This is a political history of nuclear weapons form the discovery of fission in 1983 to the nuclear disasters that seem to loom in our future. It is an account of where those weapons came from, how the technology was spread, both covertly and openly, who is likely to next acquire these weapons, and perhaps most importantly what for. The author's examination of post Cold War national and geopolitical issues regarding nuclear proliferation and the effects of Chinese sponsorship of the Pakistani weapons programme is chilling, as is the Pakistani 'nuclear weapons for sale' programme and the North Korean weapons programme.