The Peddling Peril Index 2019/2020

Business & Money

Stricker, Andrea

Albright, David

Burkhard, Sarah

International

Independently published

In 1989, South Africa made the momentous decision to abandon its nuclear weapons, making it the first and still the only country that has produced nuclear weapons and given them up. Over thirty years, the apartheid regime had created a remarkably sophisticated capability to build nuclear weapons—both the nuclear warhead and advanced military systems to deliver them. The program was born in secret and remained so until its end. The government initially sought to dismantle it in secret. It hoped to avoid any negative international consequences of possessing nuclear weapons. The apartheid government’s strategy did not work, because too many intelligence agencies knew about South Africa’s nuclear weapons. Faced with intense pressure, South Africa’s President F.W. de Klerk reversed course and adopted a policy of transparency in 1993. However, he decided to hide many of its aspects. Nonetheless, most of the remaining secrets emerged over the ensuing 25 years. Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program draws on previously secret information to provide the first comprehensive, technically-oriented look at South Africa’s nuclear weapons program; how it grew, evolved, and ended. It also finds lessons for today’s nuclear proliferation cases.

Revisiting South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program: Its History, Dismantlement, and Lessons for Toda

History

Albright, David H

Military

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Thirty years ago, in 1988, the United States secretly moved to end once and for all Taiwan’s nuclear weapons program, just as it was nearing the point of being able to rapidly break out to build nuclear weapons. Because intense secrecy has followed Taiwan’s nuclear weapons program and its demise, this book is the first account of that program’s history and dismantlement. Taiwan’s nuclear weapons program made more progress and was working on much more sophisticated nuclear weapons than publicly recognized. It came dangerously close to fruition. Taipei excelled at the misuse of civilian nuclear programs to seek nuclear weapons and implemented capabilities to significantly reduce the time needed to build them, following a decision to do so. Despite Taiwan’s efforts to hide these activities, the United States was able to gather incriminating evidence that allowed it to act, effectively denuclearizing a dangerous, destabilizing program, that if left unchecked, could have set up a potentially disastrous confrontation with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The Taiwan case is rich in findings for addressing today’s nuclear proliferation challenges.

Taiwan's Former Nuclear Weapons Program: Nuclear Weapons On-Demand

How well do strategic export controls function to stop the spread of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction? The Peddling Peril Index (PPI) is the first comprehensive and in-depth ranking of the effectiveness of strategic export controls by country. It ranks 200 countries, territories, and entities according to their capabilities and demonstrated successes in implementing export controls. These controls are key to thwarting the spread of nuclear weapons, other destructive weapons, and the means to make them to additional states or non-state actors. The PPI assesses the actual implementation of strategic export controls by each nation, among groups of countries such as suppliers and transshipment countries, and thematically. It evaluates a broad set of indicators that build on an extensive survey of countries' export controls, including international commitment, legislation, ability to detect illicit trade, proliferation financing, and enforcement. The PPI project grew out of more than two decades of work by the Institute on understanding and characterizing illicit nuclear trade. A 2010 book, Peddling Peril, by Institute founder and president David Albright, is the project's namesake. The PPI seeks to highlight where countries are lagging in implementing strategic export controls and to provide information and a basis for countries to improve their efforts. Its goal is to work for strengthened export control systems worldwide.

Peddling Peril Index: The First Ranking of Strategic Export Controls

Lach, Allison

Education & Reference

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