Proliferation Security Initiative: A New Formula for WMD Counter-Proliferation Efforts?

Abstract

For many years, the worldwide non-proliferation regime—with its core element, the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)—has prevented nuclear proliferation on a global scale. The number of states known to possess nuclear weapons has risen from five in 1968 to eight in 2004. The estimates in the early 1960s held that there could emerge as many as thirty or forty nuclear powers in twenty years’ time. Although the NPT constitutes a major pillar of the multilateral system of collective security, it must be acknowledged that it is fragile and has been seriously weakened by developments of the recent past. The list of challenges to the NPT includes the lack of universality, a crisis of non-compliance, and insufficient safeguard mechanisms. These weaknesses have been highlighted by the emer-