Germany Fears New Atomic Age

Germany's security experts are convinced that the world is heading for a new and "more dangerous" atomic age as international conflicts take on further heat. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the Gaza Strip, the unresolved nuclear conflict with Iran, surging military spending and ongoing proliferation are just a few things that have Germany's peace and security experts concerned. "Relentlessly, the major nuclear powers modernize their arsenals and thus undermine the non-proliferation regime and egg on dictators to protect themselves from forced-upon regime changes with nuclear weapons. The Iraq war has supported that notion," Bruno Schoch of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt said Thursday in Berlin at the official presentation of the Peace Report 2007, which looks at international conflicts around the world and is compiled by Germany's five peace research institutes. "The world has entered a renewed and more dangerous atomic age."