Arms Control Today back issues from December 2008:
Editor's NOTE
Dec 01, 2008; ... President-elect Barack Obama will take office next month as the United States finds itself at a crucial crossroads in its nuclear weapons policy. Within the next year, the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with Russia is set to expire, and the new administration is expected to conduct ...
CTBT: Now More Than Ever
Dec 01, 2008; ... President-elect Barack Obama's November victory represents a clear mandate for change on a number of national security issues. One of the most decisive ways in which Obama can restore U.S. nonproliferation leadership and spur action toward a nuclear-weapons-free world is to win Senate support ...
Notable Quotable
Dec 01, 2008; ... "I believe we can demonstrate to the world that we are not expanding our nuclear capability - quite the opposite - and still be good stewards of the limited capabilities we maintain. From 1994 to 2004, we had a law on the books called "Spratt-Furse" that prohibited research and development of ...
Twenty Years Ago in ACT
Dec 01, 2008; ... The New Administration and the Future of Arms Control The beginning of the end of the Cold War may be at hand. At a minimum, we have the greatest opportunity in four decades to probe the degrees to which the global military confrontation can be ...
BY THE NUMBERS
Dec 01, 2008; ... Select UN First Committee Votes* 141-5-6 Resolution calling for accelerating the implementation of nuclear disarmament commitments and moving toward a nuclearweapon-free world. China joined the majority voting yes. France, India, Israel, North Korea, and the United States made up ...
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
Dec 01, 2008; ... Treaty Update On Nov. 4, Mozambique ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). On Nov 21. Lebanon and Malawi did as well, bringing the total number of ratifying states to 148. On Nov. 10, Indonesia and the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty ...
Bratislava Nuclear Security Initiative
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) reported Nov. 12 that the project to secure nuclear fuel at the Mayak Production Association in Ozersk, Russia was successfully completed. The facility provides long term storage space for plutonium and highly enriched ...
UAE-U.S. Nuclear Cooperation
Dec 01, 2008; ... The United States and the United Arab Emirates initialed a nuclear cooperation agreement in November and expect to sign it soon if they are confident that it will not face significant opposition on Capitol Hill. With its booming economy demanding ever increasing amounts of energy and ...
Conventional Arming and Disarming
Dec 01, 2008; ... * The United Kingdom's request to retransfer 24 Eurofighter jets from its inventory to Saudi Arabia was approved by the United States. It also cleared the way for the sale of another 48 new-build aircraft. According to a 2007 deal worth $9 billion, the United Kingdom will furnish the Saudi ...
What's Ahead On the Calendar
Dec 01, 2008; ... Dec. 1-5 Annual meeting of statesparties to the Biological Weapons Convention, Geneva. Dec. 2-5 Thirteenth session of the Conference of States-Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the ...
A Fresh Start? An Interview With Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak
Dec 01, 2008; ... Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Russia's new ambassador to the United States, has assumed his post at a critical time in U.S.Russian relations and at a point when presidential transitions are underway in both Moscow and Washington. Kislyak has served in a number of senior foreign policy positions in ...
A Different Kind of Complex: The Future of U.S. Nuclear Weapons and the Nuclear Weapons Enterprise
Dec 01, 2008; ... In an October 28 speech to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace entitled "Nuclear Weapons and Deterrence in the 21st Century," Secretary of Defense Robert Gates noted the continued importance of U.S. nuclear weapons for deterring possible opponents and for reassuring allies that they ...
After the Reliable Replacement Warhead: What's Next for the U.S. Nuclear Arsenal?
Dec 01, 2008; ... The Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) as envisioned by the Bush administration is effectively dead. This past fall, for the second year in a row, the Democratic Congress zeroed out funding for the RRW program despite Bush administration claims that extending the life of the current warhead ...
Time for a Systematic Analysis: U.S. Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear Proliferation
Dec 01, 2008; ... The 2008 National Defense Authorization Act requires the next secretary of defense, in consultation with the secretaries of energy and state, to conduct a comprehensive review of the nuclear weapons posture of the United States. The review must consider the role of nuclear forces in U.S ....
Arms Control Today 2008 Presidential Q&A: President-elect Barack Obama
Dec 01, 2008; ... Arms Control Today (ACT) posed a series of detailed questions on arms control and nonproliferation isuues to the major presidential nominees. Published here are the responses ACT received on September 10 from Sen. Barack Obama about how he would address key weapons-related security issues as ...
START Decision Put Off to 2009
Dec 01, 2008; ... President-elect Barack Obama's to-do list grew longer in late November when the United States and other states-parties to the expiring START deferred a final decision on the nuclear accord's future. Working primarily with Russia, the incoming Obama administration will have until the treaty's ...
UK Auditor Criticizes Trident Renewal Plan
Dec 01, 2008; ... The United Kingdom's National Audit Office (NAO) has questioned the Ministry of Defense's ability to replace its aging Trident nuclear missile submarines before they start being retired from service in the early 2020s. In a Nov. 5 report, the NAO raised concerns over the tight schedule of the ...
CORRECTION
Dec 01, 2008; ... On page 50 of Arms Control Today's October 2008 issue, the news analysis "Type, Targets of Sanctions Shift in Bush Administration" and its accompanying graphs should have taken into account six additional Iranian ...
Anti-Missile Systems Uncertainty Grows
Dec 01, 2008; ... The election of Barack Obama as the next U.S. president has triggered greater uncertainty about the future of U.S. anti-missile projects, particularly the disputed plan to deploy long-range systems in Europe despite strenuous Russian objections. Meanwhile, the Pentagon agency spearheading ...
Air Force Reorganizes Nuclear Commands
Dec 01, 2008; ... In the wake of several highly publicized incidents in which the Air Force failed to properly handle its nuclear mission as well as several subsequent critical reports, the Air Force Oct. 24 released a "Nuclear Roadmap" detailing organizational changes intended to improve its ...
GAO Report Calls for Revamped PSI
Dec 01, 2008; ... Since 2003, U.S. officials have credited the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) with a number of successes in preventing the transfer of unconventional weapons materials to states and nonstate actors. According to a Nov. 10 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, however, key U.S ....
CCW Fails to Reach Cluster Munitions Pact
Dec 01, 2008; ... In November, delegates to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) failed to reach agreement on a new protocol specifically addressing cluster munitions, but committed to continue work in 2009. Countries possessing the vast majority of these weapons have insisted that the CCW is the ...
The Convention on Cluster Munitions
Dec 01, 2008; ... Treaty ANALYSIS On Dec. 3, more than 100 countries are expected to sign the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) during a ceremony in Oslo. If at least 30 states deposit their instruments of ratification that day as anticipated, the new treaty should enter into force six months ...
Nuclear Suppliers Make Progress on New Rules
Dec 01, 2008; ... Efforts by nuclear suppliers to develop tougher rules restricting transfers of sensitive nuclear technologies appear to have made progress during Nov. 19-20 meetings in Vienna, according to diplomats involved in the process, with the possibility that the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) could adopt ...
Arms Trade Treaty Discussion Creeps Forward
Dec 01, 2008; ... More than 140 countries voted at the UN First Committee to continue discussion next year on the creation of a global arms trade treaty, marking some progress on a resolution first passed in 2006. The United States voted against the measure and has not yet decided whether to continue its ...
UN Sets Ground for Future Disarmament Battles
Dec 01, 2008; ... The UN General Assembly committee dealing with nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament issues ran a wait-and-see session in October 2008, with progress perhaps stymied by the upcoming presidential transition in the United States. The session, which ended four days before the U.S. election, ...
U.S. Atop Expanding Global Arms Market
Dec 01, 2008; ... In 2007 the United States again led the world in delivery of and sales agreements for conventional arms. In that year, the value of global transfer agreements rose to nearly $60 billion, up approximately $5 billion from 2006, with the majority of the increase coming in arrangements with ...
U.S., Russia Step Up Chemical Weapons Destruction
Dec 01, 2008; ... Russia and the United States have announced measures to step up destruction of their chemical weapons stockpiles. The Department of Defense plans to speed up construction of the Blue Grass Army Depot in Kentucky and the Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado. The two facilities are key to meeting the ...
North Korea Hedges on Nuclear Sampling
Dec 01, 2008; ... In a further setback for currently stalled efforts to denuclearize North Korea, that country's foreign ministry issued a statement Nov. 13 denying that it had agreed to allow inspectors to conduct sampling at its nuclear sites when they take steps to verify Pyongyang's plutonium-based nuclear ...
IAEA Report Raises Suspicions on Syrian Site
Dec 01, 2008; ... A Syrian facility destroyed by Israel last year could have been a nuclear reactor, a Nov. 19 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report determined. Although the IAEA has not completed its investigation, its early findings appear to support U.S. claims made in April that Syria was ...
Israeli Officials Wary of U.S. Shift on Iran
Dec 01, 2008; ... With the incoming U.S. administration of President-elect Barack Obama pledging to pursue a policy of "tough diplomacy" with Iran, including opening the possibility of direct talks with Tehran, Israeli leaders appear to be warily bracing for the expected shift in the U.S. approach to one of ...
Iran Forges Ahead on Enrichment
Dec 01, 2008; ... Iran is finalizing its installation of a second set of 3,000 gas centrifuges at its commercial-scale uranium-enrichment facility and is preparing to install a third set, according to a Nov. 19 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Tehran is therefore showing no sign of ...
LOOKING BACK: The 1978 Nuclear Nonproliferation Act
Dec 01, 2008; ... The 1978 Nuclear Nonproliferation Act (NNPA) sought to tighten the criteria for nuclear cooperation and reshape the nuclear fuel cycle. Many of its provisions have been forgotten, but the NNPA regained notoriety this year with the approval of the U.S.-Indian nuclear cooperation agreement. The ...
Letters TO THE EDITOR
Dec 01, 2008; ... Transparency Is Key to Avoiding Space Conflict Brian Weeden's review ("Space Weaponization: Aye or Nay?" November 2008) succinctly analyzes the space weaponization debate. A central step to ensuring that space is used for the "peaceful benefit of all states," however, is to ...