Search

The presentations at the short course that were the basis of the present Proceedings covered many critical issues related to the objective of eliminating nuclear weapons as a means of ensuring global security and stability. This paper is based on the concluding talk, which briefly reviewed the course, offered a net assessment of where the project of elimination - a policy objective for nearly all the world's states - stands, and discussed some of the factors that need to be dealt with in achieving a nuclear weapon free world. These include understanding what "proliferation" means and how it has changed over time, how the spread of nuclear weapons has proceeded over time, both "vertical" in numbers and "horizontal" to additional countries, what way the "vector" of reversing proliferation is pointing, and the roles of nuclear energy and international governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]