Nuclear proliferation

The nuclear proliferation indicates the propagation of the possession of nuclear weapons in the world. One speaks about horizontal proliferation for the disproportionate increase in the nuclear weapons and the number of countries holders, and vertical proliferation for the improvement of the nuclear weapon.

Since obtaining by the United States of the nuclear weapon, this technology became a considerable concern for the States. It is a symbol of power and control in the field of science.

But the great powers realized, amongst other things following an serious attack between the United States and the USSR, the danger related to the military use of the nuclear power. It is in order to limit the diffusion of the nuclear bomb that the Treaty of Nonproliferation (NPT) was conceived in June 1968, following the production of nuclear weapons by the Soviets in 1949, by the English in 1952, the French in 1960 and the Chinese in 1964. Signed by the States having the nuclear weapon and forty others, it came into effect on March 5th, 1970. The NPT authorizes the 5 States having acquired the nuclear bomb before 1967 to preserve it but prohibited at the others to obtain it. On the other hand, of the facilities must be offered to the States wishing to have development programs of nuclear energy to the fine civil ones. It is important to notice that the treaty includes/understands also a clause of disarmament (article VI), by which the nuclear powers engage with negotiations for a disarmament under international control.

The near total of the States belong to the NPT (188 out of 191), but its control is made difficult. An additional protocol exists since 1998, and ensures a better checking of the action of the States, but it was signed only by approximately 50 States. Consequently, several States all the same created prohibited nuclear programs, or threatened to be withdrawn from the treaty.

In practice, the nuclear States , which are however the 5 permanent members of the Safety advice of UNO, do not respect their engagements, but continue to renew and modernize their nuclear arsenals and to make research, in contradiction with articles 5 and 6 of the NPT. They contribute thus to the proliferation which they feed objectively, while deploying of new weapons, but also subjectively, because by not respecting themselves the treaties, they weaken them and justify new skirtings.

Moreover, one regularly reproaches the nuclear States for selling technologies of the civilian nuclear knowing that, on the one hand, when one can enrich uranium with the fine civil ones, one solved the main difficulties to design the atomic weapon, and that on the other hand, a nuclear plant produces " waste radioactifs" who will be reusable to make the bomb.

In addition, the old official version which consisted in affirming that the nuclear weapons constituted, by their only possession, a purely dissuasive effect , converted. Thus, in the recent speeches of the US presidents and French in particular, one hears today that the use of the nuclear weapon is also considered in protection d'" interests vitaux" , possibly in a preventive way .

Moreover, miniaturization of the atomic weapons the manufacture of weapons of short range designed allows today to be used directly on the battle field, on the one hand, and on the other hand their transport in a simple bag " diplomatique". What lets foresee that not only States but also of the parallel organizations are likely to have which it in the short or medium term.

Two visions clash about the nuclear power:

Some claim that the nuclear weapon is a tool of dissuasion, and thus has a stabilizing effect. The traditional example is the case of Pakistan and India, which have both the Nuclear weapon and which saw the territorial conflicts decreasing in intensity.
For the others, on the other hand, the nuclear weapon is a dangerous element and destabilizer. In particular, it makes it possible the States of less importance to make blackmail by putting all the powers on an equal footing. The North Korea is the illustration of this blackmail, since she regularly threatens to continue her nuclear program, of which nobody knows the state of exact advance. One also advances that the current proliferation transforms planet into explosives magazine, so that if it were again made use of the nuclear weapon, or if an accident, was interpreted like an aggression, a nuclear Guerre would almost inevitably follow. With the disappearance of the mankind, quite as probable.

Nuclear proliferation is limited in a great number of countries by the following treaties:

Treated nuclear non-proliferation
Treated of Pelindaba
Treated of Tlatelolco
Treated of Bangkok
Treated of Rarotonga
Treated complete prohibition of the nuclear tests

Random links: