International Nuclear Nonproliferation Agreements: Current Status and Future Prospects

On April 5, 2009, President Obama presented in Prague an ambitious three-part strategy to address the international nuclear threat: a) proposing measures to reduce and eventually eliminate existing nuclear arsenals; b) strengthening the Non-Proliferation Treaty and halting proliferation of nuclear weapons to additional states; and c) preventing terrorists from acquiring nuclear weapons or materials. This essay deals with the second topic – halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons. It discusses nuclearrelated international agreements that the international community addressed in 2010: the completed but not entered into force Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the proposed Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT), export controls agreements, and the currently non-formalized Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). Each of these is a stand-alone initiative; they are not mutually dependent, and are independent of any other international binding instrument. The first three come to limit the ability of states to develop and test nuclear weapons, while the fourth is geared to the detection and prevention of the trafficking of nuclear components to and from states and non-state actors.