Arms Control Today articles from December 2005

Arms Control Today archives from December 2005

Editor's note.
December 1, 2005... It is an old lesson but one that many states seem to forget: rather than become more secure when they develop new weapons systems, countries may make themselves less so. After all, other countries are likely to counter any new weapons...

"Getting serious" about North Korea.(FOCUS)(nuclear programs)
December 1, 2005... Despite the breakthrough agreement in September on a Joint Statement of Principles outlining a series of action-for-action steps to denuclearize North Korea in a verifiable manner, the main antagonists are again at odds over the substance and...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)
December 1, 2005... "While nobody will ever tie the hands of a president, I can't conceive of circumstances where nuclear pre-emption makes sense... The decision to use nuclear weapons is so apocalyptic that I can't imagine that any president would ever make it...

Nonproliferation and U.S. non-use pledge.(Thirty Years Ago in ACT)
December 1, 2005... In order to breathe new life into the [nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] NPT and to keep the nuclear genie bottled up, it is imperative that the U.S. provide incentives for states to adhere to the NPT. A unilateral, "non-use" pledge by the...

By the numbers.
December 1, 2005... Selected UN First Committee Votes* 149-1-4 Resolution supporting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The United States voted no. Colombia, India, Mauritius, and Syria abstained. 149-2-4 Resolution calling on Israel to renounce...

Cooperative Threat Reduction.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The United States and Georgia signed an amendment to their bilateral Cooperative Threat Reduction implementing agreement for biological programs on Nov. 3, doubling the funding ceiling to $60 million. The additional funds are earmarked to...

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Protocol V.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Nicaragua consented Sept. 15 to be bound by Protocol V of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which covers explosive remnants of war (ERW) such as unexploded artillery shells and submunitions from cluster bombs. Protocol V, which...

Chemical Weapons Convention.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... The 175 states-parties of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) met in The Hague Nov. 7-11 for the 10th Session of the Conference of States Parties. The convention prohibits the production and stockpiling of chemical weapons. Seven states not...

Japanese Ambassador Yukiya Amano has been chosen as chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors for the 2005-2006 period.(Comings and Goings)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Japanese Ambassador Yukiya Amano has been chosen as chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors for the 2005-2006 period. Amano previously served as director of the nuclear energy division and director-general of the...

Algerian Ambassador Taous Feroukhi has been chosen as chairman of a special safeguards and verification committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors for the 2005-2006 period.(Comings and Goings)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Algerian Ambassador Taous Feroukhi has been chosen as chairman of a special safeguards and verification committee of the International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors for the 2005-2006 period. The committee, mandated in a June board...

Defense Intelligence Agency.(Major General Michael Maples appointed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... President George W. Bush has nominated Maj. Gen. Michael Maples of the U.S. Army to be director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the first time in decades that someone who is not a career intelligence officer has been picked to lead the...

Federal Atomic Energy Agency.(Sergei Kiriyenko appointed)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed former Russian prime minister Sergei Kiriyenko as head of its Federal Atomic Energy Agency. He replaces Alexander Rumyantsev, who had led the nuclear agency since 2001.

Alejandro Daniel Wolff has been nominated to replace Anne Patterson as U.S. deputy permanent representative to the United Nations.(Comings and Goings)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Alejandro Daniel Wolff has been nominated to replace Anne Patterson as U.S. deputy permanent representative to the United Nations. Wolff would serve under U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations John Bolton.

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)(Brief Article)(Calendar)
December 1, 2005... Dec. 5-9 Biological Weapons Convention meeting of the states-parties, Geneva. Agenda will include the discussion of codes of conduct for scientists. Dec. 6-9 Organization for the Prohibition...

Action/reaction: U.S. space weaponization and China.
December 1, 2005... Chinese officials have expressed a growing concern that U.S. space and missile defense plans will stimulate a costly and destabilizing arms race. In particular, the prevailing view in Beijing is that the United States seeks to neutralize...

Space weapons and the risk of accidental nuclear war.
December 1, 2005... The United States and Russia maintain thousands of nuclear warheads on long-range ballistic missiles on 15-minute alert. Once launched, they cannot be recalled, and they will strike their targets in roughly 30 minutes. Fifteen years after the...

Strengthening nuclear safeguards: special committee to the rescue?
December 1, 2005... In June, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors created a special committee to further strengthen its safeguards system--the inspections, accounting, and analyses the agency uses to detect and deter diversion of...

Congress cuts nuclear bunker buster again.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... Congress and the Bush administration differed sharply this year over the future direction of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. For the second consecutive year, lawmakers denied the Department of Energy's request to explore modifying a...

Congress boosts threat reduction funding.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... In approving fiscal year 2006 budget legislation, Congress increased funding for programs at the Departments of Energy and State aimed at securing and destroying weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and related materials worldwide. Congress has...

Congress cuts CTBTO funding.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization )
December 1, 2005... Congress on Nov. 10 approved a Bush administration request to cut the U.S. contribution to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) by nearly $5 million in fiscal year 2006. The Senate had tried to restore the funding over the...

Ship-based anti-missile system scores hit.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... The Pentagon ratcheted up the degree of difficulty for the latest test of its nonstrategic ship-based missile defense, and the anti-missile system responded by intercepting its target. This system has showed greater progress recently than other...

U.S. puts onus on India for nuclear ties.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... U.S. government officials are putting the onus on India to advance a bilateral initiative to expand global civil nuclear trade with New Delhi. Specifically, the officials say that India must take the first step in separating its nuclear...

Iraq Intel back in Senate spotlight.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... Under pressure from Democrats, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is set to jump-start the languishing second phase of its investigation into pre-war U.S. intelligence on Iraq's prohibited weapons programs. This phase is supposed to...

Congress amends Iran Nonproliferation Act.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... Congress in November amended the 2000 Iran Nonproliferation Act and renamed it the "Iran and Syria Nonproliferation Act." The new measure would direct the president to impose additional sanctions against governments and individuals...

U.S. trims nuclear material stockpile.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
December 1, 2005... Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman announced Nov. 7 that the United States would reduce by 200 metric tons the amount of highly enriched uranium (HEU) stockpiled for nuclear weapons. Once the decades-long process is completed, the United States...

Russia joins diplomatic push on Iran.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
December 1, 2005... A Nov. 18 report from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed EIBaradei to the agency's Board of Governors indicated that Iran has only partially complied with a September board resolution that found Tehran in...

North Korea nuclear talks stall.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
December 1, 2005... Participants in the Nov. 9-11 six-party talks in Beijing attempted to build on a September breakthrough in resolving the North Korea nuclear crisis, but they apparently made little headway. Differences between the United States and North Korea,...

North Korea increasing weapons capabilities.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
December 1, 2005... It is not certain that North Korea has nuclear weapons. But Pyongyang's continued operation of its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, as well as tests of a new solid-fuel missile engine, have enabled it to make progress toward being able to...

Treaty amended to outlaw WMD at sea.(THE WORLD)(Weapons of mass destruction)
December 1, 2005... States will be able to subscribe to new international instruments early next year making it a crime to use nonmilitary ships to intentionally transport or launch attacks with biological, chemical, or nuclear arms. Employing these types of...

GAO calls for IAEA improvements.(THE WORLD)(Government Accountability Office )(International Atomic Energy Agency )
December 1, 2005... A Nov. 7 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report calls for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to institute better measures to judge the effectiveness of its safeguards and nuclear security activities. The report by...

British debate replacement for nuclear force.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
December 1, 2005... Activists and politicians in the United Kingdom have begun debating whether and how to replace its nuclear weapons system, known as Trident. Parliament is expected to make a decision on the matter before the current parliament ends in 2010. ...

Book review: subcontinental nightmares.(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Fearful Symmetry: India-Pakistan Crises in the Shadow of Nuclear Weapons By Sumit Ganguly and Devin T. Hagerty Oxford University Press, July 2005, 223 pp. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nuclear Deterrence in Southern Asia: China,...

Eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction: Prospects for Effective International Verification.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Eliminating Weapons of Mass Destruction: Prospects for Effective International Verification By Berhanykun Andemicael and John Mathiason. Palgrave Macmillan, June 2005, 224 pp. In this extensive survey, former International Atomic...

The Search for Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: Inspection, Verification and Non-Proliferation.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... The Search for Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: Inspection, Verification and Non-Proliferation By Graham S. Pearson. Palgrave Macmillan, October 2005, 352 pp. Graham S. Pearson examines the international community's efforts to...

Beyond Hiroshima.(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2005... Beyond Hiroshima By Douglas Roche. Novalis, October 2005, 280 pp. The recent failure of the 2005 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty Review Conference to agree on any substantive nuclear nonproliferation or disarmament item revealed an...

Reprocessing is less risky.(Letters TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2005... Steve Fetter and Frank von Hippel notwithstanding ("Is U.S. Reprocessing Worth the Risk?," ACT, September 2005), new reprocessing technologies can increasingly make plutonium inaccessible for diversion by terrorist groups and by governments and...