It had been clear from the outset that one of US President Barack Obama’s priorities in his foreign policy would be the promotion of the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons technology. The fear of nuclear terrorism pervaded even his eloquent espousal of the elimination of nuclear weapons in Prague this spring, and his solution was the strengthening of the 40-year-old Non-Proliferation Treaty. The flurry of activity during the current session of the United Nations General Assembly, his “stern message” to the international community (to quote a US commentator), the attendance by the US secretary of state at the conference of the Organisation of the CTBT Member States and the unanimous UN Security Council resolution on non-proliferation would appear to have fixed the international agenda on nuclear issues for the immediate future at least.

Non-proliferation has always been an American foreign policy objective: the restriction of nuclear weapons and related technology to as few countries as possible was seen to serve US security interests. Forty years ago, the Soviet Union was drawn into this approach at a broad level, even while bilaterally the nuclear arms race flourished. The NPT was the product of this approach, one that was bought by almost all countries, those with the industrial base to have nuclear ambitions and those without. It is significant that the infamous Article XIV on entry into force of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty identified only 44 countries with the potential of nuclear weapons, out of a UN membership of 192 countries — and not all those 44 are in agreement with

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