Countries that want to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes should convene to reaffirm their commitment to non-proliferation. For years now, we have depended on the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as the centerpiece. But recent technological and political developments suggest that the bargain at the center of this effort needs to be updated. We need to set a gold standard for security, given the amount of highly enriched uranium that still exists in the world.
Finally, the United States in my view should take the lead in organizing an international fuel bank, which would guarantee low-cost supplies of nuclear reactor fuel to countries willing to abide by very high standards for safety and security.
The threat from Jihad is real and it is exacerbated by the demographic crisis. Today, over half that region is under 22 years old. The combined GDP of all Arab nations, including oil revenue, is less than Spain’s. Think of that. And with the growing population and lack of jobs, the ground for radical Islam will be increasingly fertile.
We should remember that in the two other global confrontations with totalitarianism in the past century, it wasn’t always obvious that we’d win. Indeed, in those conflicts, the balance of power was not always in our favor.
Those were wars we could have lost, but we didn’t.
In the current conflict, defeat is not nearly as dangerously close as it was during the darkest moments of the Second World War and the Cold War. There’s no comparison between the economic, diplomatic, and military resources of the civilized world and those of the terrorist networks that threaten us today.
In those previous global wars, there were many ways to lose, and victory was far from guaranteed. In the current conflict, there is only one way to lose: if we as a civilized world decide not to lift a finger to defend ourselves, our values, and our way of life.