ABSTRACT
Nuclear proliferation poses a grave danger to the international community, but rarely receives concerted high-level governmental attention in the United States or in other concerned countries. The years since 1964 have seen the advent of Israel, India, Pakistan, and South Africa as de facto nuclear weapon states, that is, countries that have deployed nuclear weapons or could do so rapidly in a crisis. Pakistan may have temporarily ceased production of weapons-grade nuclear material in early 1989, but even if it did so, it is thought to be adding to a stockpile of material that could be rapidly improved to the level needed for nuclear arms. The work is being undertaken at the Bhabha Atomic Research Center, the presumed site of India’s nuclear weapons research program, adding to suspicions as to its purpose. Pressures for nuclear testing may grow in all of the countries as they seek to develop advanced nuclear arms.
