ISAS Briefs

The first in a series of three, this paper examines the changes in the global nuclear regime that can result from the agreement between the United States (US) and Russia on the size of their nuclear strategic weapons and the Nuclear Posture Review of the Obama administration. Although Barack Obama is not the first world leader attempting to rationalise the global nuclear order, he has made the same a part of his grand design. He had earlier promised that if elected, he will make a serious effort to create a nuclear-free world and has appeared to have embarked on fulfilling that promise. The paper argues that circumstances that have led the relative newcomers to the nuclear club - China, India, Israel, Pakistan and North Korea - to acquire nuclear weapons, are so different that it will be difficult to limit, let alone eliminate, their arsenals through a single global treaty.