No Nukes are Good Nukes

“To be, or not to be?” That is the question - on the minds of delegates from 190 countries meeting in New York this month for the five yearly review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Unlike the bard’s lofty ponderings, nations today are considering the benefits and woes of being lumped into one of two categories: nuclear haves or nuclear have-nots. To be a nuclear power means not only the obvious advantage of possessing the capability to annihilate nearly any other country on earth, but also to wield a lot of influence. The five official nuclear haves, the U.S, U.K., France, China, and Russia, are also, not coincidentally, the only permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. They tend to be regional, if not global, powerhouses and can set the agenda on most international issues. Why then wouldn’t all those nuclear have-nots set out to develop their own nukes and earn a taste of the big time? Most non-proliferation experts like to think it is because of the NPT.

The NPT was drafted to realize two long-term goals. First, and most obviously, the treaty aims to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons. In other words, all of those have-not countries agreed to forego the nuclear option when they signed on the dotted line. This doesn’t seem too fair considering that certain other nations have huge arsenals of nuclear weapons. Here is where the second objective of the NPT comes in. The five nuclear haves are required under the terms of the treaty to make every effort to cut their caches with the ultimate target of complete disarmament. But in case you haven’t noticed, none of the five nuclear powers has renounced its nuclear weapons. China continues to pour Great Wall-esque amounts of money into its nuclear weapons’ program and under the Bush administration, the United States is busy looking for ways to renege on its promise to end new weapon testing and development. Can you blame the nuclear have-nots for being pretty pissed off?

The simple fact is that the world’s nuclear powers have not lived up to their end of the NPT bargain. Not only have they failed to make substantive cuts to their nuclear arsenals, in many cases they are going in the opposite direction. This promises to be the main focus of this year’s NPT review. The world’s best safeguard against proliferation is in desperate need of a fresh dose of enthusiasm. At the very least, the nuclear five need to start taking their commitments seriously. If the nuclear haves do not change their ways and work wholeheartedly towards disarmament, the NPT will disintegrate. Countries who have willfully forsworn nukes under the treaty’s auspices will not stand for the nuclear club’s arrogance forever. And the end of this story could well be much gloomier than a Shakespearean tragedy.