Nuclear Proliferation

Nuclear proliferation refers to the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by nations that did not previously possess them. The spread of nuclear weapons technology has been considered a major threat to global security even before the first nuclear weapons [Page 999]were developed. Between 1945 and 2006, at least eight different states acquired and tested nuclear weapons: the United States (1945), the Soviet Union (1949), the United Kingdom (1952), France (1960), the People’s Republic of China (1964), India (1974), Pakistan (1998), and North Korea (2006). South Africa developed a small arsenal of nuclear weapons in the 1980s but dismantled them in the 1990s. Israel is widely considered to have been a nuclear-armed state since the 1960s, though it has never publicly admitted this. A substantial number ...