NON-PROLIFERATION ISSUE IN THE NUCLEAR POLICY OF THE USA IN THE 21ST CENTURY: ANALYSIS OF BASIC DOCUMENTS

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the evolution of the nuclear policy of the United States of America in the field of non-proliferation in the XXI century. It is noted that the USA, as one of the first nuclear powers, pays considerable attention to this issue in order to maintain the stability of the non-proliferation regime and international security. Based on the methodology of content analysis and qualitative methodology, the principles, priorities, and primary methods of the strategy of the administration of the White House regarding countering nuclear proliferation are determined on the basis of the fundamental documents of the USA, speeches of officials, and researchers. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to study the basic elements of the US nuclear non-proliferation policy and assess how successful this policy is considered to be, in particular, based on the examples of Iran and North Korea. In order to achieve this goal, the study gradually reveals changes in the security environment in the context of the threat of proliferation of nuclear weapons and means of delivery, and how this affects the policies of the US presidents’ administrations. Through the prism of such documents as the Nuclear Policy Review and the National Security Strategy of the United States, the main threats are defined, and therefore the priorities and concepts that form the general strategy of Washington to counter the proliferation of WMD. The article shows that in the XXI century, among the main threats to both the United States, its allies and partners, as well as the non-proliferation regime in general, attention is significantly focused on the problems associated with the existence and development of nuclear and missile programs of such states as Iran and North Korea. Therefore, the author analyses how official Washington elaborates a strategy towards the nuclear weapons proliferation problem, how the approaches of different administrations to counter these threats are changing, and which methods and approaches were used. In order to understand, how successful the strategy of individual administrations of US presidents was, the assessments of leading researchers and their arguments are studied. The conclusions summarize the results of the conducted research and reveal the author’s vision of the problem.