Arms Control Today articles from April 2009

Arms Control Today archives from April 2009

Editor's note.
April 1, 2009... As Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev meet for the first time this month, disarmament will be in the air. Although the immediate task will be for the two leaders to chart a successor to the bilateral Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,...

Pressing the nuclear reset button.(FOCUS)(U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control )
April 1, 2009... The Cold War ended nearly two decades ago, but U.S. and Russian leaders have missed opportunities to implement agreements that would have achieved deeper, irreversible cuts in their nuclear and missile stockpiles. As a result, their nuclear...

Notable quotable.(In BRIEF)(Quotation)
April 1, 2009... "We're going to believe in arms control and nonproliferation as a core function of our foreign policy... there was a great deal of confusion and infighting and ideological position taking regarding arms control and nonproliferation in the last...

Nuclear necessity in Putin's Russia.(Five Years Ago in ACT)(Vladimir Putin)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... To be sure, Russia's nuclear weapons give it a stronger role on the world stage than its economy or political heft would otherwise warrant, and Russia's pride in this role should be harnessed to accomplish larger international goals. For...

Iranian uranium (in metric tons).(BY THE NUMBERS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... 591 Estimated amount of "reasonably assured resources" of uranium contained in Iran's mines. 250 Independent estimate of the amount of uranium required to manufacture the fuel for a single re-loading of Iran's sole nuclear power...

Abolishing Nuclear Weapons: a debate.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... Edited by George Perkovich and James Acton, Carnegie Endowment, February 2009. In this collection of essays, more than a dozen experts from nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon countries respond to George Perkovich and James Acton's...

Unblocking the road to zero: France and the United Kingdom.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... By Bruno Tertrais and Lawrence Freedman, Stimson Center, February 2009. In this report, the authors examine France's and the United Kingdom's nuclear programs in the first in a series of papers detailing political and technical obstacles...

Global Security Engagement: a new model for Cooperative Threat Reduction.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... National Academy of Sciences, 2009. This report, by a National Academy of Sciences panel chaired by David Franz of the Midwest Research Institute and Ronald Lehman of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, calls for reforming the...

Additional protocol.(Treaty Update)(approval of additional protocol to the United Arab Emirates' comprehensive safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency )(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... On March 3, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors approved the text of an additional protocol to the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) comprehensive safeguards agreement with the agency. The protocol, which will grant the...

Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone.(Treaty Update)(treaty forbids the use of nuclear weapon in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... The treaty establishing the Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone entered into force on March 21, 2009, less than three years after it was opened for signature in September 2006. The treaty forbids the five states-parties--Kazakhstan,...

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)(Calendar)
April 1, 2009... Apr. 3-4 NATO Summit, Strasbourg/Kehl, France/Germany. Apr. 13-May 1 UN Disarmament Commission annual meeting, New York. Apr. 14-17 Group of governmental experts on cluster munitions final meeting, Convention...

Getting to Zero: an interview with International Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission Co-Chair Gareth Evans.(Interview)
April 1, 2009... Gareth Evans serves as co-chair of the International Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission, an initiative sponsored by Australia and Japan aimed at providing recommendations for strengthening the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty...

A joint enterprise: diplomacy to achieve a world without nuclear weapons.
April 1, 2009... While a candidate for president last summer, Barack Obama said in Berlin that "[t]his is the moment to begin the work of seeking the peace of a world without nuclear weapons." After the November election, the president-elect made clear in...

The future of nuclear arms: a World united and divided by zero.
April 1, 2009... Ever since nuclear weapons were first used in World War II, there have been proposals to eliminate them. The today is largely united on the merits of this goal but remains deeply divided over how to achieve it. Some commentators call for...

Russia, U.S. seek START successor by year end.(In The NEWS April 2009)(US and Russian strategic arms reduction treaty )
April 1, 2009... Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Geneva March 6 to discuss a follow-on agreement to START and U.S.-Russian relations generally. In a press conference following their meeting, Clinton...

NATO, arms control and nonproliferation: an alliance divided?(News ANALYSIS)(North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
April 1, 2009... NATO's April 3-4 summit in France and Germany is expected to initiate a review of the alliance's 1999 Strategic Concept, which is likely to lead to a lively debate over the role the alliance should play in arms control and nonproliferation...

United Kingdom promotes disarmament.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
April 1, 2009... British Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered an address March 17 to the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference in London in which he reaffirmed the importance of disarmament in a "global nuclear bargain for our times." Brown spoke two...

CW destruction site begins operation.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)(Chemical Weapons)
April 1, 2009... On March 5, the chemical weapons destruction plant at Shchuch'ye in Russia began operating. The plant is a key component of Russia's push to destroy its entire stockpile of agents by 2012, as mandated by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC)....

U.S., allies warn against NK space launch.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)(North Korea rocket launching)
April 1, 2009... The United States, Japan, and South Korea warned North Korea in March that its intended satellite launch would violate a UN Security Council resolution prohibiting Pyongyang's missile activities, indicating that the council would consider the...

IAEA approves India additional protocol.(U.S., Allies Warn Against NK Space Launch)(International Atomic Energy Agency )
April 1, 2009... The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) March 3 approved an additional protocol to India's safeguards agreement, ostensibly providing the agency with greater authority to monitor India's civilian nuclear activities. New Delhi, which is...

Obama seeks Russian cooperation on Iran.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)(Barack Obama)
April 1, 2009... In February, President Barack Obama sent a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev seeking greater cooperation from Moscow for addressing concerns regarding Iran's nuclear program. The letter indicated that the U.S. deployment of a missile...

Obama cuts RRW program.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Barack Obama to stop the reliable replacement warhead program)
April 1, 2009... President Barack Obama Feb. 26 provided the outlines of his proposed budget for fiscal year 2010, which begins Oct. 1. The outline, the details of which are expected to be filled in this month, includes a proposal to end the development of the...

Nuclear refurbishment problems reported.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
April 1, 2009... The Government Accountability Office (GAO) March 2 released a report detailing several cases of mismanagement within two of the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Life Extension Programs (LEPs). This report follows NNSA press...

GAO criticizes missile defense programs.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Government Accountability Office )
April 1, 2009... A March Government Accountability Office (GAO) report to Congress found that the U.S. ballistic missile defense system (BMDS) has been subject to cost overruns and vague accounting and failed to achieve any of its six testing objectives for...

IAEA fuel bank advances.(THE WORLD)(International Atomic Energy Agency )
April 1, 2009... A proposed international nuclear fuel bank took a major step forward March 5 with a $10 million pledge by Kuwait. The pledge meant that international donors exceeded a required $100 million total. Earlier pledges had come from the United...

U.S. limits clusters; Global efforts ongoing.(THE WORLD)
April 1, 2009... The United States in March made permanent a ban on the transfer of nearly all of its cluster munitions, and Congress is considering limitations on the use of the weapons. Internationally Laos, the world's most cluster-impacted country, ratified...

Correction.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2009... * On page 49 of Arms Control Today's March 2009 issue, the news article "North Korea Seen Preparing for Missile Launch" the sentence that begins "The council adopted Resolution 1696 in July..." should read "The council adopted Resolution 1695...

Book Review: Pursuing a Nuclear Weapons-Free World.(Reykjavik Revisited: Steps Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... Reykjavik Revisited: Steps Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons Edited by George P. Shultz et al. Hoover Institution Press, 2008, 510 pp. It is no revelation that, for the past eight years, the U.S. approach to formal arms control...

The Bomb: a New History.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... Stephen M. Younger, Harper Collins, 2009, 238 pp. Stephen M. Younger, formerly associate director for nuclear weapons at the Los Alamos National Laboratory and director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, calls for a new strategic force...

The Nuclear Express: a Political History of the Bomb and its Proliferation.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... By Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman, MBI Publishing Co., 2009, 393 pp. Former Los Alamos nuclear weapons designers Thomas C. Reed and Danny B. Stillman trace the history of the spread of nuclear weapons technology, from the discovery...

Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia: Crisis Behavior and the Bomb.(Brief article)(Book review)
April 1, 2009... Edited by Sumit Ganguly and S. Paul Kapur, Routledge, 2009, 251 pp. The authors in this volume offer contrasting optimistic and pessimistic accounts of the role nuclear weapons played during four confrontations between India and Pakistan...

Miles A. Pomper Leaves; Daniel Horner to be editor.(SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT)(Brief article)
April 1, 2009... This marks the final issue for Arms Control Today editor Miles A. Pomper, who is leaving the Arms Control Association to become a senior research associate at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Daniel Horner, formerly a...