Arms Control Today articles from December 2004

Arms Control Today archives from December 2004

Editor's note.(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... During this year's presidential debates, President George W. Bush and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) found something on which they could agree: nuclear proliferation is the top national security threat facing the United States. With the election...

Nuclear checks and balances.(FOCUS)
December 1, 2004... Four years ago, Congress called on the president to reassess the military requirements for nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War era. Yet, rather than reduce U.S. reliance on nuclear weapons, President George W. Bush launched a costly and...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... "The international community cannot rest on its nonproliferation laurels. It must be as creative, agile, and aggressive in preventing proliferation as the proliferators themselves are about acquiring WMD ... Preferably, our game plan should...

NPT 2000: is the treaty in trouble?(5 Years Ago in ACT)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... If the NPT regime were to collapse, governments would have to rely more heavily on their second line of defense against proliferation-deterrence and defense. And while it is an option to give up on diplomacy and deal with proliferation...

By the numbers.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Selected UN First Committee Votes* 151-2-16 Resolution supporting a path to total elimination of nuclear weapons India and the United States voted no. 147-1-4 Resolution supporting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty The United...

Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Russia is trying to exempt about 500 armored combat vehicles (ACVs) from arms limits under the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. The treaty imposes caps on the number of tanks, ACVs, heavy artillery combat aircraft, and attack...

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... During the 23rd Session of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) Organization, which took place from Nov. 15-19 in Vienna, Ambassador Tibor Toth of Hungary was elected and appointed to succeed German Ambassador...

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW).(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Russia's State Duma voted Nov. 23 in favor of ratifying Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), which restricts the use of anti-personnel landmines. If the Duma vote is backed by both the upper house of parliament...

Comings and goings.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Several changes have been announced at the National Security Council (NSC). Victor Cha, a professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, has been chosen as Director for Asia while Michael Green, who previously held the post,...

What's ahead: on the calendar.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
December 1, 2004... Dec. 6-9 Wassenaar Arrangement on Conventional Weapons: Plenary Meeting. Vienna, Austria. Dec. 6-10 Biological Weapons Convention: Annual Meeting of States-Parties. Geneva, Switzerland. Dec. 8 EU-China...

Walking the nonproliferation tightrope: an interview with Ambassador Sergio de Queiroz Duarte, president of the 2005 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference.(NPT 2005)(Interview)(Cover Story)
December 1, 2004... The nearly 190 states-parties to the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) will gather next May for four weeks to take stock of the landmark accord that lies at the heart of the global nuclear nonproliferation regime. The diplomat charged with...

The nuclear third rail: can fuel cycle capabilities be limited?(NPT 2005)
December 1, 2004... In U.S. politics, some issues are so controversial that they are known as "third rails"--touching them risks political electrocution. Social Security, for example, has often been likened to the third rail of U.S. domestic politics. In the...

The nuclear fuel cycle: is it time for a multilateral approach?(NPT 2005)
December 1, 2004... The continuing spread of nuclear technology, along with the emergence of clandestine nuclear supply networks, has led to discussion on revisiting multinational approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle. The idea had been explored in the 1970s and...

The Iran case: addressing why countries want nuclear weapons.
December 1, 2004... Iran's possible development of nuclear weapons has now come front and center in U.S. foreign policy, as well as in consideration overall of preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction. It has assumed particular importance because of...

Iran agrees to temporarily suspend uranium-enrichment program.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
December 1, 2004... Following a series of talks with British, French, and German officials, Iran notified the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Nov. 14 that it would suspend all of its uranium-enrichment activities for the duration of upcoming negotiations...

IAEA cites Iran progress, raises questions.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
December 1, 2004... In a Nov. 15 report to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei concluded that all of Iran's known nuclear material "has been accounted for, and... is not diverted to prohibited...

The politics of arms control in the second Bush term.(News ANALYSIS)
December 1, 2004... President George W. Bush won re-election last month despite attacks on his arms control and nonproliferation record from his Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts. So, it is hardly surprising that Bush and his supporters...

Missile defense still on hold.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2004... Despite deployment of the first contingent of long-range ballistic missile interceptors in Alaska two months ago, the Bush administration has yet to declare its limited missile defense system ready for action. Various military commands that...

Congress axes funding for new nukes.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2004... Congress dealt a setback to Bush administration nuclear plans in November, cutting funds from an end-of-session bill that would have allowed the Department of Energy to explore new and modified types of nuclear weapons. The $388 billion...

U.S., allies split on North Korea; talks stalled as Pyongyang waits.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
December 1, 2004... Since the Nov. 2 re-election of President George W. Bush, the United States, along with North Korea's neighbors, has accelerated diplomatic efforts to convene another round of six-party talks. However, Washington and the other participants...

IAEA: Seoul's nuclear sins in past.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
December 1, 2004... International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei issued a report Nov. 11 describing South Korea's failure to notify the agency of past research that could have potentially aided a nuclear weapons program. The report,...

U.S. disappointed with worldwide response to WMD resolution.(THE WORLD)
December 1, 2004... Roughly one-third of UN members have complied with a unanimous Security Council resolution request to detail their efforts to prevent nonstate actors from acquiring or developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), disappointing the United...

UN nuclear disarmament debate stalled.(THE WORLD)
December 1, 2004... If a recent month-long UN disarmament meeting is a signpost for where key nuclear arms control talks are headed next year, a dead end might be around the corner. From Oct. 4 to Nov. 5, UN members discussed, disputed, and voted on a...

UN slaps Cote d'Ivoire with embargo.(THE WORLD)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... The UN Security Council Nov. 15 unanimously approved an immediate arms embargo on Cote d'Ivoire after the government broke a ceasefire agreement with rebel forces and also attacked French forces inside the country. Prohibiting arms...

G-8 Global Partnership selects Ukraine for nonproliferation funds.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
December 1, 2004... Ukraine has begun discussing how it might spend funds that it now expects to receive from backers of a multinational effort to support threat reduction projects addressing nonproliferation, disarmament, counterterrorism, and nuclear safety...

Albania to receive Nunn-Lugar assistance.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
December 1, 2004... With a key U.S. lawmaker calling for more such projects, Albania has become the first country outside the former Soviet Union slated to receive assistance from the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program. The United States will help the...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2004... The names of Jon Pollack and Jenifer Mackby on page 46 of the November 2004 issue of Arms Control Today were spelled incorrectly.

Paul H. Nitze (1907-2004).(IN MEMORIAM)(Obituary)
December 1, 2004... Paul H. Nitze, who died Oct. 19 in Washington, DC, at age 97 was one of the principal architects of U.S. strategy during the Cold War. Yet, Nitze's arms control career and philosophy were itself shaped by the arc of that superpower standoff....

"Dr. Strangelove" at 40: the continuing relevance of a Cold War cultural icon.(LOOKING BACK)
December 1, 2004... We stand at a strange and disorienting moment in our 60-year encounter with nuclear weapons, with all of its strategic, political, cultural, and moral dimensions. The dust from the Cold War had barely settled when Americans were newly shaken by...