In 1939, Albert Einstein
and other physicists sent a letter to President Franklin D Roosevelt
warning him that Nazi Germany was developing a uranium based bomb,
a weapon vastly more destructive than any in existence.
The physicist urged President Roosevelt to develop a research program
aimed at producing an atomic weapon before Germany did.
In response, the United States commissioned the Manhattan Project
from 1942 to 1945, with the United States enmeshed in World War Two.
Thousands of scientists and engineers worked in secret
to build a new weapon based on nuclear fission.
The process of splitting the nucleus of a uranium or plutonium atom
to generate energy that can be used to produce a highly destructive
nuclear weapon, otherwise known as an atomic bomb,
desiring a quick and decisive end to the war in the Pacific.
President Harry Truman and his allies warned Japanese leaders
of prompt and utter destruction if they did not surrender.
On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on on Hiroshima.
The blast and accompanying radiation destroyed five square miles of the city
and resulted in over 100,000 deaths.
Three days later, the United States drops an even more powerful bomb
on Nagasaki, Japan, resulting in an estimated 70,000 deaths.
Less than a week later, the Japanese surrendered.
The nuclear age had begun.
It quickly became clear with the development of atomic weapons,
first by the Soviet Union and later by the United Kingdom, France and China
that the American monopoly on nuclear weapons would not last.
Posing an enduring concern for American foreign policy
and the entire world in foreign policy.
Proliferation refers to the spread
or increase of military technologies and systems.
Nonproliferation refers to the tools
and policies used to prevent or stop this spread.
Though these terms can refer to various capabilities,
nuclear weapons have received the greatest focus
because they are so destructive and dangerous.
The goal is to limit those nuclear capabilities that exist and prevent
their spread to additional countries or terrorist groups.
Since the advent of nuclear weapons, countries have sought them in the belief
that they provide protection
from attack and for their prestige and destructive power.
After World War Two, many leaders and scholars grew concerned
that nuclear proliferation would become widespread, raising the danger
these weapons would be used again This was the context of John F Kennedy,
whose commencement address at American University in 1963
in which he called for steps to reduce the dangers of nuclear development.
Today the expenditure of billions of dollars every year
on weapons acquired for
the purpose of making sure we never need them
is essential to keeping a peace.
But surely the acquisition
of such idle stockpiles
which can only destroy and never create is not the only.
Much less the most efficient means of assuring peace.
Negotiate means to stem proliferation culminated in 1968 with the Treaty
on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons also known as the NPT.
The treaties three main objectives known as the three pillars
are nonproliferation, which again is preventing states and non-state actors
that do not have nuclear weapons from acquiring or building them.
The peaceful use of nuclear energy or promoting access for all countries
to nuclear technology for nonmilitary use such as for generating power
and disarmament, or the idea that the United States
and other countries with nuclear weapons would eventually relinquish them
190 countries are parties to the NPT.
However, for countries that possess nuclear weapons
India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea are not.
The NPT also allows withdrawal, so it does not prevent countries
from renouncing the treaty and developing or acquiring nuclear weapons.
Today, nonproliferation efforts center on two main concerns.
The first preventing new countries from getting nuclear weapons
was the aim of the United States and other powers in their 2015
agreement with Iran, which limited the activities
and capabilities of Iran's nuclear program.
And impose monitoring to verify Iran's compliance.
The deal, however, is not a conclusive resolution.
As its terms begin to expire in 2025.
The second main concern revolves around existing
nuclear weapons states that are judged to pose a threat
most notably North Korea's
nuclear arsenal and its increasingly capable missiles
pose a threat to its neighbors and potentially to the United States.
Another threat is the prospect that a country with nuclear weapons
could lose control of nuclear material or purposely transfer it to
a terrorist group.
The United States and other countries
use a range of policies and tools to advance nonproliferation goals.
Arms control agreements are one example.
Another is guaranteeing the security of allies
so they see no need for their own nuclear weapons.
International institutions and inspectors also monitor many nuclear facilities
and discourage the trade of relevant items.
Imposing sanctions to dissuade
countries from nuclear development is another strategy.
As is covert or military action to stop shipment of critical technologies
and materials or to destroy weapons or facilities.
Nonproliferation and efforts have in part succeeded.
Only nine countries have developed nuclear weapons in the last 70 years,
and many countries with the capability to do so have chosen not to.
Nuclear proliferation, however, remains a real threat,
one with the potential to have enormous consequences
and