This book addresses the strategic challenges and proposes alternative international remedies set in historical and regulatory contexts that suggest that nations should increase international scrutiny of atomic power in order to minimize risks. .

Almost two dozen nations currently generate nuclear energy, and eighteen more are planning to construct reactors in the near future. This expansion increases the need for the international community to find ways to meet five basic security challenges: national and subnational diversion of nuclear materials for weapons, subnational sabotage of nuclear facilities, wartime destruction, and major accidents. To date, international efforts to address these problems have included the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Latin American nuclear-free zone, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the nuclear suppliers conference. Despite these laudable achievements, uneven approaches to obligations and inherent problems in the international agreements may weaken their effectiveness. New approaches must be sought in order to ensure safe, peaceful development of nuclear energy. Dr. Ramberg explores various methods of enhancing existing practices through the use of "preventive medicine." After outlining the current nuclear regime and examining its weaknesses, he evaluates the desirability and practicality of seven "international nuclear review" options focused on preventing a global nuclear disaster.

Provides detailed analyses of the related concerns of energy needs, the economy, and national security for developing countries -- Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, India, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea, and Taiwan. The essays serve to underline the dangerous problem of nuclear proliferation for several of these countries have uneasy relations with their neighbors. In their detailed reviews of these eight nations -- their plans and their capabilities -- the contributors have provided a valuable source for a neglected area of international affairs.