ABSTRACT

Non-proliferation and counter-proliferation are sometimes seen as competing concepts, but this is not necessarily so. They are complementary strategies that actually utilize many similar tools. Both concepts are highly relevant to the global goal of stopping the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their delivery systems. From the point of view of nations against whom these tools are employed, the strategies may seem unfair and discriminatory. In particular, India and Pakistan have consistently railed against the perceived inequities of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) because it codifies a division between the five states that exploded a nuclear device before 1967 and the rest of the nations of the world, which can only sign the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states. Other nations see it differently. Most agree that the five nuclear weapons states should move more resolutely towards a nuclear weapons-free world. In the meantime, for the sake of regional and global security it is imperative to pursue an array of non-proliferation and counter-proliferation strategies in order to stop the spread of these annihilating weapons.