NP? Is the United States Undermining Nuclear Non-Proliferation?

[pynchonoid]

1-27-03

Is the United States Undermining Nuclear
Non-Proliferation? 
By John Burroughs 
Mr. Burroughs is executive director of the New
York-based Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy. He
contributed a chapter on the NPT to Nicole Deller,
Arjun Makhijani, and John Burroughs, eds., Rule of
Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies
and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties (New
York: Apex Press, 2003). 

The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is much in
the news due to North Korea's announced withdrawal,
its steps toward the resumption of the production of
plutonium, and its apparent treaty-violating program
for the production of highly enriched uranium dating
back several years. What has received no attention is
that the United States is also undermining the NPT by
ignoring recent political commitments to implement the
treaty's disarmament obligation. [...] Overall, the
Nuclear Posture Review's core assumption of indefinite
U.S. reliance on nuclear forces is contrary to the
thrust of commitments made in the post-Cold War era to
implement the NPT disarmament obligation. If North
Korea's present defiance of the NPT is to remain an
aberration not imitated by other countries, the United
States will have to learn that a viable
nonproliferation regime depends crucially on the
implementation of the obligation to disarm nuclear
weapons as well as the obligation not to acquire them.


read it all:
http://hnn.us/articles/1223.html

-Doug

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<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

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