UNITED NATIONS — Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, security planners the world over have lost considerable sleep contemplating the prospect of terrorists armed with nuclear weapons.
The world has responded with an array of measures to fight this terrifying possibility. A handful of countries launched the Proliferation Security Initiative in 2003 to interdict the transfer of weapons of mass destructions (WMD) and materials; its supporters now number in the dozens, and it reportedly has a score of interdiction successes. In 2004, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 1540, which requires all states to establish domestic controls to prevent WMD proliferation and their means of delivery. A year later, the U.N. adopted the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism; it has been signed by 115 countries and came into force July 7.
These initiatives target non-state actors and terrorists. The prospect of North Korea and Iran building nuclear arsenals has reminded governments that equal attention must be given to ways that states proliferate. A number of proposals tighten controls over the spread of nuclear knowhow and materials; most of them focus on the reprocessing and enrichment technology that is needed to build a bomb.