The nuclear nonproliferation regime is failing in its aim to prevent the spread of devastating weapons around the world, the International Atomic Energy Agency's outgoing chief said yesterday (see GSN, Nov. 3).
(Nov. 5) -
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, shown last month, yesterday said the international community is failing to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons (Atta Kenare/Getty Images).
"We have not done well over the past 25 years," the Wall Street Journal quoted IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei as saying. "If you look at our international security system, it is in tatters."
A nuclear strike is more likely to take place today than during the Cold War, ElBaradei said, adding that the threat would only increase if extremists acquired a nuclear bomb.
Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano is expected to succeed ElBaradei after he steps down from his post at the end of November (see GSN, Sept. 15; Joe Lauria, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 5).
Nations increasingly view the acquisition of a nuclear deterrent as a path to "power, prestige, and an insurance policy" against aggression by outside forces, ElBaradei told members of the Council on Foreign Relations, according to the Christian Science Monitor.
Still, he noted two reasons for some optimism: a concerted effort by the Obama administration to move the world toward eventual nuclear disarmament and Washington's diplomatic outreach to Iran (see related GSN story, today).
ElBaradei said his agency should receive greater authority to conduct investigations of nuclear operations. He said such power could help the U.N. nuclear watchdog prevent new conflicts like the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which was partly justified by an incorrect assertion that the nation possessed weapons of mass destruction (see GSN, Aug. 11).
"I will always lament the fact that a tragic war was launched ... on the basis of a false pretext," he said Monday in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly.
A system in which nuclear fuel operations are "not a national prerogative but a multinational function" is one strategy for addressing nuclear security concerns, ElBaradei said. Ensuring that all nations have fair access to nuclear technology is another, he added: "You can't have a system of haves and have-nots" (Howard LaFranchi, Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 4).