An Electronic Journal of
the U.S. Department of State
March 2005

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CONTENTS

About This Issue
The Editors

Just when we thought that the end of the Cold War also meant the end of nighttime terrors about nuclear annihilation, that evil atomic specter, rising out of a terrible mushroom-shaped cloud, has reappeared.

U.S. Firmly Committed to NPT
President George W. Bush

Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons must take strong action to confront the threat of noncompliance with the NPT in order to preserve and strengthen the treaty’s nonproliferation undertakings.

Controlling the World's Most Dangerous Weapon
Stephen G. Rademaker, Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control

New proliferation threats require new tools and a willingness to improve and creatively adapt the nonproliferation regime that helps protect us all.

How to Strengthen the NPT
Jackie Wolcott Sanders, Ambassador, Conference on Disarmament and Special Representative of the President for the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons

The NPT's collective security framework is severely undermined when NPT parties violate their nonproliferation obligations.

Taking Legislative Aim at Weapons of Mass Destruction
Richard Lugar, Chairman, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

The world is awash with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and materials.

Nuclear Terrorism: Weapons for Sale or Theft?
Gavin Cameron, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Calgary

The theft of a tactical nuclear weapon, or the purchase of weapons-grade nuclear material by terrorists is a 21st-century nightmare that may well come true.

Libya Renounces Weapons of Mass Destruction
Paula DeSutter, Assistant Secretary of State for Verification And Compliance

Libya's decision to give up its weapons of mass destruction programs is a real nonproliferation success story of the new millennium.

After Iran: Keeping Nuclear Energy Peaceful
Henry D. Sokolski, Executive Director, Nonproliferation Policy Education Center

Iran's claim that it has a "peaceful" right to acquire all it needs to come within days of having a bomb should remind us of what the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was meant to avoid.

North Korea: A Rogue State Outside the NPT Fold
Kongdan Oh, Institute for Defense Analyses and Ralph C. Hassig, Consultant on North Korean Affairs

The government of North Korea has never been in full compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which it acceded in 1985.

New Players on the Scene: A.Q. Khan And the Nuclear Black Market
Colonel Charles D. Lutes, USAF, Senior Military Fellow, Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University

Existing nonproliferation regimes may be inadequate to deal with the emerging threat of non-state proliferation as exemplified by the A.Q. Khan nuclear smuggling network.

Not With a Whimper: Visions of Mass Destruction in Fiction and Film
Richard Pells, Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin

It has so far proven very "difficult for novelists or filmmakers to portray the mentality of the stateless terrorist, the messianic fanatic who seeks to murder people indiscriminately, for no obvious purpose except to pile up the bodies."

Duck and Cover

The 1950s saw Americans trying to heed their government's advice on how to prepare for a nuclear attack.

Full Length Video

Bibliography

Internet Sites