Free Republic

The World’s Growing Nuclear Club India can offer some lessons on non-proliferation in a new nuclear age Humphrey Hawksley YaleGlobal, 16 April 2007 TARAPUR, INDIA: Behind the heightened tension with Iran lies a wider problem that world leaders must swiftly and substantively grasp. The Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), drawn up in 1968, needs to be re-written to make it both workable and acceptable to nations who view it as outdated and unfair. Over the next generation, as the scramble for energy gathers pace, many more governments will announce plans to build uranium-enrichment facilities. Some will be friendly...

GREEN LLC wanted move toward nonproliferation Federal nuclear weapons officials have rejected a bid by disarmament and renewable energy activists to manage Lawrence Livermore weapons design lab, saying the "green team" didn't fit federal plans. The team, calling itself GREEN LLC, was led by two weapons-lab watchdog groups, Livermore-based Tri-Valley CAREs and Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, who never really expected to run the sprawling bomb lab. But they were offended that the National Nuclear Security Administration said the team's proposal ran afoul of federal law and "did not demonstrate an understanding of the requirements of the solicitation where it...

The US would have to lift decades-old sanctions against Iran and probably give assurances that it has no policy of regime change towards the Islamic republic to settle Iran's nuclear dispute with the west, according to leaks of the Iranian response. Iran is demanding firmer guarantees on trade and nuclear supplies...

The warhead of a long-range missile test-fired by North Korea was found in the U.S. state of Alaska, a report to the National Assembly revealed yesterday. ``According to a U.S. document, the last piece of a missile warhead fired by North Korea was found in Alaska,¡¯¡¯ former Japanese foreign minister Taro Nakayama was quoted as saying in the report. ``Washington, as well as Tokyo, has so far underrated Pyongyang¡¯s missile capabilities.¡¯¡¯

There were 103 confirmed incidents of illicit trafficking and other unauthorized activities involving nuclear and radioactive materials in 2005, newly released statistics from the Agency´s Illicit Trafficking Database (ITDB) show. The ITDB covers a broad range of cases from illegal possession, attempted sale and smuggling, to unauthorized disposal of materials and discoveries lost radiological sources. Eighteen of the confirmed incidents in 2005 involved nuclear materials; 76 involved radioactive material, mainly radioactive sources; two involved both nuclear and other radioactive materials, and seven involved radioactively contaminated materials. Another 57 incidents from previous years were reported. They involved illicit trafficking and other...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has disappeared from public eye since right after North Korea fired missiles on July 5, and it shows signs that his concealment will be prolonged for the long term. Ever since his father, former North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, died on July 8 of 1994 he did not miss a single occasion to visit Geumsusan Memorial Palace on the same day every year, but this year, Chairman Kim even skipped this ceremony. It is seen that Chairman Kim is taking the current situation seriously. There are reports from inside North Korea that they...

Iran-Nuclear-Statement Iran said on Thursday the special panels studying package of the European Union (EU) for national nuclear program will work out a reply until August 22. "The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes the EU package as a new initiative from the European partners and is considering context of the package with positive attitude. It is normal that it takes time to examine the offer and it is logical to accomplish the job by August 22. The specialized panels studying the EU package are seriously working on the project," Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani said...

LONDON, June 10 (IranMania) - Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi has met Iran's top nuclear negotiator in Tehran in a bid to help mediate an end to Iran's nuclear crisis, a source close to the Iraqi leader said Saturday, AFP reported. The source said the meeting with Ali Larijani took place on Friday, a day after Abdel Hadi met with the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany in the Iraqi capital. "The Iraqi vice president met Friday, immediately after his arrival, with Ali Larijani for more than three hours for talks mainly on the Iranian nuclear case," he...

Iran's parliament has threatened to force a withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if Western pressure over its programme increases.The threat came in a letter to the UN a day before key UN members discuss a tough draft resolution on the issue. Pulling out of the NPT is the ultimate threat of non-cooperation by Iran, says our Tehran correspondent. A withdrawal would mean the country's programme could no longer be inspected by the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA. The parliament's letter, addressed to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, said that unless the row was resolved peacefully, "there will be no...

This has been another week of infamy at the United Nations -- they have strung quite a few hundred of them together -- and while one can’t refer to a “low point” in an institution that is morally bottomless, the failure to do anything even mildly credible about the nuclear threat from Iran is at least worthy of note. Three weeks after the urgent matter of Iran’s non-compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was referred to it, the Security Council issued a non-binding presidential statement. The members could not even draft a Security Council resolution. They could not bring themselves...

Saran takes on NPT lobby, rebuts claims on Indian weapons plan S Rajagopalan Washington, March 30, 2006 Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran on Thursday took the US’s non-proliferation pundits head-on and sought to demolish the series of arguments advanced by them in recent weeks to derail the Indo-US nuclear deal. In the course of an address to the Heritage Foundation, Washington’s foremost conservative think tank, Saran came up with a point-by-point rebuttal to make the case that the nuke deal neither weakens the non-proliferation regime nor lets India an opportunity to build up its arsenal in a big way. “If our...

During the past five years the United States has abandoned many of the nuclear arms control agreements negotiated since the administration of Dwight Eisenhower. This change in policies has sent uncertain signals to other countries, including North Korea and Iran, and may encourage technologically capable nations to choose the nuclear option. The proposed nuclear deal with India is just one more step in opening a Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation. The only substantive commitment among nuclear-weapon states and others is the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), accepted by the five original nuclear powers and 182 other nations. Its key objective is...

PM’s Suo Motu Statement on Iran February 17, 2006 New Delhi Hindi Version Taking into account the concerns that have been raised about India’s vote on the Iran nuclear issue at the meeting of the Governing Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, on February 5, 2006, I rise to apprise this august House of the facts of this matter. Let me begin by affirming that India’s vote on the IAEA resolution does not, in any way, detract from the traditionally close and friendly relations we are privileged to enjoy with Iran. Indeed, India-Iran ties, as we have...

India-U.S. deal disturbing, says Musharraf B. Muralidhar Reddy It will upset the balance of power ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said the civilian nuclear cooperation pact between the United States and India will upset the `balance of power' in the region. Addressing jawans at Bhawalpur in the Punjab province on Friday, Gen. Musharraf termed the deal "disturbing to Pakistan." He maintained that Pakistan's nuclear arsenals were in safe hands and there was no need to worry about them. Ever since New Delhi and Washington forged the nuclear deal in July last, Pakistan has been seeking a similar package on...

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran reaffirmed its commitment to a nuclear arms control treaty Sunday and urged a peaceful solution to the international crisis over concerns it is seeking to develop atomic weapons, a day after its hard-line president issued a veiled threat to withdraw from the pact. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency, meanwhile, began a mission to Iran to learn just what controls remain on nuclear sites and equipment after Tehran ended all but minimum cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency. In Vienna, Austria, a diplomat told The Associated Press Saturday that some International Atomic Energy Agency...

On Sunday, Iran’s Majlis (Parliament) Speaker said that the recent cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammad which have sparked a wave of protests across Europe were linked to the international dispute over the Islamic Republic’s refusal to end its sensitive nuclear activities.

START Jennifer Linker: This is Jennifer Linker at the Carnegie Endowment. If you're just joining us, we’re about to start our conference call. This is a press briefing on the Iranian Nuclear Showdown with Non-Proliferation experts Pierre Goldschmidt and George Perkovich. The conference call will be held from 9:00 a.m. until approximately 10:00a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The conference call is also being recorded. And after the conference call, I will be able to email out instructions on how to access that recording. Eventually, we hope to have a transcript within 48 hours. Just a couple of key commands, you can...

APOLE: "It will be in Iran's interest to save this limited [petroleum] resource for exports and use nuclear energy instead..." HUMINT: Interesting point but it's out of context. Iran's breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, its longstanding relationship to countries with nuclear weapons programs and its absurd insistence on pursuing activities that strongly resemble a nuclear weapons program is the most internationally destabilizing behavior in the world today. The world needs more electric power but not more N-bombs and the free world must do everything in its power to prevent dictatorships like the one in Tehran from getting them. The...

Iran encourages N.Korea with free oil & gas offer Sunday, November 27, 2005 - ?005 IranMania.com LONDON, November 27 (IranMania) - Iran encouraged North Korea to pursue its nuclear programme with an offer of free oil and natural gas, according to a press report quoting Western intelligence officials. A senior Iranian official who presides over a group called the Iranian-North Korean Friendship Society made the offer during a visit to North Korea in mid-October, German magazine Der Spiegel reported in its latest issue to be released Monday, AFP said. Intelligence officials were not sure how to react to the proposal,...

TEHRAN, Nov. 26 - Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Saturday that the Bush administration should be tried on war crimes charges and that it had no right to question Iran's nuclear program. The conservative president was speaking at an event celebrating the 26th anniversary of the Basij volunteer paramilitary force, which supported Mr. Ahmadinejad during the presidential election campaign in June. "You, who have used nuclear weapons against innocent people, who have used uranium ordnance in Iraq, should be tried as war criminals in courts," said Mr. Ahmadinejad, ISNA news agency reported. He was apparently referring to the United States'...

New Delhi: New evidence has emerged to suggest that Dr. A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, was in the pay and protection of the Central News Agency (CIA) in the United States since 1975. According to a report appearing in The Tribune newspaper, former Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, is named as the source of this startling, but unimpeachable source of information. Speaking in interview with VPRO Argos Radio on August 9, 2005, Dr. Lubbers revealed that Dr. Khan was first arrested in 1975 for espionage and again in 1988 for entering Holland illegally. Lubbers said that on...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran on Friday took the highly unusual step of running a costly full-page ad in the New York Times defending its nuclear activities and accusing the United States and European allies of creating an "unnecessary crisis." As U.S. and other key officials met in London to discuss efforts to force Tehran to abandon what they believe is a weapons-related program, Iran in its advertisement issued a detailed rebuttal of all charges and said it resumed uranium conversion this week because Britain, France and Germany, under U.S. pressure, violated a 2004 agreement. But Iran also held out the...

Should the US sell nuclear technology to India? Yes. The sale would serve both the countries' national security interest as well as the goal of non-proliferation. The Indo-US bilateral agreement providing New Delhi access to the long-denied civilian nuclear technology has emerged as a contentious issue in the Congress. But it need not be because the deal is good for both countries’ national security interests as well as for preventing nuclear proliferation. The July 18, 2005 agreement, many critics assert would undermine the global nonproliferation regime and ultimately American security. At the first hearing on this subject on September 8,...

BEIJING - North Korea criticized the United States Thursday for undermining the spirit of cooperation at six-nation talks on the North's nuclear programs, casting a pall over discussions aimed at persuading the regime to disarm, news reports and the U.S. envoy said. The North said Washington's sanctions against firms suspected of weapons proliferation and its accusations that North Korea is counterfeiting U.S. money would block progress in the latest round of talks, the South's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed officials. Delegates say this week's discussions — the fifth in a series that has progressed fitfully and amid deep distrust...

Iran Asks European Nations To Resume Nuclear Talks Associated Press November 6, 2005 11:49 a.m. TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator Sunday called for a renewal of nuclear negotiations with France, the United Kingdom and Germany, the state-run news agency reported. In letters to the foreign ministers of the European nations, Ali Larijani asked for "constructive and logical negotiations in the framework of respective conventions and regulations of International Atomic Energy Agency." The Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the letters had been delivered to the nations' ambassadors in Tehran. Two years of on-and-off negotiations over ending disputed portions...

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 26: While the Bush administration is confident of mobilising Congressional support for the nuclear pact with India, the vocal non-proliferation community in Washington is pressing for ‘‘killer amendments’’ to the nuclear deal. Ending the production of fissionable nuclear material by India is at the top of the list of ‘‘improvements’’ being sought by the nuclear experts campaigning to undermine the nuclear pact signed by President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last July. India, which expects the Bush administration to carry the day with the Congress, has refused to cap the production of nuclear material except in...

As the drumbeat of war gets louder in Tehran it is, perhaps, time to wonder whether President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s new administration is not walking into a trap partly of its own making. Over the past week or so Iranian officials at various levels have made a number of statements that could harm Iran’s interests at a difficult time. Many had hoped that Ahmadinejad would use the opportunity provided by his presence at the UN General Assembly in New York to offer a way out of the diplomatic impasse over Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. But that didn’t happen. Ahmadinejad’s speeches and...

IAEA to decide on resolution on Iran's noncompliance Saturday Saturday September 24, 2005 (Kyodo) _ Britain, on behalf of the European Union, submitted a resolution to the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors during a tense late-night session Friday, finding Iran to be in noncompliance with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty safeguards agreement. The board will reconvene at 3 p.m. Saturday to make a decision, said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming. Tensions are running high among IAEA members as the European Union seems determined to pass the resolution despite fierce resistance from China, Russia and member countries of...

(CNSNews.com) -- Savoring yet another reprieve in its nuclear standoff with the West, Iran has flexed its muscles with a show of military might and a warning that any nation considering attacking the Islamic republic would face a "destructive and fiery" response. Marking the start of "Sacred Defense Week" -- a commemoration of the 1980 Iraqi invasion which triggered a costly eight-year war -- Iran displayed weaponry Thursday including six Shahab-3 ballistic missiles. Experts say the missiles are capable of reaching Israel as well as U.S. forces in the region. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech that while Iran...

Islamabad: President Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistanis in general had a poor opinion of the United States and are "confused" and "dismayed" over the emerging strategic alliance between New Delhi and Washington. "The man in the street does not have a good opinion about US but the man in the street agrees with my policies. They understand whatever I am doing is in great national interest," he said in an interaction with American journalists at the Time magazine headquarters in New York. "But people do feel betrayed by USA on many counts one of which is non-delivery of F-16s....

UNITED NATIONS: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made it clear on Thursday that Iran should not acquire nuclear weapons, a US official said after the leader’s talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Singh said that India ‘doesn’t wish Iran to become a nuclear state,’ US Undersecretary for political affairs Nicholas Burns told reporters. ‘We are gratified by what we’ve heard,’ Burns said after the talks on the sidelines of a UN Summit. India has come under attack in the US Congress over its growing energy and other economic cooperation with Iran, and has been accused of secretly trying...

/begin my translation6-party talk: Light-water Reactor Issue, "Light-water reactor can serve as a deterrent" (N. Korean argument) Mainichi Shimbun, 2005/09/16, morning edition[Sato Jiyako from Beijing] A source from Japanese delegation to 6-party talks said at night of Sept. 15 that N. Korea explained their reason for insisting on having light-water reactor(s), saying 'the reactor(s) can serve as deterrent against attacks from other countries' because such an attack on a reactor could create radioactive contamination./end my translation

CANBERRA (Herald-Tribune) -- Iran and the United States are now on a collision course. Despite warnings from America and Europe, Iran has resumed enriching uranium, with its new President, Mahmud Ahmedinejad, insisting it has a right to do so under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty for peaceful purposes. President George W. Bush has reacted by declaring all options open, including military action, which has drawn a stiff rebuke not only from Tehran, but also from Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of Germany, one of America's allies. Israel is also reported to have plans for targeting Iran's nuclear facilities. But the use of force...

This week, workers at a nuclear plant in Iran began a process by which uranium can be enriched to such a point that it can be used in atomic bombs. For almost any nation to take such a step would be deeply disquieting. It is especially ominous that this happened in Iran. To belittle or ignore this move involves risks that are unacceptably high. Instead, it requires an effective international response. It was last November that Iran promised Britain, France and Germany that it would suspend the process of converting uranium into a form that can be used either as...

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Sunday reiterated plans to resume uranium conversion this week and said it was unconcerned about referral of its nuclear case to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. "Although we think referral of Iran's case to the Security Council would be unlawful and politically motivated, if one day they refer Iran's case...we won't be worried in the least," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi. Britain, Germany and France, heading nuclear negotiations with Iran for the European Union, have called an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors on Tuesday...

The Bush administration has justified its softly-softly approach to the Iranian nuclear program on grounds it has firm commitments from the Europeans to get tough should diplomacy fail. Those promises are about to be put to the test now that Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of its intention to resume uranium enrichment. The suspension agreement was inked last November after what turns out to have been nearly 20 years of Iranian deception vis-à-vis the IAEA. And it can be argued that diplomacy has at least bought time, assuming--and it's a big assumption given how many times Iran...

Sixty years ago today, an atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people, mostly civilians. Tens of thousands more died from radiation sickness in the years that followed. The memory of that day offers a horrific reminder of what is at stake when the nuclear non-proliferation regime comes under attack as it is today. The direct challenge comes from the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea. Both expose serious shortcomings in the non-proliferation treaty (NPT). It permits non-weapons states to develop nuclear fuel cycles, allowing them legitimately to proceed to the brink of weaponisation. If Iran and North Korea...

Tehran, 5 August (AKI) - Iran has rejected the nuclear proposal put forward on Friday by the European Union. "The proposal presented by London, Paris and Berlin is not acceptable," said Hossein Mussawian ,the diplomat who heads the Iranian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Speaking to the Mehr agency in Tehran, Mussawian added that "the official response will be sent on Sunday to the European negotiators." “What the European negotiators proposed, is in contradiction not only with the Paris accord of November 2004, but betrays also the principles of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, to which our country...

The U.N. nuclear agency said Friday it will hold an emergency executive meeting next week to persuade Iran to continue negotiations with European powers on an incentive package aimed at getting Iran to halt some of its nuclear activities. The meeting comes as Tehran is threatening to restart processing of some nuclear materials. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the 35-nation board is acting at the request of Britain, France and Germany, the three countries negotiating a deal to induce Iran to scale back its nuclear ambitions. "Three countries of the EU have called for a special session of the board...

MOSCOW, August 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia has always acknowledged Iran's right to develop a nuclear fuel cycle (NFC), although it urged countries without an NFC to avoid developing nuclear programs, a source at the Russian Federal Agency for Nuclear Power, Rosatom, said Tuesday. He said the resumption of work on NFC development would not affect scheduled deliveries of nuclear fuel from Russia to Iran. Russia is finishing the construction of the first power-generating unit with a 1,000 MW capacity at the Bushehr nuclear power plant (NPP) on the Iranian coast of the Persian Gulf. The plant will become operational...

President George W. Bush, undeterred by the abysmal failure of his risky gamble in Iraq, is rolling the dice for even higher stakes by agreeing to share sensitive nuclear technology and advanced conventional weapons with India to aid its ascent as a world power. Such a policy could prove to be disastrous. The administration’s fear of a rising China is driving this major policy initiative toward India. It is probably no coincidence that the policy change was announced the week after a Chinese general declared that China should use nuclear weapons against the United States upon any U.S. intervention in...

There are moments in history when hyperbole is not enough. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to the United States was surely one such, a moment that defied expectations, broke orthodoxy and aligned two major forces of the world, one gathering and the other already in place. After three decades of fighting the discriminatory international nuclear regime, India won its case on merit. The US made a historic pact with India, recognising it as a nuclear power with full rights and responsibilities and promising "full civil nuclear energy cooperation". President George Bush succeeded in taking the ultimate "transformational step" with regard...

{snip}The United States has wisely been very cautious about sharing nuclear technology – military or civilian. Just a few months ago, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Wall Street Journal that any decision to sell civilian nuclear technology to India would have "quite serious" implications for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. So why did President Bush decide this week to help India build nuclear power plants and import advanced weapons? Certainly, a domestic civilian nuclear power program will aid India's economy and gives the United States another strong ally in the region against Muslim extremism, the emerging military and economic...

TEHRAN (AFP) - European nations negotiating with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme may be ready to help build nuclear reactors and supply them with fuel, Iranian negotiator Hossein Moussavian said. He told the official IRNA agency that a proposal promised by Britain, France and Germany by August and aimed at resolving the crisis could include such an offer, as well as a several-month delay before Iran's nuclear ambitions are referred to the UN Security Council. The EU proposal could make or break the lengthy diplomatic process aimed at easing widespread fears Iran is seeking nuclear weapons technology. In contrast...

More than a year ago two able political-military analysts, former general officers Paul Vallely and Tom McInerney, wrote about a “web of terror” that crossed the artificial boundaries of nation, movement, organization, ideology, or geographical area. This concept of a vast network of deadly connections was outlined in their excellent work, Endgame: The Blueprint for Victory in the War on Terror. It was a startling concept in large measure because the notion of such a deadly global network is contrary to America’s cultural, organizational, and political stereotypes. We Americans are accustomed to labeling and categorizing: we like to say “a...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A global conference to tighten controls on the spread of nuclear arms gave preliminary approval Friday to a report offering no new action plan at a time of mounting nuclear tension in the world. The 188-nation meeting, reviewing the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, produced weeks of divisive debate over issues ranging from Iran's uranium centrifuges, to Israel's nuclear capabilities, to U.S. weapons plans. But it yielded no consensus recommendations for concrete steps to rein in atomic arms. The disagreements even kept the conference president, Brazil's Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, from issuing a summary statement endorsing nonproliferation principles....

A Turtle Bay conference on the most prominent treaty governing the spread of nuclear arms will end today with a whimper. Participants were unable to coalesce on even the most basic agreement. Considering the high stakes, "this is the most acute failure in the history of the NPT," a former American nuclear negotiator, Thomas Graham, said in reference to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Mr. Graham, who led the American mission at a similar conference in 1995, added that he could not remember an atmosphere that was "more negative" than the one at the conference that closes today. The conference, which...

N. Korea Nuke Test Would Pose Challenges By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 10 minutes ago WASHINGTON - A nuclear weapons test by North Korea would reverberate around the world, altering the nuclear balance in Asia and posing stark new challenges for U.S. policy-makers and military planners. Yet, it could also induce China, Russia and other powers to join the United States in seeking U.N.-approved penalties against the hard-line communist country, analysts and diplomats suggest.With U.S. officials increasingly concerned that North Korea may conduct a test soon, how would Washington respond?First, the Bush administration probably would try to...

NEW DELHI: "I have an important announcement to make." That is how Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee began his afternoon announcement seven years back to declare India a nuclear nation. After spending decades as a pacifist in the homespun khadi - preaching non-alignment - it was with this dramatic statement that India donned the controversial nuclear suit. A suit that unfolded the nuclear umbrella over South Asia and triggered global sanctions. Monday, May 11, 1998, also capped years of fear and postponements of the tests. It was a rare success of the Indian establishment in fooling CIA and other intelligence...

IF George W. Bush's first term was dominated by the war against terrorism, the second will be preoccupied with the effort to stem the spread of nuclear weapons. This challenge is more complex than the first. Do we oppose proliferation because of the rogue quality of the two regimes - Iran and North Korea - furthest advanced on the road towards acquiring nuclear weapons? Or is our opposition generic; does it extend to fully democratic countries? How far are we prepared to go in resisting proliferation? Is it possible for one country alone to become the sole custodian of the...