Washington, D.C.—The past year saw many important and even surprising proliferationrelated developments. While some trends offered hope that the spread of nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) weapons can be reduced and eventually eliminated, other events suggested that the desire of a few countries to acquire and use NBC weapons continues unabated and that significant dangers remain. Some of the year’s most important developments received widespread national and international attention, others, though no less important, were largely overlooked by the news media.

The list below was prepared by the staff of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the largest nongovernmental organization in the United States devoted exclusivelyto research and training on nonproliferation issues. It represents an effort to identify the ten most significant proliferation-related events and trends in 2008, and is intended both as aguide to the past year and as a road map for what to watch for in 2009.