![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
You are in: Asia-Pacific | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() |
|
![]() |
Monday, 21 October, 2002, 15:07 GMT 16:07 UK
Analysis: Non-proliferation and the 'war on terror'
![]() North Korea may already have a nuclear bomb
Halting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction has become one of the central goals of the Bush administration's foreign policy. It is the linkage with weapons proliferation that gives the US war against terrorism its peculiar thrust, explaining how a military campaign to topple the Iraqi regime can be linked to a wider struggle against "terrorism with a global reach".
The three principle countries of US concern - Iraq, Iran and North Korea - have earned for themselves a new label in the Bush diplomatic lexicon - dubbed by the President as an "axis of evil". These are countries which:
That is the philosophical underpinning of the Bush administration's approach. Complex issue But the very different problems posed by Iraq and North Korea underline the inadequacy of seemingly simple characterisations like the "axis of evil".
Pakistan already has nuclear weapons making its own domestic instability of much greater concern. And the collapse of the Soviet Union has left many scientists and technicians without adequate employment. A number of US-funded programmes have sought to keep key people in work but most arms control experts believe that much more needs to be done to safeguard the dangerous nuclear, chemical and biological legacy bequeathed by the Soviets. And as Iraq's indigenous weapons programmes have demonstrated, controlling knowledge and know-how is one of the hardest elements of the non-proliferation puzzle. Diplomacy option The Bush team's emphasis on pre-emption - what some have termed "counter proliferation" - may be appropriate in some cases. It is certainly one way of securing Iraq's disarmament. But this policy could hardly be applied to North Korea which may already have the bomb and which could devastate large parts of its southern neighbour in any conflict. With Pyongyang the Americans are probably going to have to settle for diplomacy, buying out the North Korean nuclear programme if possible, and for that they are going to need powerful regional allies. Non-proliferation thus requires a mixture of unilateral and multilateral actions. But the fear among at least some arms control advocates is that President Bush has simply got the balance wrong. America often appears disdainful of the sorts of treaties and multilateral regimes that it recommends to others. They argue that Washington's new emphasis upon military dominance threatens to tear asunder the very fabric of arms control at a time when this foundation is needed more than ever. |
![]() |
See also:
![]()
21 Oct 02 | Asia-Pacific
21 Oct 02 | Middle East
18 Oct 02 | South Asia
17 Oct 02 | Asia-Pacific
17 Oct 02 | Asia-Pacific
17 Oct 02 | Asia-Pacific
17 Oct 02 | Asia-Pacific
Internet links:
![]() The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Asia-Pacific stories now:
![]() ![]() Links to more Asia-Pacific stories are at the foot of the page.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Links to more Asia-Pacific stories |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To BBC Sport>> | To BBC Weather>> | To BBC World Service>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © MMIII | News Sources | Privacy |