The first decade of the 21st Century saw the defining events of 9/11 and other dramatic terrorist attacks across the globe. The new security environment of more states coming into possession of nuclear weapons, and possibilities of international terrorist groups attempting to acquire them, created a new perspective on nuclear weapons. In less than a decade after the Cold War, nuclear weapons had moved from being guarantors of security to becoming the source of unpredictable and catastrophic threats to states. Relying on the severely strained nuclear non-proliferation regime no longer seems possible in the wake of a deteriorating nuclear order. This has in turn led to strident calls for global nuclear disarmament "implying that support is growing for the notion that the only permanent solution to nuclear dangers is an agreement that would eliminate all nuclear weapons, verifiably, from all nations."[1]

In this paper, V.R. Raghavan discusses how India and the United States need to combine their efforts into building a set of multi-nation initiatives on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament in a global  environment where the "risks may have increased but the contributions of nuclear arsenals to nations' security have declined."[2]

Sources
[1] Barry Blechman, 'Why we need to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons-And How to do it", in Barry Blechman and Alex Bollfrass (Ed.), Elements of a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, Stimson Center, 2010. [http://www.stimson.org/nuke/pdf/Chap_1_Blechman_Formatted.pdf]
[2] Frank Carlucci and William Perry, 'Foreword', in Barry Blechman ad Alexander Bolfrass (eds.) , Elements of a Nuclear Disarmament Treaty, Washington D.C: Stimson Center, 2010