U.S. and Russian negotiators are set to meet this month as part of an effort to wrap up negotiations by December on a new strategic arms reduction treaty with Russia, Tom Collina of the Ploughshares-funded Arms Control Association writes for Arms Control Today. But even if the two sides meet that timetable, there is a strong possibility the new treaty will not be in force before the current START expires Dec. Read more »
An article by Tom Collina in the Ploughshares-funded Arms Control Association journal, Arms Control Today, reports that the Pentagon, responding to criticism that the START follow-on treaty should wait until the Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is completed, announced the U.S. negotiating positions for New START had been cleared by the NPR interagency process. Read more »
Supporters of basing a U.S. missile defense system in Europe are trying to determine whether the words “under review” mean “all but dead.” The Obama administration is expected to conclude its examination of the nation’s ballistic missile defense programs this month, including the controversial proposal to place a missile defense system in Europe. Arms control advocates are eager for President Barack Obama to end the effort but are reluctant to read too much into a trail of actions that seem to point toward canceling the program. Read more »
Iran almost certainly has taken significant steps to build nuclear weapons, assuming that intelligence about its actions is authentic, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said yesterday. Read more »
North Korea announced that it is in the final stages of enriching uranium, a process that could give it a second way to make nuclear bombs in addition to its known plutonium-based program. Uranium-based bombs may work without requiring test explosions like the two carried out by North Korea in May and in 2006 for plutonium-based weapons. Read more »
The Obama Administration announced it will retain Thomas D'Agostino as head of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, a decision met with dismay by many in the arms control and non-proliferation community, who fear that retaining key figures from the Bush Administration who supported expansion of the country's nuclear arsenal will make it harder to implement the soaring vision for a nuclear-free future that President Obama has articulated. Read more »
In an interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, George Perkovich, a leading expert on nuclear policy with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that despite the world's revulsion at the apparently staged elections in Iran, the U.S. should be prepared to talk to the Iranian government. "The question isn't our willingness to negotiate or to try to find some resolution with this government in Iran," he says. Read more »
Amidst concern that Pakistan's atomic arsenal may fall into jihadist hands, Islamabad may have quietly added to its nuclear weapons chest with the additional warheads, jumping from 60 to around 70-90. The increase was reported in the latest edition of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The report, authored by scientists Hans Kristensen and Robert S. Read more »
Private contractors hired by the U.S. government have jeopardized security at the American embassy in Kabul with lewd, drunken conduct and an understaffed guard force at a time of rising violence in the Afghan capital, the Ploughshares-funded Project on Government Oversight reports. POGO Executive Director Danielle Brian said her group spoke to 15 English-speaking guards. Read more »
A new article by the Ploughshares-funded 3D Security Initiative, Quantum Blur, lays out what can be done to bring clarity to the relationship between civilian NGOs and military personnel in conflict regions. The article provides an agenda for civil-military relations to support conflict prevention and peacebuilding. Read more »
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