Originally published on the CGS blog on June 20, 2008.
Abdul Qadeer Khan (A.Q. Khan), Pakistani scientist and metallurgical engineer, originally admitted to working with Libya, Iran, and North Korea on nuclear proliferation; although he later retracted his participation in such activities. Following a confession in February 2004, A.Q. Khan was put on house arrest because of the fact that he had provided those countries with information and technology to develop nuclear weapons.
Unfortunately, since the time of Khan’s house arrest, he has allegedly been secretly developing blueprints for a relatively small and compact warhead. Analysts have purported that the designs would likely be of greatest use for Iran and North Korea – since both states have faced difficulty creating native weapons.
Given Khan’s back-and-forth history of confessions and retractions, he is clearly not a man whom the U.S., nor the international community, can trust to succomb to goals of non-proliferation. Just as the U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists – because they cannot be trusted – we must not be tricked into negotiating with Khan.
With the introduction of START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), initiated by Reagan in Geneva on June 29, 1982, the U.S. and USSR agreed to commence a process of not just limiting but actually reducing the overall warhead count. Given the amount of nuclear weapons currently in the world, non-proliferation is an appealing method, similar to that of START, to reduce the amount of weapons countries possess by creating multilateral agreements.
Practically, we must not lose sight of the fact that non-proliferation cannot be achieved merely by recognized states agreeing to reduction. The discovery of Khan’s secret methods of producing weapons sheds light on the reality that terrorists and individuals possess the knowledge, and potential capabilities, to produce their own nuclear and ballistic weapons. If non-proliferation were just a matter of negotiating between and among states, we could have faith in the world to become a safer place – but clearly, we do not have control over all who desire to create a more dangerous world.
