More than 40 countries now have the technical and material ability to develop nuclear weapons, should they decide to do so. And chemical weapons have been used, most recently in war by Iraq and by terrorists in Tokyo's subway. The case of Iraq reminds us that biological weapons are also attractive to outlaw governments and groups. And recalling the World Trade Center and Oklahoma City bombings, we must ponder how even more awful the suffering would have been if even primitive nuclear, chemical or biological weapons had fallen into the wrong hands. Cold War constraints are gone.
Technology is widely available.
Even as we work to counter these dangers militarily, we must work to contain them through arms control. In 1995, we succeeded in making the NPT permanent. We are strengthening its safeguards. On May 15 the IAEA Board approved an enhanced safeguards initiative adding new technologies and access, such as environmental monitoring away from declared facilities, to help make sure that nuclear weapons programs are not being concealed from inspectors. So we gain security to the extent we lock all nations in place on the nuclear weapons learning curve.