Arms Control Today articles from April 2007

Arms Control Today archives from April 2007

Editor's note.
April 1, 2007... It's never easy to negotiate an arms control agreement. But it's often just as difficult, if not more so, to carry one out. In this month's issue, several experts look at the successes and pitfalls of some recent agreements, as well as the...

Avoiding a space arms race.(FOCUS)
April 1, 2007... Forty years ago this month, the Senate approved the Outer Space Treaty, which bars signatory states from placing into orbit any objects carrying nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. Although it has helped protect space for peaceful...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)(Director of Missile Defense Agency Lieutenant General Henry Obering)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... "It has been described that missile defense is an enemy of arms control. I could not disagree with that more.... The first thing we have to do is try to prevent the spread of these weapons through talks, discussions, through [the] Proliferation...

Arms transfers and nuclear proliferation.(Thirty Years Ago in ACT)
April 1, 2007... Israel is being rewarded [with military aid] either because of or in spite of the fact that it has gone nuclear. In either case, the lesson will not be lost on Egypt, Iran, and other nations around the world. --Steven Baker, April 1977

By the numbers.(InBRIEF)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Iran's Uranium-Enrichment Program 358 Approximate number of centrifuges installed (pilot facility) 328* Number of centrifuges fully installed (commercial facility) 3,000 Number of centrifuges Iran originally said it...

Cooperative Threat Reduction.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Russian President Vladimir Putin Feb. 22 submitted a protocol to the Russian parliament that would facilitate continued U.S.-Russian cooperation to secure and eliminate excess unconventional arms and nuclear materials. Ratification of the...

Chemical Weapons Convention.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... On March 7, Barbados submitted its instrument of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to the United Nations, making it the 182nd member of this treaty. Only 13 states have yet to join the CWC. Notable holdouts include Lebanon,...

Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... The Department of State announced March 16 that Ukraine has joined a U.S.-Russian anti-nuclear terrorism initiative. Launched in July 2006, the voluntary Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism now numbers 14 countries and remains open to...

IAEA additional protocol.(Treaty Update)(International Atomic Energy Agency)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... On March 1, an additional protocol to Poland's safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entered into force. Kyrgyzstan signed an additional protocol agreement on Jan. 29, and Vietnam gained IAEA Board of Governors...

Proliferation Security Initiative.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... The United States and Malta agreed March 15 to rapid consent procedures to stop and search each other's ships in international waters if they are suspected of transporting biological, chemical, nuclear, or radiological weapons, related...

Managing spent fuel in the United States: the illogic of reprocessing.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... International Panel on Fissile Materials, January 2007 This report from Princeton professor Frank N. von Hippel, the co-chair of the independent International Panel on Fissile Materials (IPFM), takes on a recent proposal by the Department...

The North Korean plutonium stock and North Korea's alleged large-scale enrichment plant.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Institute for Science and International Security, February 2007 Two new reports by the Institute for Science and International Security reassess North Korean nuclear capabilities. In the first report, David Albright and Paul Brannan...

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)(Brief article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2007... April 29 10th anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention's entry into force. April 30-May 11 Preparatory Committee meeting for the 2010 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference,...

Troubled disposition: next steps in dealing with excess plutonium.
April 1, 2007... What should the United States and Russia do with the tons of plutonium they no longer need for nuclear weapons? The two countries have been struggling to answer this question since the end of the Cold War. Unfortunately, however, despite the...

The Chemical Weapons Convention at 10: an interview with OPCW director-general Rogelio Pfirter.(Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... On April 29, 1997, the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force. Ten years on, the CWC has won support from nearly all UN member states: 182 states-parties have agreed to be bound by the convention, while an additional six states...

After China's test: time for a limited ban on anti-satellite weapons.
April 1, 2007... China's Jan. 11 test of a sophisticated hit-to-kill anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon should have shattered complacency about the dangers posed by these arms. Much press commentary has focused on the threat to U.S. military systems, but these are...

North Korea talks stalled by banking dispute.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
April 1, 2007... Hoping to advance an initial agreement to eliminate North Korea's nuclear weapons program, participants in the six-party talks met in Beijing March 19-22. But progress on the Feb. 13 pact was stalled by an ongoing banking dispute. Talks...

Doubts rise on North Korea's uranium-enrichment program.(News ANALYSIS)
April 1, 2007... As diplomats from six countries continue to hammer out the details of a Feb. 13 agreement to resolve the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula, questions relating to Pyongyang's suspected uranium-enrichment program will likely play a pivotal...

Security Council broadens Iran sanctions.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
April 1, 2007... Responding to Iran's continuing failure to comply with demands to halt key parts of its nuclear program, the UN Security Council March 24 unanimously adopted new restrictions on Tehran and expanded the scope of existing ones. The resolution...

UK nuclear submarine plan wins vote.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)(United Kingdom)
April 1, 2007... Despite some opposition within the ruling Labour Party, British lawmakers recently approved a plan to start designing a new class of nuclear-armed submarines. The vote puts the country on course toward retaining nuclear weapons until around...

Europeans split over U.S. missile defense plans.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
April 1, 2007... European countries are divided over a recent U.S. offer to begin negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic on basing components of a U.S. anti-missile system on their territories. Washington has proposed building a radar for the system in...

Cluster munitions treaty effort moving ahead.(THE WORLD)
April 1, 2007... Recalling the international campaign against antipersonnel landmines (APLs) a decade ago, nearly 50 governments have joined with nongovernmental organizations to negotiate a treaty to prevent civilians from being victimized by another type of...

Disarmament forum stalemate may end.(THE WORLD)
April 1, 2007... On March 15, the UN General Assembly adopted by consensus a resolution approving Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's proposed reform of the UN disarmament bureaucracy. Ban's original plan for restructuring the bodies, which proposed...

Proposal aims to end CD gridlock.(THE WORLD)(fissile material cutoff treaty)(Conference on Disarmament)
April 1, 2007... At the close of March, the 65-member Conference on Disarmament (CD) was weighing a proposal to end a negotiating dry spell that has stretched for more than eight years. The plan would launch treaty negotiations on halting the production of key...

New U.S. warhead design selected.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
April 1, 2007... After months of delay, U.S. officials announced recently that a team led by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory won the first design competition in roughly two decades for a new nuclear warhead. The news received a tepid greeting from...

Global strike still on Pentagon wish list.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
April 1, 2007... Picture a grim scenario: U.S. intelligence learns that terrorists in a remote location are preparing an attack against the United States. The window of opportunity to react is a few hours at most, and no U.S. air, ground, or sea forces are...

Budget woes haunt nuclear-weapon-free zone.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
April 1, 2007... On Feb. 14, Latin American and Caribbean countries marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the region, the first of its kind in the world. Yet, at this historic milestone, the organization charged with...

GAO calls for security prioritization changes.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Government Accountability Office)
April 1, 2007... The Department of Energy should better prioritize which foreign sites with radioactive materials should be protected against terrorist theft, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The GAO, which...

Looking back: the Missile Technology Control Regime.
April 1, 2007... On April 16, 1987, the world's seven most industrialized nations (Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany) established the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Constructed in the waning days of...

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2007... A letter to the editor in the January/February 2007 issue of Arms Control Today, "The North Korean Test and the Limits of Nuclear Forensics" by Jungmin Kang, Frank von Hippel, and Hui Zhang included an error. In particular, the letter included...