Content area
Full Text
Shopping for Bombs: Nuclear Proliferation, Global Insecurity, and the Rise and Fall of the A. Q. Khan Network. By Gordon Corera. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. 288 pages. $28.00. Reviewed by W. Andrew Terrill, General Douglas MacArthur Professor of National Security Studies, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College.
Former CIA Director George Tenet has reportedly described Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan as "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden" when the Pakistani nuclearweapons specialistwas in his heyday.BBC security correspondentGordon Corera obviously agrees, and in Shopping for Bombs, he explains the reasons for his viewpoint. Corera looks at Khan's rise from a metallurgy student in Europe to become the leader of an important global network for acquiring nuclear technology and helping build a Pakistani nuclear weapons program. This is the same network that later became important in exporting sensitive technology to other countries including at least Iran, North Korea, and Libya. According to Corera, "A. Q. Khan had a greater impact on nuclear proliferation than any other individual in the last three decades." In this frightening book, Corera explains how and why this could be allowed to happen.
Corera begins his study by examining Pakistanimotivations to acquire nuclear weapons and then expand their nuclear arsenal. These motives were and remain overwhelming. Pakistan is one of those few nations with a population that continuously fears for their country's future existence in a hostile region. (Israel is another such nation.) These concerns were magnified following the 1971 war with India when the Pakistan Army was defeated in only 13 days, and the country itself was dismembered. Following thismassive defeat, some new and radical approach to national security seemed imperative. Nuclear weapons appeared as the obvious answer, and PrimeMinister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto is well known for his bombastic statements that Pakistanis would be willing to do almost anything including "eat grass" in order to acquire such systems. This commitment to become a nuclear weapons power was fundamental and...