Michael Goldfarb on the Nobel winner: Mohamed El Baradei interpreted the Nobel Prize as a “strong message [from the Norwegian Nobel Committee] to keep doing what you are doing.” So what has El Baradei been doing? After 6 months on the job, in May of 1998, both India and Pakistan conduct nuclear tests, 11 in all, and declare themselves nuclear powers. In February of this year, North Korea declared itself a nuclear power. And, in August, Iran’s new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced at the United Nations General Assembly that his country has an “inalienable right” to complete the nuclear fuel cycle. (Proliferation expert Henry Sokolski has an analysis of this “right” claim here.) And, of course, the International Atomic Energy Agency failed to deter or discover the proliferation activities of the A.Q. Khan network during El Baradei’s tenure. If this is success, I’d hate to see what failure looks like.
