Nuclear Successor States of the Soviet Union, Nuclear Weapon and Sensitive Export Status Report
Abstract
The dissolution of the Soviet Union has triggered widespread interest in the disposition of that nation's nuclear arms and related nuclear assets. The status of the nuclear weapons in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine, for example, has become a focus of international diplomatic efforts aimed at checking the possible emergence of new nuclear-weapon states. Similarly, ensuring the security of tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and hundreds of tons of weapons-usable nuclear material in Russia has become an area of increasing cooperation between Washington and Moscow. There also have been a number of collaborative initiatives between the United States and the Newly Independent States (NIS) to bolster controls over exports of nuclear goods from the NIS. Recently, some analysts have voiced concern about possible future political instability in Russia and Ukraine. In both states, unrest could lead to difficulties in maintaining proper control over key nuclear assets or to the emergence of new splinter states with nuclear inheritances. Events are moving with surprising swiftness. New non-proliferation agreements are being signed; nuclear arms are being transferred from Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine to Russia; investments are being made in all of these states to accelerate the dismantling of nuclear arms and to ensure the safe and secure storage of the resulting nuclear materials; and export control systems are being established. To assist those interested in monitoring the rapidly changing nuclear scene in the former Soviet Union, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Monterey Institute of International Studies have prepared the following report summarizing key developments. We plan to issue the report on a periodic basis. Our two groups will distribute the English version in the United States and internationally, and the report will also be made available through the Monterey Institute's CIS Nuclear Database.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA338943