After getting its first taste of an atomic holocaust in 1945, mankind has made various efforts to avoid nuclear calamity by enforcing a stalemate based on the doctrine of mutual assured destruction and an international agreement against nuclear proliferation.

But by the end of the 20th century, however, several more nuclear powers had joined the five permanent members of the Security Council in possessing nuclear weapons. And we are now faced with the issue of stopping additional proliferation by Iraq and North Korea. There is an urgent need for the world to develop a new nuclear doctrine that might halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the 21st century.

In the eyes of Japan, which has opted out of nuclear armament, the nuclear powers have been delinquent in their duties to move toward nuclear disarmament. Despite the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, international pressure and other obstacles placed in the path of nuclear proliferation, it has continued. In fact, international rivalries have been so intense and security interests of nonnuclear nations so inadequately attended to, that it has been intrinsically unrealistic to make the possession of nuclear weapons by new nuclear powers illegal. Just as U.S. President George W. Bush is eager to safeguard the lives of his countrymen, so are the leaders of Israel, India, Pakistan, Iraq and North Korea to protect their citizens.