Nuclear Proliferation in Asian Countries

Running head: NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
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NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
Introduction
The countries in the world are concerned about the issue of nuclear proliferation. The
Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed in 1968 by around 190 countries to stop the
proliferation of nuclear weapons (Un.org, 2019). However, after the September 11, 2001 attacks
on the United States, debates regarding whether the treaty is viable or not came up. While some
argue that the treaty is obsolete, others view that it has been ineffective in stopping the
proliferation of nuclear weapons throughout the world (Belfercenter.org, 2019). As of now,
countries like India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea have not signed the NPT. Prior to
understanding the significance of this, it is important to understand the meaning of nuclear
proliferation. Nuclear proliferation refers to the expansion of nuclear weapons, the materials
associated with it and the widening of nuclear technology to countries that have not been
recognized as nuclear weapon states according to the Nonproliferation Treaty. The proliferation
of nuclear weapons is considered a severe issue because the nations fear that it might lead to a
nuclear warfare.
The aim of this essay is to argue that nuclear proliferation is a problem especially in the
circumstances when it could be accessed easily by terrorist organizations. The argument will
mainly focus on the nuclear proliferation in two countries namely India and Pakistan, the two
countries that are always at warheads. The essay will first provide an elaborate explanation of
nuclear proliferation. Then, the essay will shed light on the steps taken for controlling the
proliferation of nuclear weapons. It will then discuss the issues of nuclear proliferation in the
world followed by the issues faced in the Asian region. In doing so, the essay will include
evidences from different sources that are credible.

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NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
Nuclear proliferation
As already mentioned in the previous section, nuclear proliferation refers to increase of
nuclear weapons, its technologies and the fissile material to nations that do not previously
possess these things. It also refers to the probable attainment of nuclear weapons by the terrorist
organizations. The nuclear proliferation history goes long back to the years during the Second
World War. The United States first intensified its attempts to acquire nuclear weapons in the fear
that the Nazi Germany might have access to nuclear weapons, which might be devastating for the
world. In July 1945, the world witnessed the first atomic bomb produced by the US under the
Manhattan Project. Three weeks after the introduction, the history of the world change when the
US plunged the two bombs on the two cities of Japan – Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the coming
years, the US, Great Britain and the Soviet Union performed numerous nuclear weapon tests.
During the Cold War period especially, the creation and possession of nuclear bombs became
essential for the two superpowers of Russia and America. The race to become the most powerful
led to the development of even more dominant thermonuclear bomb known as the Hydrogen
bomb or the H-bomb. Due to such a competition, it was found that the two countries possessed
enough nuclear warheads to eliminate all life on the earth. Monteiro and Debs (2014) talk about
the logic behind nuclear proliferation states that to acquire nuclear weapons, the states must have
the “willingness and the opportunity to proliferate”. While willingness refers to the serious
security facing a country and no ally is willing to protect it, opportunity refers to the high relative
power possessed by the state. The two nations had both the willingness and the opportunity to
proliferate nuclear weapons. Reiter (2014) on the other hand, holds that the acquisition of nuclear
weapon is connected to the threatening environment where a state feels threatened about its
national security. It could be a reason behind the countries attempting to proliferate or acquire

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NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION IN ASIAN COUNTRIES
more and more nuclear weapons. However, one of the biggest threats of nuclear proliferation in
the contemporary era is that it might go into the hands of the terrorists who are in need of such
weapons to establish their fear. Brown and Kaplow (2014) however revealed in their study that
the pursuit of nuclear weapons by the state increases with the increase in assistance from the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The organization administering the Technical
Cooperation (TC) program is an important factor that instigates states to pursue nuclear weapons.
These factors have further led to the proliferation of the nuclear weapons.
Steps taken
With such a threat in view as to the extinction of the earth, the then US President Dwight
D. Eisenhower launched the Atoms for Peace Program in 1953 that provided nuclear technology
(nonmilitary) to the countries that had rejected it. The then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru called for a worldwide ban on nuclear testing and this became the first global scale call for
ban on nuclear weapons. Then in 1957, Eisenhower’s program led to the creation of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an organization under the United Nations that
promoted the peaceful and safe application of nuclear technology. Further, the increasing threat
of nuclear weapons across the globe led to the signing of the Treaty of Non-proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons also known as the Non-proliferation Treaty or NPT. The treaty was concluded
in the Soviet Union, the UK, France, China and the US in the year 1968. The treaty came into
effect in the year 1970. Under the treaty, the states countries possessing nuclear weapons had to
make available the nonmilitary nuclear weapons to other countries not having any nuclear
technology and the disarmament of their own nuclear weapons. In exchange of this, the states
with no nuclear weapons had to pledge that they would not obtain or transfer nuclear weapon or
technology from other countries and adhere to IAEA regulations. Müller (2017) however argues