Yesterday marked the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and the beginning of the end of the World War II. Within seconds, hundreds of thousands of people perished and thousands more continued to suffer from radiation-related illnesses in years to come. The two cities were reduced to rubble.
Nuclear weapons, the most formidable and destructive weapons ever invented and then built by mankind, have cast a dark shadow over humanity for six decades. In the wake of the horrific explosions, the international community sought to bring the genie under control, if not put it back in the bottle, through the Baruch Plan. But the onset of the Cold War rendered this first nuclear arms control effort a futile one.
Between 1949 and 1964, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and China all acquired nuclear weapons capabilities. The world lived under the danger of nuclear Armageddon as the US and the Soviet Union competed for primacy and each built huge nuclear arsenals.
The 1962 Cuban Missile crisis and the concern over the spread of nuclear weapons to other countries led to the negotiation and conclusion of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968. Since its entry into force in 1970, the NPT has become the most inclusive and legally binding international treaty committing nations to forswear and eventually give up nuclear weapons.
It helped persuade countries such as Argentina and Brazil to halt their nuclear weapons program; secured the accession of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan as non-nuclear weapons states in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's breakup; and it saw South Africa give up its nuclear arsenal.
But the treaty is facing serious challenges today. The NPT has yet to achieve universality as India, Pakistan and Israel -- three states that either have or are assumed to have nuclear weapons -- remain outside of the regime. In addition, North Korea's withdrawal from the treaty and Iran's controversial nuclear program have further undermined the international nuclear nonproliferation regime. And there is the growing threat of nuclear terrorism.
Closer to home, East Asia remains a region with unresolved historical grievances, territorial disputes, divided nations and growing rivalry. Three nuclear weapons states have important -- and at times conflicting -- security interests in the region. Both Taiwan and South Korea in the past tinkered with the idea of acquiring nuclear weapons.
Likewise, Japan also considered modifying its nuclear weapons policy at one time. A nuclear arms race is never a far-fetched scenario in this volatile geostrategic hotspot.
On the anniversaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is all the more important to reinvigorate efforts to prevent such horror and destruction from occurring in our life time or in that of future generations. Several steps need to be taken.
First, nuclear states must reconfirm their commitment to disarmament and establish a credible and realistic timetable toward that end. Serious negotiation should include all nuclear weapons states and the framework agreed upon must be legally binding and with enforceable and verifiable milestones and targets.
Second, the use and threat of using nuclear weapons must be de-legitimized. Nuclear weapons states should adopt the no-first-use principle and re-pledge their security assurance to non-nuclear weapons states. Research and development of new types of nuclear weapons would only encourage countermeasures and hence lower the threshold for their use.
Third, member states must re-define what is and what is not permissible peaceful nuclear use, in particular the critical phases of nuclear fuel cycle -- uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing -- that could contribute to development of nuclear weapons. In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) ability to conduct inspections and enforce compliance must be strengthened.
Fourth, efforts must also be made to safeguard the security of nuclear facilities and materials to prevent acquisition and attacks by terrorist groups. UN Security Council Resolution 1540, which calls on member states to enforce national export controls to prevent terrorist access to items and technologies relevant to the development of weapons of mass destruction, needs to be fully implemented.
Finally, the international community must address the issues of poverty and inequality, and inter-state disputes and rivalry, which are the sources of conflicts and armament, including the pursuit of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Confidence-building, peace and development can go a long way toward eliminating some of these woes.
On a day of memory and prayers, the best way to ensure that the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will not be forgotten and are never allowed to happen again is to make every effort to prevent the future use of nuclear weapons, strengthen international nonproliferation efforts and strive for the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons.
Yuan Jing-dong is research director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and an associate professor of international policy studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017