Arms Control Today articles from December 2002

Arms Control Today archives from December 2002

National Insecurity Strategy. (Focus).
December 1, 2002... Two years after taking office, the Bush administration has embraced a "new" National Security Strategy that relies heavily on counterproliferation and pre-emptive action to "deter, dissuade, and defeat" adversaries armed with weapons of mass...

The next steps in U.S. nonproliferation policy.
December 1, 2002... In 1991, Senator Sam Nunn (D-GA) and I pushed a bill through Congress that began a sustained American effort to assist the states of the former Soviet Union in safeguarding and destroying their enormous stockpiles of weapons of mass...

North Korea is no Iraq: Pyongyang's negotiating strategy.
December 1, 2002... The revelation that North Korea is buying equipment useful for enriching uranium has led many in Washington to conclude that North Korea, like Iraq, is again making nuclear weapons and that the appropriate response is to punish it for brazenly...

UN Weapons inspections begin in Iraq. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... UNITED NATIONS WEAPONS inspectors returned to Iraq this month for the first time since December 1998 after the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1441 November 8 requiring Iraq to admit inspectors. Following months of debate over how to...

Pentagon memo raises possibility of Nuclear testing. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... A MEMORANDUM FROM a high-level Pentagon official recommending that the United States consider a low-yield nuclear testing program to help maintain the nuclear weapons stockpile surfaced November 15, just two days after Congress delayed an...

KEDO suspends oil shipments to North Korea. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... THE KOREAN PENINSULA Energy Development Organization (KEDO) announced November 14 that it would suspend heavy-fuel oil deliveries to North Korea in response to Pyongyang's October acknowledgement that it has a uranium-enrichment program, which...

Debunking the Missile Defense Agency's 'endgame success' argument. (News Analysis).
December 1, 2002... THE PENTAGON'S MISSILE Defense Agency (MDA) has become increasingly averse to providing detailed reports to Congress or the public on the progress of U.S. missile defense programs. It has also recently decided to classify more information about...

Bare-bones multilateralism at the BWC review conference. (News Analysis).
December 1, 2002... IN JULY 2001 the Bush administration rejected years of work to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), withdrawing from negotiations that had produced a draft of a legally binding protocol intended to help enforce the treaty. A few...

BWC review conference meets, avoids verification issues. (News and Negotiations).(Biological Weapons Convention )
December 1, 2002... A YEAR AFTER the fifth review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) was suspended amid diplomatic disarray, 94 BWC states-parties met again November 11-15 and agreed to hold annual meetings before the next review conference in...

Booster for missile interceptor a disappointment, priority. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... ON OCTOBER 31, the Pentagon official overseeing U.S. missile defense programs declared that work next year would be focused on developing and testing a booster for intercepting strategic ballistic missiles, an effort he described as...

Weight jeopardizes ABL test schedule. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... LIEUTENANT GENERAL RONALD Kadish, who is in charge of U.S. missile defense programs, raised doubts October 31 about whether the Airborne Laser (ABL) will be ready for its first intercept test, scheduled for 2004. Kadish cited concerns about how...

Congress gives Bush three-year waiver for threat reduction. (News and Negotiations).(2003 Defense Authorization Act allows funding for U.S. dispose of foreign nuclear, biological and chemical weapons without conditions)
December 1, 2002... THROUGH THE FISCAL year 2003 Defense Authorization Act, which was sent to the White House November 13, Congress has granted the president the right to waive congressionally mandated conditions that were holding up funds for the Cooperative...

NATO expands; members support Iraqi disarmament. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... AT A NOVEMBER 21-22 summit marked by invitations to seven countries to join the alliance, NATO endorsed disarming Iraq, creating a military force capable of fighting anywhere in the world on short notice, and studying missile defenses against...

Congress approves nuclear 'bunker buster' research. (News and Negotiations).(robust nuclear earth penetrator)
December 1, 2002... CONGRESS HAS AUTHORIZED research into the feasibility and cost of developing a robust nuclear earth penetrator (RNEP), with up to $15 million slated to go to U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories in fiscal year 2003 to work on modifying existing...

Report calls for development of nonlethal weapons. (News and Negotiations).
December 1, 2002... THE U.S. MILITARY should place a higher priority on developing and deploying so-called nonlethal weapons, the private National Research Council (NRC) concluded in an unclassified November report to the Pentagon. The council is part of the...

Cuba accedes to NPT, joins Tlatelolco. (News Briefs).(Cuba agrees to nuclear non-proliferation treaty)(Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean, also known as the Treaty of Tlatelolco)
December 1, 2002... Cuba submitted its instrument of ratification to the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) November 4 in Moscow, according to an IAEA spokesperson November 25. Russia is designated a depository government of the NPT. Cuba's accession leaves...

Space-based laser put on hold. (News Briefs).(Missile Defense Agency)
December 1, 2002... The Pentagon's effort to develop a laser that would be stationed in space to destroy ballistic missiles has been significantly scaled back. In September, the Pentagon shut down the office dedicated to developing the Space-Based Laser (SBL), and...

U.S., U.K. leave Ukraine with few answers. (News Briefs).
December 1, 2002... U.S. and British investigators have been unable to conclude whether Ukraine illegally supplied Iraq with an advanced early-warning system two years ago, according to their report on the alleged sale, which was delivered November 5 to Ukrainian...

UN says Liberia illegally importing arms. (News Briefs).(Temex, a Yugoslavian company makes illegal arms sale to Iraq)
December 1, 2002... The United Nations released a report October 25 revealing that Liberia illegally imported more than 200 tons of weapons from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) between June and August of this year. Liberia is prohibited from receiving...

Third sea-based missile intercept succeeds. (New Briefs).
December 1, 2002... A ship-based missile defense system designed to shoot down short- and medium-range ballistic missiles scored its third consecutive success in a November 21 intercept test off Hawaii. Unlike the past two tests, which took place in January...

UN Security Council Resolution 1441. (Document).
December 1, 2002... The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 1441 by a vote of 15-0 on November 8, requiring Iraq to admit inspectors from the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency...

2001 UN Register of Conventional Arms. (Factfile).
December 1, 2002... The United Nations annually requests that countries voluntarily submit data on their exports and imports of battle tanks, armored combat vehicles (ACVs), heavy artillery, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, and missiles and missile...