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Can the Spread of Nuclear Weapons Be Stopped?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

E. L. M. Burns
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Extract

Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons is one facet of the problem of preventing nuclear war, a problem which has engaged the statesmen of the world ever since the dust of the Nagasaki explosion settled. In the Truman-Attlee-King declaration of November 15, 1945, the President of the United States, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Prime Minister of Canada proposed that the United Nations set up a commission to study how atomic energy could be controlled so as to limit its use to peaceful purposes, how atomic weapons could be eliminated from national armaments, and how safeguards could be set up so as to ensure that all nations would comply widi the obligations which they undertook to these ends. Thus fell to the United Nations one of the most intractable problems of international organization, a problem which might be looked on as the creation of a new sphere of international law.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Organization , Volume 19 , Issue 4 , Fall 1965 , pp. 851 - 869
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1965

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References

1 Various terms have been used to denote the process which it is desired to prevent: dissemination, diffusion, dispersion, proliferation, or simply the spread of nuclear weapons. Specialists have disputed over the semantics, but it seems to the present writer that none of the arguments in favor of one term or another is conclusive. What it is really desired to prevent is that more nations should become nuclear powers, diat is, that there should be no additions to the present “nuclear club” of five Great Powers.

2 How is a “nuclear power” defined? It is suggested that it should mean a nation which has the authority, independent of consent by any other nation, to dispatch a nuclear weapon as an act of war. If more precision were required, one could attach the adjectives “independent” or “sovereign” to the phrase “nuclear power.” A new independent nuclear power might eidier acquire the nuclear bombs or warheads and the bombing aircraft or rockets to deliver them from existing nuclear powers or produce them from its own resources and by its own effort.

3 For a detailed account of British development of nuclear weapons and the difficulties encountered, see Rosecrance, Richard N. (ed.). The Dispersion of Nuclear Weapons (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964)Google Scholar, Chapters 3–5.

4 Le Figaro (Paris), 01 15, 1963Google Scholar. Translation by the author.

5 SeeFrance's First Atomic Explosion (Washington, D.C: Embassy of France, Press and Information Division, 02 13, 1960)Google Scholar.

6 The New York Times, August 26, 1964, pp. 1, 29.

7 The New York Times, September 8, 1964, p. 18.

8 Document ENDC/C. I/PV.9, pp. 12–17.

9 Ibid., pp. 18–22, 31.

10 See Mr. Fedorenko's statement in UN Document DC/PV.72, pp. 36–41.

11 UN Document DC/PV.73, pp. 10–11.

12 UN Document DC/PV.76, p. 72.

13 The New York Times, October 17, 1964, p. 10.

14 See The New York Times, November 25, 1964, p. 3.

15 Quoted by Ambassador Stevenson in his statement to the Disarmament Commission, April 26, 1965 (UN Document DC/PV.73, p. 27).

16 UN Document DC/PV.75, p. 16.

17 Ibid., pp. 16–17.

18 See General Assembly Resolution 1664 (XVI) of December 4, 1961, and UN Documents DC/201/Add.2 and DC/204/Add.I.

19 UN Document DC/PV.77, p. 52.

20 lbid., p. 45.

21 UN Document DC/PV.79, p. 42. Italics added.

22 The Nuclear Problem and Arms Control (Planning Pamphlet No. 108) (Washington, D.C: National Planning Association, 1960)Google Scholar.

23 The Spread of Nuclear Weapons (London: Chatto & Windus [for the Institute of Strategic Studies], 1962)Google Scholar.

24 Rosecrance, Richard N. (ed.), The Dispersion of Nuclear Weapons (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964)Google Scholar.