Released in early December, the report to the Security Council was prepared by the High Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, whose 16 members were appointed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. While the report gives lip service to confronting the problems of world hunger, environmental destruction, and pandemics, the only recommendations receiving media attention are those related to alleged threats of “nuclear terrorism.”

The report raises the specter of a nuclear Armageddon as power-poor nations seek to use nuclear power to develop their countries. “The nuclear proliferation regime is at risk because of lack of compliance with existing commitments, a changing international security environment and radical advances in technology,” the UN panel claims. “We are approaching a point at which the erosion of the nuclear regime could become irreversible, and result in a cascade of proliferation.”

It singles out—without naming them—Iran and north Korea, according to an article by Graham Allison in the International Herald Tribune. “If Iran goes nuclear,” Allison writes, “Egypt will follow, then Saudi Arabia (more likely buying than making) and possibly Syria. Contemplate the consequences of such a nuclear arms race for Israel’s security and the stability of energy supplies.” If north Korea obtains a nuclear bomb, he adds, “such developments will destabilize Northeast Asia and intensify the risk of one state pre-emptively attacking another. Even more dangerously, North Korea could sell nuclear weapons to eager buyers like Osama bin Laden.”

The UN report, according to articles in the Financial Times and International Herald Tribune, makes the following recommendations: “Collective action” against states alleged to threaten nuclear attack on nonnuclear countries; a moratorium on new countries developing uranium enrichment or reprocessing programs; UN “peacekeeping” military missions in countries deemed “failed nations”; support for Washington’s Proliferation Security Initiative, which allows search and seizure, including boarding of ships on the high seas, for weapons allegedly destined for “states of proliferation concern.” As cover, the report also includes a proposal that the major nuclear powers proceed with programs to reduce their nuclear arsenals, as mandated by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. (The nations known to have nuclear weapons are the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, Israel, India, and Pakistan.) But this is just window dressing. The target of the report is the underdeveloped nations attempting to speed up their development with the use of nuclear power.

An article by David Hannay, a member of the panel preparing the report and former British ambassador to the European Union and the UN, stated, “The international community also needs to tackle the problem of state failure which has, on occasion, destabilized whole regions, provided a base for terrorism, and created the conditions for genocide. The international response to failed or failing states has generally been tardy and inadequate.”  
 
 
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