Publications

A changing security environment makes new thinking about weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and nuclear weapons in particular, more important than ever. To develop new approaches to this problem, the Pacific Forum CSIS, working through the Council on Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP), has for four years chaired a Study Group on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Asia Pacific. This group has worked assiduously – and with some success – to raise awareness among Asia Pacific nations of the seriousness of the WMD threat.

Even countries that appreciate the WMD threat complain that the attention to nonproliferation should not – must not – overshadow or diminish the obligations of the five nuclear weapons states to reduce their arsenals; the disarmament bargain of Article VI of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) must be honored. A renewed commitment to that goal, and progress toward it, would go a long way to help build or reinforce international consensus behind efforts to stop the spread of WMD. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, new ideas are needed to jumpstart thinking about how to realize the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons.