Implementing and Enforcing the Nonproliferation Treaty

The Future of the NPT: Should It Be Enhanced, Changed or Replaced? - Pierre Goldschmidt of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace [link]

• Speaking in an International Seminar held at the CEBRI (Centro Brasileiro de Relações Internacionais) in Rio de Janeiro on the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Pierre Goldschmidt said that the NPT should neither be changed nor replaced, but fully implemented and enforced.
• Click here to read the full CEBRI Paper.

Iran's Politics Stand in the Way of a Nuclear Deal - New York Times [link]

• Iran’s leadership has once again equivocated after agreeing to a deal that would ease its nuclear standoff with the West. But this time, that may be as much a product of the nation’s smoldering political crisis as it is a negotiating tactic, political analysts and Iran experts said.
• But that may not be forthcoming, and the problem appears, at least in part, to be politics — local politics. “It is the worst case scenario because it can leave people with the impression diplomacy has been tried and failed, whereas in reality it came at a point when Iran is too politically divided and incapable of making decisions of this magnitude,” said Trita Parsi, who writes frequently on Iran and is president of the National Iranian American Association, an advocacy group based in Washington.

Quiet Progress Made in U.S.- North Korea Talks - Foreign Policy's The Cable [link]

• Despite initial reports that next to nothing was accomplished during last week's discussions between U.S. and North Korean officials in New York and San Diego, an administration official told The Cable that substantial progress was made in behind-the-scenes talks between Sung Kim, the State Department's special envoy to the six party talks, and Ri Gun, North Korea's lead negotiator.
• According to an account from an official with access to information on the negotiations, which a second source has confirmed, the U.S. side put forth a proposal with three main conditions.

North Korea Threatens to Expand Nuclear Arsenal - Associated Press [link]

• North Korea said Tuesday that it has completed reprocessing thousands of spent nuclear fuel rods to extract plutonium to bolster its atomic stockpile, raising the stakes in an apparent effort to get the U.S. into direct negotiations.
• The announcement came a day after North Korea's Foreign Ministry pressured Washington to accept its demand for direct nuclear talks.

How to Ratify the Test Ban - Kingston Reif in World Politics Review [link]

How should the Obama administration build support for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty? Here's a quick teaser:

1. Highlight the growing bipartisan consensus in support of ratifying the test ban.
2. Demonstrate that the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council share the U.S. understanding of the test ban.
3. Emphasize the benefits that would come with U.S. and Chinese ratification.

A View from the Dark Side

When No Means No - Bret Stephens in the Wall Street Journal [link]

• Now it's the turn of the Obama administration to play the guy who won't take a hint. And it falls to the Islamic Republic of Iran to be the girl who's hard—actually, impossible—to get.
• It's also hard to deny that for all of Iran's stalling and cheating, the regime has been crystal clear about where it means to go. It bespeaks a degree of self-respect—the kind that tends to grow stronger the more the opposite party abases itself.
• Here's hoping someone in the administration can explain to her colleagues that, in matters of diplomacy no less than in matters of the heart, No means nothing else but No.