Abstract

Nonproliferation Politics

The article looks at nuclear nonproliferation policies as of October 2004. Nonproliferation--the global campaign to prevent the further spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons--must be applied in a nondiscriminatory fashion to be effective. But the United States President George W. Bush Administration has been using nonproliferation policy to demonize foreign governments it does not like and to manipulate U.S. public opinion. The most egregious example was the totally discredited claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was on the verge of manufacturing nuclear weapons--a claim used to manufacture support for the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Another example is the charge, made in 2002 by John Bolton, Under Secretary of State for nonproliferation, that Cuba had an offensive biological-warfare program. It is against this backdrop of highly politicized nonproliferation policies that we must judge U.S. moves regarding Iran, India and the two Koreas. The crisis over Iran's nuclear activities has been gaining steam since 2003, when the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran had undertaken a previously undisclosed effort to "enrich" natural uranium--that is, increase the proportion of the fissionable U-235 isotope in its total content. The perception that the United States and its allies often engage in discriminatory nonproliferation practices is given added credibility by disclosures concerning South Korea and India.