The End of the Cold War and the Future of Nuclear Proliferation

Abstract

Nuclear proliferation has threatened international security since the United States first developed and used atomic weapons almost fifty years ago, but the end of the cold war and the disintegration of the Soviet Union have focused new attention on an old problem. The neorealists base their predictions for accelerated nuclear proliferation on the assumption that the end of bipolarity means the end of cooperation among the developed, democratic states, or core. The neorealists argue that in an anarchical international environment cooperation on matters of security follows from the distribution of power among the actors in the system. A number of scholars challenge the neorealist assumption that anarchy characterizes international relations. Balance of power theory provides a useful starting point for understanding the security dilemma that plagues many states, but even neorealist scholars recognize the difficulties presented by Kenneth Waltz’s spare theory.