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1 The Problems of Our Time: Nuclear Proliferation and Nuclear Terrorism D i s a r m a m e n t a n d a r m s c o n t r o l a r e n o t new. In 1139, at the Second Lateran Council, Pope Innocent II outlawed the crossbow, declaring it to be “hateful to God and unfit for Christians.” The crossbow was later overtaken in effectiveness by the English longbow. The crossbow and the longbow were then eclipsed by the destructive firepower of the cannon . The Church also banned the rifle when it appeared, but military technology continued to develop over the centuries, and diplomacy and arms control efforts could not keep pace. This changed with the advent of the atomic bomb in 1945. For the first time, humanity possessed a weapon with which it could destroy itself. Disarmament efforts gradually gained momentum, and over time a web of international treaties and agreements have been constructed that have inhibited the spread of nuclear, chemical , and biological weapons and limited their development. 9 There is no question but that these efforts have changed the course of history. Nuclear weapons are truly a thing apart. The atomic bomb used against Hiroshima in 1945 was 12.5 kilotons, the equivalent in explosive power of 12,500 tons of tnt. In the mid-1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union were testing nuclear weapons in the megaton range, equivalent to one million tons of tnt. For reference, one megaton roughly compares to a freight train loaded with tnt, stretching from New York to Los Angeles. In the 1960s, the United States deployed (operationally placed in the field) missiles in underground silo launchers around the country, each with a 9-megaton warhead. Just one of these weapons detonated at the Washington Monument could have more or less destroyed Washington, D.C., out to the capital beltway in every direction (an approximately fifteen-mile radius). The United States routinely carried multiple bombs on its b-52 bombers, each with the explosive power of 25 megatons. One of these bombers carried more explosive power than was used by all the sides in World War II. The Soviet Union deployed intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads comparable to these bomber weapons. Soon after 1945, a vast nuclear arms race was underway. By the 1960s, it appeared as if nuclear weapons would spread all over the world. There were reports issued in 1962 estimating that by the end of the 1970s there would be twenty-five to thirty states with nuclear weapons integrated into their national arsenals and ready for use. Had this happened, there would likely be more than fifty nuclear weapon states today. This would have created a nightmarish world. Nuclear weapons would be so widespread that it would be impossible to keep them out of the hands of terrorists, and every conflict would run the risk of “going nuclear.” In 1960, when France detonated its first nuclear weapon, the headlines in French newspapers read “Vive la France!” Fourteen 1 0 / t h e p r o b l e m s o f o u r t i m e years later, India’s first nuclear explosion, figuratively conducted in the middle of the night, received worldwide condemnation. What intervened? The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (npt), signed in 1968, entered into force in 1970, and indefinitely extended in 1995, converted what had been an act of national pride (the acquisition of nuclear weapons) into an act considered contrary to the practices of the civilized world. The then five nuclear weapon states (the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China) agreed to certain nuclear arms control and disarmament commitments, including deep reductions in nuclear weapons leading to their eventual complete elimination, a ban on nuclear test explosions, and a pledge never to use nuclear weapons against nonnuclear weapon parties. In exchange, most of the rest of the world agreed never to acquire nuclear weapons. In effect, the npt made the acquisition of nuclear weapons by countries that joined the npt as nonnuclear weapon states (currently some 182 countries) a violation of international law. The three states that refused to join the npt as nonnuclear weapon states and that built nuclear weapons—India, Pakistan, and Israel—are for this reason considered as somewhat outside of the world community, and votes at the United Nations and at international conferences re...

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