The World of Nuclear Weapons: A Response

RESPONSE TO THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIAL "The World of Nuclear Weapons" (See Next Post to read the article)

Dear Editor:

The Nuclear Weapons issue is a very complicated issue. While the aspect of the threat this poses to the United States is quite well captured in the article, what the article doesnot explain is some of the complexity behind the reasons why each of these states try to acquire this technology.

The reasons for North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons is completely different from the reason for Iran to acquire them. Similarly the reason India acquired this technology is very different from why Pakistan exploded theirs. Regional power struggle issues are in some cases the drivers for these countries to acquire nuclear weapons.

US policy, I feel, focuses mainly on the threat these weapons pose to US. While this is a valid concern it only focuses on one aspect of the issue. There seems no efforts by current US administration to satisfy other legitimate concerns of these states. Also in the case of Iran and North Korea, Nuclear Weapons issue is, but one issue, part of a complex relationship with the US that needs to be addressed by this countries policy towards these countries.

The threat posed by terrorists acquiring these weapons is another aspect of this. Here fits Russia, Pakistan and other countries which possess this technology but donot have enough controls in place to ensure that these weapons donot fall into the wrong hands.

Unfortunately since 9/11 and the "with us or against us" rhetoric some of the complexity of these issues have been couched in highly simplistic terms without addressing the underlying problems.