A decade after coalition forces targetd Saddam's missile, nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities, public concern about strategic weapons proliferation has grown. India, Iraq, North Korea, China and pakistan have all renewed their efforts to acquire weapons capable of mass destruction. Meanwhile, growing surpluses of weapons-usable materials in the US, Russia, Japan and Europe have raised the spectre of nuclear theft and , with the Tokyo sarin attacks of 1995, the most horrific forms of terrorism. What should we make of these threats? Are the planne dresponses of the US and its allies sufficient? Will history ultimately end in a more prosperous, democratic and more peaceful world or will the accelerating availability of strategic technology be our doom? These questions are the focus of this work.