The EU and Weapons of Mass Destruction

The policy domain of the proliferation of nuclear weapons and of weapons of mass destruction is a complex one, that Europe has engaged with in different ways. North Korea and Iran are both projected as problematic and irrational; Pakistan and in particular India have not, and their nuclear developments have been placed in a different frame. The EU is marginalised from some security governance discourses – for example, the Six Nation Talks on North Korea – but is deeply concerned with others; notably the debate over Iran. But the way that Europe talks about nuclear proliferation also says much about the way Europe sees itself and its role in the world, and also has to be set in the context of its own complex formation, with nuclear weapons states, and others strongly committed to speedily bring about a world without nuclear weapons.