Global Arms Race Heats Up

A high-level panel on United Nations reform released a report last December recommending action to slow the spread of nuclear weapons. The report stated: “We are approaching a point at which the erosion of the nuclear regime could become irreversible, and result in a cascade of proliferation” (Financial Times, Nov. 30, 2004; emphasis ours).

In the post-9/11 age, terrorism is the number-one pretext used to accelerate big spending on nuclear weapons and delivery systems.

To take one example: Interfax News Agency reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin, citing international terrorism as one of the main threats to the stability of his nation, said that Russia was developing a unique type of nuclear missile and that his nation would “accomplish achievements in the nuclear sector which no other nuclear powers have” (Nov. 17, 2004). Additionally, by the end of November, Russia had successfully tested a modernized anti-ballistic missile system.

The Associated Press reported on Dec. 6, 2004, “Russia revealed [today] it was fitting its strategic bombers with cruise missiles capable of delivering a massive precision strike thousands of miles away ….”

These announcements, along with investment in a Central Arms Procurement Agency, which is the resurrection of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System in conjunction with the Indian Space Research Organization, have placed Russia at the center of an emerging arms buildup.

Pakistan also surfaced from a period of arms docility when it successfully tested a new version of its short-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile in late November.

Watch for the cascade of nuclear proliferation—the number-one threat to human survival—to accelerate.

To learn more about where this arms buildup is heading, refer to the March-April 2003 article “Arming for Armageddon,” on issue archives at www.theTrumpet.com.