Human Security: US Leadership on Counter-Proliferation

Abstract

Among myriad transnational challenges, the threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation surely ranks among the more perilous. At a March 2012 summit in Seoul, President Obama laid out his longer-term vision for a nuclear free world, stating that “Nuclear terrorism is one of the most urgent and serious threats to global security” and “this is one of those challenges in our interconnected world that can only be met when we work as an international community.” Seven years earlier, Senator Richard Lugar had conducted a survey assessing the chances of a nuclear attack somewhere in the world within the next ten years. Some 60 per cent of experts placed the risk between 10 and 50 per cent (Lugar, 2005). Indeed, “it’s hard to find an analyst or commentator on nuclear proliferation who is not pessimistic about the future” (Potter and Mukhatzhanova, 2008).