Asia's nuclear challenge

Abstract

Although the cold war ended 17 years ago, studies and reports on foreign affairs are, most of the time, dreary or pessimistic. True enough, the state of the 'Greater Middle East' and Africa's dramas are causes for deep concern, but Asia is also pointed at, because of its population, its growth rates, its exports of industrial goods, its social imbalances, its political emergence, its military budgets, the arms race and nuclear proliferation going on there. China, India, Pakistan, North Korea: the East is seen as the main actor undermining the universal non-proliferation rules and institutions. Is it really so? Until now, the non-proliferation system has been rather efficient, even in Asia; it should be backed and could be strengthened.