Arms Control Today articles from July 2001

Arms Control Today archives from July 2001

Mission Impossible.(George W. Bush hopes to gain European support for national missile defense plan)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... President George W. Bush's abbreviated "grand tour" of Europe predictably failed to gain new support for U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty to facilitate deployment of a national missile defense (NMD). Given the abject...

Allergic Reaction: Washington's Response to the BWC Protocol.(Biological Weapons Convention)
July 1, 2001... In 1969, President Richard Nixon unilaterally renounced U.S. possession of biological weapons, and he followed that bold step with the signature of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972. But, despite its sweeping ban of an entire...

Russia's New Plan For Chemical Weapons Destruction.
July 1, 2001... On June 8, more than 100 diplomats and dignitaries from the United States, Canada, eight European countries, and the European Union gathered by a soggy field outside the western Siberian town of Shchuch'ye, 975 miles southeast of Moscow. [1]...

A Response to Thomas Neff's 'Decision Time for the HEU Deal'.(highly enriched uranium purchase agreement)
July 1, 2001... We want to call attention to some of the inaccuracies and distortions in Thomas Neff's recent article in Arms Control Today ("Decision Time for the HEU Deal: U.S. Security vs. Private Interests," June 2001) and the implications of a number of...

Pentagon Seeks Missile Defense Budget Increase, Reorganization.
July 1, 2001... THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION requested nearly $8.3 billion for ballistic missile defenses--a $3 billion increase over current spending levels--as part of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2002 amended budget request, which it unveiled June 27. The proposed...

Bush Team Reaffirms Missile Defense Plans; Dems Leery.
July 1, 2001... IN JUNE, SENIOR Bush officials reiterated the administration's intention to press forward with ballistic missile defenses as quickly as possible, but leading Senate Democrats warned against precipitously abrogating the Anti-Ballistic Missile...

Bush Meets Opposition To Missile Defense While in Europe.
July 1, 2001... ALTOUGH PRESIDENT GEORGE W. Bush expressed satisfaction during a mid-June visit to Europe that Russian President Vladimir Putin and other European leaders had showed "receptivity" to his intention to develop a new strategic framework, including...

UN Security Council Not Likely To Agree on Iraqi Sanctions.
July 1, 2001... AS A JULY 3 deadline approaches, Russian opposition appears likely to prevent the United Nations Security Council from passing a U.S.-endorsed, British draft resolution to revamp the 11-year-old sanctions regime against Iraq. Since June...

Bush Outlines Terms For Resuming Talks With North Korea.(President George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... CONCLUDING A FOUR-MONTH policy review, President George W. Bush announced June 6 that his administration is prepared to resume "serious discussions" with North Korea on a "broad agenda." The decision marks a shift from the doubts Bush aired...

Pentagon Prepares Modest Cutbacks in Nuclear Arsenal.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Donald Rumsfeld is taking steps to reduce modestly all three arms of the nuclear triad in what appears to be the first stage of the unilateral nuclear cutbacks promised by the Bush administration. The secretary said he...

Russian Duma Passes Bill Allowing Import of Spent Fuel.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... RUSSIA'S LOWER ROUSE of parliament approved a controversial bill June 6 that would allow Moscow to import spent nuclear fuel from other nations. Importing spent fuel could generate billions of dollars for the cash-starved country, but the...

U.S. BWC Protocol Policy Still Unclear With Talks Short on Time.(Biological Weapons Convention)
July 1, 2001... THREE MONTHS AFTER the release of a chairman's draft of a protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the United States has yet to announce its position on the text. Although the administration has chosen to remain silent until it...

U.S. Finishes Packaging Kazakh Plutonium, Reviews Next Step.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... IN LATE JUNE the United States and Kazakhstan completed a joint project to package spent fuel containing weapons-grade plutonium for permanent storage. Conclusion of the work represents a key milestone in a multi-year effort to inventory...

U.S., Uzbekistan Sign Threat Reduction Agreement.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... THE UNITED STATES signed an agreement June 5 with Uzbekistan that, according to Bush administration officials, will provide a "legal framework" for a range of cooperative threat reduction and military activities. Signed by Secretary of...

CFE Review Conference Held; Russian Compliance Urged.(Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... MEETING MAY 28-JUNE 1 in Vienna for the second review conference of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, the 30 states-parties touted treaty successes, though NATO members and other European countries called on Russia to...

Rules for U.S.-Swedish Arms Trade, Ventures Relaxed.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... ON JUNE 14, the White House announced that Sweden, and therefore its arms companies, would be permitted to join a select group of countries that enjoy an expedited, relaxed, and simplified process for purchasing weapons from or participating in...

UN General Assembly Adopts Illicit Firearms Protocol.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... WITHOUT A VOTE, the UN General Assembly adopted a protocol May 31 targeted at improving cooperation in clamping down on the illegal manufacturing of and trade in firearms. The protocol, which complements an existing UN convention on crime and...

CD Session Ends in Deadlock; Coordinators Appointed.(conference on disarmament)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... THE 66-MEMBER CONFERENCE on Disarmament (CD) closed its second of three negotiating periods this year on June 29 without agreeing on a plan of work. But, for the first time since 1998, on June 14 the CD appointed three special coordinators...

U.S. Shifts Its South Asia Nuclear Policy.(Buyers Guide)
July 1, 2001... Moving away from the Clinton administration's nuclear policy toward South Asia, the Bush administration has apparently decided not to try to persuade India and Pakistan to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) or to give up their...

Russia Re-Establishes Independent Space Forces.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Russia has re-established its military space forces as an independent branch of the country's armed forces. The newly established Space Forces-responsible for the operation of early-warning satellites and radars, the Moscow-area missile defense...

Israel Plans to Buy U.S. F-16 Fighters.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Amid displays of some of the most advanced weaponry available on the international arms market, Israeli government officials at the Paris Air Show notified U.S. aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin on June 19 that Israel would buy at least...

Russia, India Agree to Joint Military Projects.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Meeting in Moscow for the first time under the Inter-Governmental Commission on Military Technical Cooperation established last October, top Russian and Indian officials pledged during the first week of June to work together on a range of joint...

Russia Permits Aluminum Shipment to Iran.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Reports emerged in mid-June that Russia had allowed an unknown quantity of high-strength aluminum to be shipped to Iran earlier this year. The shipment is of potential concern because certain special aluminum alloys can be used in high-speed...

CORRECTION.
July 1, 2001... In the "Executive Summary of the Chairman's Text" of the Biological Weapons Convention protocol (ACT, May 2001), the fifth bullet on page 12 mistakenly says, "A field investigation of an outbreak of disease on the territory of another...

August 2000 Pentagon Report on NMD Technology.(national missile defence technology)
July 1, 2001... After having been withheld from Congress by the Pentagon for more than eight months, an internal Defense Department report detailing program delays and testing failures of the national missile defense (NMD) system was made public June 26. (See...

U.S. 2000 Data For the UN Conventional Arms Register.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
July 1, 2001... On May 31, the United States sent its annual submission to the UN Register of Conventional Arms, reporting on U.S. conventional arms exports and imports for 2000. For the third consecutive year, the U.S. export total, 1,637 weapons, marked a...

OF SPECIAL INTEREST.(articles on arms control)(Bibliography)
July 1, 2001... Department of Defense Director of Operational Test and Evaluation. "Report in Support of National Missile Defense Deployment Readiness Review," August 10, 2000, 67 pp. "The Coyle Report: A Comprehensive Pentagon Study Criticizing the...