Strategic Assessment

The decade ending in the mid-1990s could perhaps be referred to as the golden years of the non-proliferation regimes of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) was born and was well on the way to establishment, a protocol for the verification of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was being discussed in Geneva, and talks began on a Fissile Materials Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted the “œAdditional Protocol,” a much stricter verification mechanism than the existing obligatory arrangements. At the end of this period, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was extended indefinitely. In the following years, however, problems began to appear. Iraq and North Korea presented troublesome areas, although the world at first believed that it had dealt with them effectively. The Indian and Pakistani nuclear explosions that occurred were deemed a serious cause for concern but were not seen as undermining the NPT regime since both states were not parties to this treaty.