Nukes and the RNC Foreign Policy Platform

August 27, 2012 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke and Leah Fae Cochran

Nuclear platform - A draft of the Republican National Committee platform leaked last Friday. Politico published the foreign policy portion for your pre-Tampa reading pleasure. http://politi.co/Rg8qLX

--From the draft platform: “We recognize that the gravest terror threat we face - a nuclear attack made possible by nuclear proliferation - requires a comprehensive strategy for reducing the world’s nuclear stockpiles and preventing the spread of those armaments. But the U.S. can lead that effort only if it maintains an effective strategic arsenal at a level sufficient to fulfill its deterrent purposes, a notable failure of the current Administration.”

--Not in the draft platform: a definition of sufficiency or deterrence. Full draft platform here. (pdf) http://bit.ly/RRUgqR

IAEA talks - Iran and the IAEA last week failed to strike a deal to allay concerns about Iran’s nuclear program. “The discussions today were intensive but important differences remain between Iran and the U.N. that prevented agreement," said Herman Nackaerts, the IAEA's chief inspector. Fredrik Dahl at Reuters has the story. http://reut.rs/OoI39H

Putin statement - Russian President Vladimir Putin commented that Russia would be willing to negotiate a new arms control treaty with the US that would reduce nuclear weapons below levels mandated in the New START treaty, if the US changed plans for missile defense in Europe, reports David Herszenhorn in The New York Times.

--The political season makes Putin’s comments somewhat of a moot point, however. “Mr. Putin is well aware that Mr. Obama is unwilling to negotiate over the planned missile defense system, at least not before the American presidential election in November. So in the short term, Mr. Putin’s remarks were unlikely to lead to any new accord,” writes Herszenhorn. Full story here. http://nyti.ms/QANJtj

What is Russian word for “Boilerplate”? - “Russia is open to new joint initiatives in this area. At the same time, it is clear that such undertakings are possible only on a fair and reciprocal basis, and must take into account the various factors influencing international security and strategic stability. Among these factors we include the USA’s unilateral and unlimited deployment of a global missile defence system, the threat of weapons being deployed in space, and the presence of quantitative and qualitative imbalances in conventional weapons in Europe.” Statement to IPPNW, from the Kremlin. http://bit.ly/NWAfcv

Real headline - “Iran’s Expanding Nuclear Program: The Pink Tarp that Spells Trouble” from CNN’s “Security Clearance.” http://bit.ly/NWxEQ0

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Clinton vs. Bush on NMD - In September 2000, President Clinton announced his decision not to deploy a national missile defense (NMD) system that his administration had under development - punting the decision to the next president. President Bush withdrew from the ABM treaty and rushed to deploy the Ground-Based Midcourse (GMD) national missile defense system. But, after 10 years of work, how does Bush’s GMD system measure up to Clinton’s proposed NMD plans?

--”In almost all important respects (number of interceptors, radar capabilities), the current GMD national defense system fall far short of what the Clinton plan called for,” writes George Lewis at Mostly Missile Defense. http://bit.ly/U5SXBO

Party time - A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and infamous nuclear proliferator, has started his own political party - the Tehreek-e-Tahaffuz Pakistan (TTP). The Express Tribune has the story. http://bit.ly/QJWUro

Cheat sheet - In order to understand the nuances of the Iran nuclear debate, some technical prowess and attention to detail is required. Ex-IAEA official Olli Heinonen and nonproliferation analyst Simon Henderson provide a concise glossary of terms and a summary of the details involved with the Iran nuclear program here. (pdf) http://bit.ly/PVmopm

Missiles and the internet - Over a few informal lunches in the mid-1960s Charles Herzfeld, a missile defense physicist, and J.C.R. Licklider, an early computer engineer, came up with the radical idea that would eventually lead to inventing the internet. They were trying to figure out a better way to process the large amount of information gathered from missile defense tests in the South Pacific. Noah Shachtman at Danger Room has the story. http://bit.ly/PmLnzw