After the 9/11 terrorists attacks on the US, many spectators voiced their fear about the existence of high probability of a nuclear threat, that the terrorist could acquire and use nuclear weapons to achieve their political-cum-religious motives. The nuclear security summit (NSS) which was born out of President Obama’s Prague speech delivered in April 2009 also aims at preventing threats associated with nuclear terrorism.

During his speech, President Obama had called the nuclear terrorism threat as “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.” The NSS is a world biennial summit that has had three summits so far. Initially President Obama hosted the very first summit in Washington D.C., on 12 to 13 April 2010 that set the process in motion. The second summit was held in South Korea on 26-27 March 2012, and third Nuclear Security Summit held was held last year in the Hague on 24-25 March. The next and the fourth Nuclear Security Summit is going to be held in 2016 in Washington D.C. which would likely be the last one.

All the three summits were anchored around issues such as security of nuclear materials, IAEA’s role in securing unsafe nuclear materials, illegal trafficking of nuclear materials, nuclear forensics, and measures that could prevent threat associated with terrorist access to nuclear material as well as use of nuclear weapons. The concern of NSS was basically to raise awareness about the need to tighten controls over nuclear materials. The increased number of the participant countries from 30 in 2010 to 58 in 2014 illustrates the significance of the nuclear security variable in the contemporary fragile security apprehensive environment.

Although, the summit process has achieved some success in lessening the nuclear security challenge and one example of it can be the fallen number of countries from 39 to 25 that have enough material to build a nuclear weapon. However, the mission has not been accomplished. The 2016 NSS is going to be the last one but the options for a successor to pursue the nuclear security mission are yet not clear.

After the 2016 NSS, the first question that would arise is if the NSS has succeeded to strengthen the global nuclear security system? Admittedly, NSS has succeeded in raising awareness and profile of nuclear security issue but due to the non-binding nature, the future of NSS would be uncertain and indistinct even after the next projected summit that is expected to be in Washington 2016.

Despite the countries participating the NSS sessions, the non-participants countries are outside of the purview of the NSS which limit the summits efficacy. Russia also firmly announced that it will not join the 2016 NSS and the reason they gave is that Russia doubts the effectiveness of the summit. The Initial high expectations are not fulfilled, they say. The world is going to have the last session of NSS but unfortunately, some major countries still continue to have an inadequate record in nuclear security.

Realistically, to attain the objective of securing all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four sessions turned out to be improbable. In the concluding session of 2014 NSS President Obama stated that the 2016 NSS will seek to develop “a more sustainable model” for reducing and safeguarding materials needed to make nuclear weapons. Early indications are that the 2016 session will lead to the announcement of additional voluntary proposals.

Beyond the NSS 2016, there are greater prospects that the responsibility for further work on nuclear security issues will revert to the patchwork of institutions and mostly voluntary arrangements that predate the summit process, such as Interpol, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the G-8 Global Partnership and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.

However again, there is no doubt that the three summits have provided an invaluable start in defining the parameters. Now the need is to strengthen the existing bodies and efforts should be made to get desired results from the existing bodies otherwise the gaps in global nuclear security governance will continue to grow.

The nuclear security is a global concern which should have a global binding solution. The NSS like exercises can smoothen the way for achieving the ultimate goal of nuclear security.