Mike Shuster's three-part series on nuclear nonproliferation provided insights into the stymied talks among states-parties to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty during a month-long review of the 35-year-old agreement held at United Nations headquarters in New York. CISAC Co-Director Scott Sagan is among experts consulted in the following reports:

"The status of nuclear nonproliferation" (aired May 25):

The U.S. nuclear posture, and to a degree the Russian as well, has not moved far since the end of the Cold War. Thousands of nuclear weapons continue to put potential adversaries at great risk. Many experts say it's time to take missiles off alert, as the Chinese have, and build a smaller arsenal made of bombs with smaller yields.

Sagan pointed out that unlike the United States and Russia, China and India do not have a launch-on-warning system , often called a "hair-trigger alert,"for their nuclear weapons. Instead, the Chinese keep their missiles and nuclear warheads separate, and the missiles are stored without fuel.

"The U.S. and Russia should seek as a goal to move more towards that kind of a minimalist posture. But instead I fear that what is happening is that our posture, our statements are encouraging the Indians and the Chinese to move more towards the posture that we had in the Cold War and that unfortunately we are maintaining today."

"Nuclear proliferation and the terrorist threat (aired May 26):

Nuclear terrorism: Most experts agree this is the greatest threat from nuclear weapons today. Many experts emphasize deterring nations that might share nuclear weapons with terrorists. If terrorism is the higher priority, then thinking about nuclear weapons and nuclear strategies begins to change quickly.

Some experts, including Sagan, suggest that the two most powerful nuclear states, Russia and the United States, need to rethink their nuclar postures in light of changed threats. "When you think about the terrorist threat as the higher priority threat that we need to deal with, suddenly your judgments bout a number of aspects of nuclear strategy need to be altered," said Sagan, "and the United States hasn't made that basic change in its assumptions."

"Nuclear weapons gain importance for regional powers" (aired May 27):

Many factors cause nations to seek nuclear weapons. Security concerns about neighbors and other nuclear powers drive most decisions to pursue the weapons. The current non-proliferation treaty, under review this month at the U.N., does not appear to be deterring countries from trying to join the nuclear club.

"Sometimes they're interested in nuclear weapons because the United States is everybody's neighbor today," Sagan noted. "Other countries look at what we're doing and sometimes adopt their strategies and their doctrines and even their operations based on what they see the United States doing."

To listen to the full reports online, follow the link below to Shuster's "Reporter's Notebook" essay, "'Grand Bargains' of the Non-Proliferation Treaty." Links to all three reports in the series are posted along with the essay.