Brazil and the NPT: Resistance to Change?

1 A comprehensive account of the negotiations and the consequences of the Review and Extension Conference may be found in Tariq Rauf and Rebecca Jonhson `After the NPT's Indefinite Extension: The Future of the Global Non-proliferation Regime', Nonproliferation Review Fall 1995, pp. 28-42.

2 See Waldo Stumpf, `South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Program: From Deterrence to Dismantlement', Arms Control Today, December 1995/January 1996, pp. 3-8.

3 A treaty for a NWFZ in Africa was concluded in June 1995 and opened for signature in April 1996, and another establishing a NWFZ in Southeast Asia was signed in December 1995. On Africa's NWFZ see David Fischer `The Pelindaba Treaty: Africa Joins the Nuclear-Free World', Arms Control Today, December 1995-January 1996, pp. 9-20.

4 On Argentina see Julio C. Carasales `A Surprising About-Face: Argentina and the NPT', in this issue of Security Dialogue.

5 I have examined Brazil's policy towards the nuclear non-proliferation regime in depth in Paulo S. Wrobel, Brazil, the Non-Proliferation Treaty and Latin America as a Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. Unpublished PhD dissertation, King's College, University of London, 1991.

6 A story of nuclear developments in Brazil is presented in Paulo S. Wrobel `A Politica Nuclear Brasileira', unpublished manuscript, 1992, Ministry of Foreign Relations/University of São Paulo, Project on `Sixty Years of Brazil's Foreign Policy'.

7 An article which helped to consolidate this view was Norman Gall, `Atoms from Brazil, Dangers for All', Foreign Policy, Summer 1976, pp. 155-201.

8 A clear statement of this position is Ambassador Paulo Nogueira Batista, `O Acordo Nuclear Brasil-Alemanha', unpublished manuscript, 1993, Ministry of Foreign Relations/University of São Paulo. Project on `Sixty Years of Brazil's Foreign Policy'.

9 In September 1990, President Collor de Mello, along with high officials, traveled to a remote part of the Amazons in the state of Para - the `Cachimbo' area - to officially close a shaft presumably prepared for a nuclear test. The real objective of the deep well, built within a military trainning area, is still a matter of controversy in Brazil, but apparently it was built in the mid-1980s to serve either as a deposit for nuclear material or as a test site for a PNE. Who actually was responsible for building it and for what purpose was never clearly answered. More details may be found in John R. Redick, Julio C. Carasales and Paulo S. Wrobel `Nuclear Rapprochement: Argentina, Brazil, and the Non-proliferation Regime' The Washington Quarterly, Winter 1995, pp. 113.

10 See Maria Cecilia Spina Forjaz, `Cientistas e Militares no Desenvolvimento do CNPq (1950-1985)', Bib - Boletim Informativo e Bibliográfico em Ciências Sociais, vol. 28, 1989, pp. 71-99.

11 This argument is well developed in Ethel Solingen, `The Political Economy of Nuclear Restraint', International Security, Fall 1994.

12 An analysis of the Argentine-Brazilian nuclear cooperation is found in John R. Redick, Julio C. Carasales & Paulo S. Wrobel, op. cit, pp. 107-122. See also Thierry Riga, Une Approche Coopérative de la Non-Proliferation Nucléaire: L'example de L'Argentine et du Brésil, Research Paper 29, 1994, Geneva, UNIDIR.

13 See John R. Redick, `Nuclear Illusions: Argentina and Brazil'. Occasional Paper 25, December 1995, Washington, DC, The Henry L. Stimson Center.

14 Constituição da Republica Federativa do Brasil, 1988, Article 21, XXIII a.