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On March 5, 1970, the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) went into effect, having been ratified by 47 states including the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty legally bars these three nuclear powers from transferring atomic weapons to nonnuclear states and formally pledges those nonnuclear states signing the treaty to refrain from developing such weapons or acquiring them from other powers. It thus caps a long effort by the United States to inhibit—so long as it could not preclude—the spread of nuclear weapons and to avoid the potential instabilities associated with that spread.

Three-and-a-half decades have passed since the energy of the atom was used in warfare. Yet rather than nuclear doom, the world has seen a surprising nuclear stability thus far. Equally remarkable is the fact that over the same period nuclear technology has spread to more than two score nations, yet only a small fraction have chosen to develop nuclear weaponry. A third notable point has been the development of an international nonproliferation regime—a set of rules, norms, and institutions, which haltingly and albeit imperfectly, has discouraged the proliferation of nuclear weapons capability.The wrong policies in the 1980s—i.e., policies that put the United States in an overly rigid position on the nuclear fuel cycle or which lower the priority the United States gives to the issue in security terms—could still sacrifice the current modest success in regime maintenance. Unfortunately, there is no simple solution to the political problem of proliferation. But given the difficulty of constructing international institutions in a world of sovereign states, and the risks attendant upon their collapse, political wisdom begins with efforts to maintain the existing regime with its presumption against proliferation.

COOPERATIVE ARMS CONTROL AND NONPROLIFERATION TREATIES, AGREEMENTS AND CONTROL REGIMES ; COOPERATIVE ARMS CONTROL AND NONPROLIFERATION TREATIES, AGREEMENTS AND CONTROL REGIMES ; CONTENTS ; PREFACE ; Chapter 1 ARMS CONTROL AND NONPROLIFERATION: A CATALOG OF TREATIES AND AGREEMENTS* ; SUMMARY ; INTRODUCTION ; National Security, Arms Control, and Nonproliferation ; The Arms Control Agenda ; ARMS CONTROL BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND STATES OF THE FORMER SOVIET UNION ; The Early Years: SALT I and SALT II ; The Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms.

FY 2013-2014. Project Lead: Brian Finlay ; In East Africa, small arms trafficking, organized crime, human trafficking, terrorist activity, underdevelopment, and nuclear proliferation all share a common denominator: border insecurity. Bridging the security interests of the global North (nonproliferation) and the global South (development) could reduce WMD proliferation supply chains and increase international security. The project aims to address the challenge of porous borders by developing security regimes that formulate a _whole of government_ approach to border management. A plan for Kenya will prioritize sustainable nonproliferation cooperation in Eastern Africa, facilitate U.S. counterterrorism and nonproliferation efforts, and increase local on-the-ground capacity to promote security engagement. ; Defense Threat Reduction Agency ; NA