Arms Control Today articles from January 2006

Arms Control Today archives from January 2006

Editor's note.
January 1, 2006... This new year brings some change and some continuity to the world of arms control and nonproliferation. On the Korean peninsula, U.S. and North Korean negotiators are locked in a standoff over how to resolve a crisis provoked by...

India's choice, Congress' responsibility.(FOCUS)(nuclear fuel supplies)
January 1, 2006... Sometime this year, Congress will be formally asked to allow the resumption of full civil nuclear cooperation with India, which was restricted following New Delhi's 1974 nuclear bomb test. If Congress and the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... "The hard part is: How do we create an environment in which all of us would look at nuclear weapons the way we look at slavery or genocide, as a taboo and a historical anomaly?" --International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Mohamed...

There is no other way.(Twenty Five Years Ago in ACT)(nuclear nonproliferation treaty)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... As shown at last summer's [nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty] NPT review conference there is a growing dissatisfaction with the perceived failure of the superpowers to get on with arms control. If that discontent leads to undermining the NPT,...

By the numbers.
January 1, 2006... Total Stocks of Highly Enriched Uranium in Metric Tons* .034 Israel .042 North Korea .51 India 1.12 Pakistan 22 China 23 United Kingdom 35.4 France 705 United States...

Getting ready for a nuclear-ready Iran.(Reports of Note)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Edited by Henry Sokolski and Patrick Clawson. U.S. Army War College and Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, November 2005 In this report, several prominent authors, from retired Israeli Brigadier General Shlomo Brom to Therese Delpech...

An international perspective on advancing technologies and strategies for managing dual-use risks.(Reports of Note)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Committee on Advances in Technology and the Prevention of Their Application to Next Generation Biowarfare Threats. National Academies Press, October 2005 Based on a 2004 experts workshop conducted by the Institute of Medicine and the...

IAEA additional protocol.(Treaty Update)(International Atomic Energy Agency)(nuclear nonproliferation)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... Belarus and Malaysia signed additional protocols to their International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards agreements in November. The voluntary adoption of versions of the Model Additional Protocol allows the IAEA to strengthen and expand...

Ottawa Convention.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... States-parties to the 1997 Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines (APLs) met Nov. 27 through Dec. 2 in Zagreb, Croatia. They adopted a measure requiring countries to provide more information on APLs exempted from the ban, which are...

Open Skies Treaty.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
January 1, 2006... On Jan. 1, the 1992 Open Skies Treaty entered its second implementation phase. The 34 states-parties may now equip their aircraft with additional treaty-certified sensors for conducting short-notice, unarmed, reconnaissance flights over each...

Wassenaar Arrangement.(conferences)(Brief article)
January 1, 2006... The voluntary 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement held its annual plenary meeting Dec. 13-14 in Vienna. This marked the first plenary for Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Slovenia, all of which joined the conventional arms and dual-use...

What's ahead: on the calendar.(Calendar)
January 1, 2006... Jan. 9-20 Preparatory Committee for the 2006 UN Conference on the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its...

North Korean nuclear crises: an end in sight?
January 1, 2006... After 25 months and on-and-off negotiations, the six-party talks finally produced a milestone joint statement on September 19, stipulating goals and principles leading to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Yet, as the failure of a...

Wrong ends, means, and needs: behind the U.S. nuclear deal with India.
January 1, 2006... President George W. Bush and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh issued a joint statement on July 18, 2005, laying the grounds for the resumption of full U.S. and international nuclear aid to India. Such international support was key to India...

Global cleanout: reducing the Threat of HEU-fueled nuclear terrorism.(highly enriched uranium)
January 1, 2006... The greatest opportunity for would-be nuclear terrorists or countries seeking a quick bomb or two are poorly secured sites that contain significant quantities of highly enriched uranium (HEU)--uranium containing a high percentage of the...

New Iran talks set, but prospects gloomy.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
January 1, 2006... Prospects for a successful resolution to Iran's nuclear crisis appear increasingly bleak despite a recent flurry of diplomatic activity. Iranian officials met Dec. 21 in Vienna with their counterparts from France, Germany, and the United...

Iran and foreign enrichment: a troubled model.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
January 1, 2006... In an attempt to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis, Russia has proposed a compromise between Iran and the United States and its European allies. To meet Iranian concerns, it has suggested that Tehran be allowed to retain some elements of the...

U.S. sanctions nine companies for Iran trade.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
January 1, 2006... The United States imposed sanctions Dec. 23 on nine foreign firms for allegedly making exports to Iran that could contribute to unconventional weapons programs. It also rescinded 2004 sanctions against an Indian citizen. Six Chinese...

Report confirms Iraq used sarin in 1991.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
January 1, 2006... U.S. investigators have confirmed that Iraq used chemical weapons to quash a Shiite uprising after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The information was uncovered by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), the task force established following the U.S.-led...

North Korean talks hit impasse.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
January 1, 2006... Diplomatic efforts to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis appear to have hit an impasse only months after six-party talks produced a set of principles for a peaceful solution. North Korea has not yet agreed to attend the next session of...

Taiwan receives U.S. warships.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
January 1, 2006... Two refurbished U.S. destroyers sold to Taiwan arrived there Dec. 8, and two more will be transferred this year. But Taiwan's legislature is blocking other major U.S. arms buys. President George W. Bush authorized exporting four Kidd-class...

U.S. combat aircraft delivered to Pakistan.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
January 1, 2006... The United States delivered two F-16A combat aircraft to Pakistan Dec. 13, marking the first such transfer since 1990 when Washington had halted exports of F-16s to Islamabad because of its nuclear weapons program. The planes can be converted...

Defense bills passed, nuclear questions raised.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
January 1, 2006... Before ending its annual session in December, Congress approved two bills directing and funding the Pentagon and the U.S. nuclear complex. In doing so, legislators added a little extra money to anti-missile projects but gave nothing to a...

Missile defense goes stealth.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Missile Defense Agency)
January 1, 2006... Future U.S. ballistic missile interceptor deployments will no longer be announced "in the interest of operational security," the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency (MDA) stated Dec. 20. The move is the latest in a series of steps limiting public...

President gains permanent CTR waiver power.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Cooperative Threat Reduction)(Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations' regulations)
January 1, 2006... Congress in December granted the president permanent authority to annually waive restrictions on the use of funds for threat reduction activities in the former Soviet Union. However, a Senate provision that would have eliminated those...

Senate struggles with riot control agent policy.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
January 1, 2006... Fearing that military commanders were not using riot control agents, particularly tear gas, because of overly cautious interpretations of U.S. law and treaty obligations, Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) introduced an amendment to the recent fiscal...

Senate Iraq Intel probe stalls again.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
January 1, 2006... Despite a November pledge, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has not yet agreed on a plan to complete a second phase of its investigation into pre-war intelligence on Iraq's prohibited weapons programs. Committee Chairman Pat...

U.S. lifts Indonesia arms embargo.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
January 1, 2006... Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns announced Nov. 22 that the United States would open the door to major arms sales to Indonesia. The announcement came just days after President George W. Bush met with Indonesian...

ElBaradei, IAEA accept Nobel Peace Prize.( International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei )
January 1, 2006... In accepting the Nobel Peace Prize Dec. 10, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei sought to place issues of nonproliferation and disarmament within a broader context of relations between developed and...

Anti-vehicle mines proposal falters.(THE WORLD)
January 1, 2006... The future of a four-year-old initiative sponsored by the United States and 30 other states to restrict the use of anti-vehicle mines is uncertain due to stiff opposition from some countries, most notably Russia and China. More than 60...

States agree to pursue bio codes of conduct.(THE WORLD)(biological weapons convention)
January 1, 2006... In an effort to address the threat potential of emerging biotechnologies, states-parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) agreed at their December meeting to encourage voluntary codes of conduct for scientists. But details of the...

Russia, west clash over troop pullouts.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
January 1, 2006... Moscow recently warned Western governments that their continuing insistence that Russia fulfill past political commitments to pull its military forces out of Georgia and Moldova is jeopardizing a treaty capping conventional weapons deployments...

Russian nuclear ambitions exceed reality.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
January 1, 2006... Top Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, boasted several times last year that Russia's future nuclear arsenal will be unrivaled. Russia's recent nuclear activities suggest this is more of a long-term goal rather than a...

Looking back: the limits of limited nuclear war.
January 1, 2006... In recent years, the Bush administration has put forward policy documents that seem to suggest that nuclear weapons can be used as limited war-fighting tools, such as for bunker-busting missions. As policymakers grapple with whether such a...

Hungarian missiles set for destruction.(Letter TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 2006... I welcome the interest that Arms Control Today has shown ("Hungarian Missiles Set for Destruction," November 2005) in Hungary's destruction of Strela-2 Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS). Like you, we in Hungary believe that...