President Jimmy Carter probably received more attention for his work toward peace after he left office.

President Carter was in office from 1977-1981.

February 22, 1997
By President Jimmy Carter

The Nuclear Crisis

...Now it is time for the 30-year-old NPT (click here) to be reviewed (in April, by an international assembly at the United Nations), and, sad to say, the current state of affairs with regard to nuclear proliferation is not good. In fact, I think it can be said that the world is facing a nuclear crisis. Unfortunately, U.S. policy has had a good deal to do with creating it.

At the last reassessment session, in 1995, a large group of non-nuclear nations with the financial resources and technology to develop weapons--including Egypt, Brazil and Argentina--agreed to extend the NPT, but with the proviso that the five nuclear powers take certain specific steps to defuse the nuclear issue: adoption of a comprehensive test ban treaty by 1996; conclusion of negotiations on a Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty, and "determined pursuit" of efforts to reduce nuclear arsenals, with the ultimate goal of eliminating them.

It is almost universally conceded that none of these commitments has been honored. India and Pakistan have used this failure to justify their joining Israel as nations with recognized nuclear capability that are refusing to comply with NPT restraints. And there has been a disturbing pattern of other provocative developments:...

So, while the NPT still existed and exists there seems to be a chronic wanding away from it, except, every five years. What bothers me about this drifting away from the NPT is that communists in general will sign on to these agreements in hopes the Free World will diminish importance of their nuclear arsenal due to the existence of the NPT. In other words, it is a tool to attempt to have the Free World allow themselves to be weaker in the face of potential elimination of nuclear arsenals worldwide.

That is what the NPT is about, dissolving nuclear arsenals over time with countries hopefully moving to conventional weapons and war. What we are seeing with Russia is leaning heavily into this reality. But, Russia has proved itself to be incompetent in conventional warfare. So, due to that fact, rather than accepting it's own borders rather than the old Soviet Union borders, and declare itself neutral for it's incompetency, Putin is muscle flexing all the time about his nuclear prowess. Same status is true with North Korea.

Saving Nonproliferation

By Jimmy Carter

Renewal talks for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) (click here) are scheduled for May, yet the United States and other nuclear powers seem indifferent to its fate. This is remarkable, considering the addition of Iran and North Korea as states that either possess or seek nuclear weapons programs. A recent United Nations report warned starkly: "We are approaching a point at which the erosion of the non-proliferation regime could become irreversible and result in a cascade of proliferation."

A group of "Middle States" has a simple goal: "To exert leverage on the nuclear powers to take some minimum steps to save the non-proliferation treaty in 2005." Last year this coalition of nuclear-capable states -- including Brazil, Egypt, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden and eight NATO members -- voted for a new agenda resolution calling for implementing NPT commitments already made. Tragically, the United States, Britain and France voted against this resolution....