 May 2012 11:14:06 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

Countries without nuclear weapons tend to focus much attention on nuclear weapon states’ failure to achieve the disarmament that the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) requires them to pursue. Nuclear weapon states, meanwhile, focus on the fact that access to peaceful nuclear technology, which the treaty guarantees to all nations, carries with it the potential for weapons proliferation.

Solutions must not create new problems

Naeem Ahmad Salik — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:24:21 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

My fellow participants in this Roundtable, Sunday Jonah and Adel M. Ali, have correctly pointed out a number of weaknesses and anomalies in the global nonproliferation regime. One may disagree, however, with certain aspects of their diagnoses and remedies.

Technological progress, not political control

P. R. Kumaraswamy — Thu, 10 May 2012 08:12:08 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

Does any intrinsic link connect nuclear energy and weaponization programs? This has developed as the central issue of this Roundtable -- and the evidence presented here does not substantiate the idea that such a link exists.

Needed: a bigger toolbox for the IAEA

Sunday Jonah — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:01:36 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

The basic aims of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) are fairly straightforward: to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons; to provide assurances, through international safeguards, that peaceful nuclear activities will not lead to the production of nuclear weapons; to promote, to the maximum extent consistent with the treaty's other provisions, the peaceful uses of nuclear energy; and eventually to make progress toward nuclear disarmament.

Knowing how much to worry

Shahriman Lockman — Thu, 03 May 2012 08:48:31 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

In developing countries, the dangers of nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism can often seem remote. In the developed world, these threats are seen as rather grave. Part of the reason that the two viewpoints are so incompatible is that proliferation risk is very difficult to assess.

How to honor the entire bargain

Adel M. Ali — Wed, 02 May 2012 08:30:51 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

Though the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was never designed to be discriminatory, it has now, more or less permanently, divided countries into different classes -- the five recognized nuclear weapon states, the 184 states without nuclear weapons, and the four nations that stand outside the treaty. The basic bargain of the NPT is that the non-nuclear weapon states pledge not to acquire nuclear weapons, while the nuclear weapon states agree to share their peaceful nuclear technology and also, crucially, to pursue disarmament. But progress toward disarmament has been very slow.

Toward a fairer, more effective nonproliferation regime

Naeem Ahmad Salik — Tue, 01 May 2012 08:12:08 -0400

Roundtable Topic: A tale of two treaties?

This Roundtable asks how signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) can ensure that the treaty's provisions are fairly enforced. But because the treaty is characterized by an imbalance between the rights and obligations of signatories -- dividing them as it does into "haves" and "have-nots" -- the concept of fairness in the treaty's implementation frankly seems a bit surreal.

Where proliferation concerns ring hollow

Gilberto M. Jannuzzi — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 08:49:54 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

To Latin Americans, who live in a relatively peaceful region, the international community's concerns about the proliferation of nuclear weapons can sound a bit strange. Latin America has been a nuclear-weapon-free zone since since 1969, when the Treaty of Tlatelolco entered into force. All countries in the region, in addition to being signatories to that treaty, are also parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Time to jettison reflexive suspicion

P. R. Kumaraswamy — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 09:01:49 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

A consensus has emerged in this Roundtable that proliferation concerns should not be used to deny developing countries access to nuclear energy. While nuclear proliferation is a worry that cannot be dismissed lightly, one also cannot ignore the excessive concerns about nuclear power that the nonproliferation community harbors (especially civil society organizations, which stand in the forefront of the crusade against nuclear energy).

An exaggerated risk, yet a real one

Shahriman Lockman — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 07:49:52 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

As more and more countries in the developing world consider adopting nuclear power, Western governments and the nonproliferation community all too often exaggerate the attendant risks of weapons proliferation. So should concerns about the security implications of new nuclear power programs therefore be abandoned? My answer is no -- not when the resources, institutions, and attitudes needed to ensure nuclear security and safety remain in short supply in the developing world.

Supply, demand, and knowing what is important

Gilberto M. Jannuzzi — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:25:25 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

In international conversations about nuclear energy in the developing world, both the nonproliferation community and developing countries themselves often attach excessive importance to certain elements of the debate and too little importance to others. As suggested by P.R. Kumaraswamy in his first essay in this Roundtable, the nonproliferation community focuses so much on weapons proliferation that it sometimes fails to appreciate developing nations' growing need for energy services and consequently fails to grapple with how that need might be met.

Too much proliferation focus, too little energy

P. R. Kumaraswamy — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 08:50:14 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

Western governments and the nonproliferation community in general tend to view every developing nation that pursues nuclear power as a potential risk for nuclear weapons proliferation. This attitude is unfortunate for several reasons. First, it fails to recognize the pressing need for increased energy supply that many developing countries face. Second, it deflects attention from the legitimate issue of poor safety practices at developing-world nuclear power plants.

Nuclear power's limited usefulness and limited proliferation risk

Shahriman Lockman — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 08:33:30 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

In some quarters the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station has prompted a reconsideration of nuclear energy -- but in many developing nations with nuclear energy programs, the incident has had barely any effect. Bangladesh, Belarus, Turkey, and Vietnam are expected to start building their first nuclear power plants in the near future, and several other developing countries are likely to follow suit in subsequent years. But is nuclear power necessarily good for the economic development of these nations?

The developing world has better options than nuclear energy

Gilberto M. Jannuzzi — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:59:28 -0400

Roundtable Topic: Nuclear option: The developing world weighs energy needs and security risks

In discussions about nuclear energy, whether in the developing world or in industrial countries, the topics that generally dominate are cost, waste disposal, risk of accident, and weapons proliferation. This Roundtable introduces an additional dimension to the nuclear-power conversation: developing countries' need for economic development and the energy that such development requires.