Arms Control Today articles from July 2004

Arms Control Today archives from July 2004

Editor's note.(Editorial)
July 1, 2004... Designer soldiers, truth serums, ethnically-targeted weapons, and synthetic life sound like something out of a summer science fiction blockbuster. Yet, Mark Wheelis contends in our cover story that this might be what the future has in store....

Better late than never on North Korea.(Focus)(nuclear weapons program)
July 1, 2004... Of the several emerging nuclear threats in the world, the revival of North Korea's nuclear weapons program may be the most urgent and dangerous. Since late 2002, President George W. Bush has prudently maintained that he wants a "peaceful" and...

Notable quotable.(InBrief)
July 1, 2004... "The Department [of Energy] has not provided the Committee with any budget justification describing how a study to modify an existing nuclear weapon could conceivably cost half a billion dollars." The House Energy and Water Development...

North Korea: war drums or peace pipes.(Ten Years Ago in ACT)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Having chosen peace pipes over the exhortation of the war drums, the president must remain personally engaged to ensure that the policy is given every opportunity to succeed. A compelling package of incentives must be designed and promptly...

By the numbers.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Major Conventional Weapons Exported by the United States in 2003 675 Armored Combat Vehicles 21 Large-Caliber Artillery Systems 67 Combat Aircraft 22 Attack Helicopters 5 Warships 1,077 ...

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Sweden joined Protocol V of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) June 2, making it the first country to agree to be bound by the newest addition to the CCW. Protocol V, governing "explosive remnants of war," that is, abandoned...

Open Skies Treaty.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... A Russian-Belarusian team flew its first observation mission over the United States June 7 in accordance with the Open Skies Treaty. The treaty allows any of the 30 states-parties to conduct short-notice, unarmed, reconnaissance flights over...

Ottawa Convention.(Treaty Update)
July 1, 2004... On May 12, Estonia became the 142nd state to ratify the Ottawa Convention's ban on the use of anti-personnel landmines (APLs). Earlier this year, the fifth anniversary of the treaty's entry into force, the Bush administration announced that the...

Securing the bomb: an agenda for action.(Reports of Note)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... This report highlights failings in global efforts to reduce the threat posed by stockpiles of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, particularly in the former Soviet Union. It points to security problems remaining in Russia, large...

Universal compliance: a strategy for nuclear security.(Reports of Note)
July 1, 2004... In a draft report, five Carnegie experts put forward a strategy for shoring up the battered nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). They say states should commit themselves to five obligations: ensuring that no new states obtain nuclear weapons;...

What's ahead: on the calendar.(Weapons industry)(Calendar)
July 1, 2004... July 5-16 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW): Meeting of the Group of Governmental Experts on Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) and Mines Other Than Anti-Personnel Mines (MOTAPM). Geneva,...

Will the "new biology" lead to new weapons?(Cover Story)
July 1, 2004... Biology is in the midst of what can only be described as a revolution. It began in the mid-1970s with the development of recombinant DNA technology. Slowly at first but with increasing speed, related technologies have been developed that have...

Getting it right the next time: an interview with Hans Blix.(UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission )(Interview)
July 1, 2004... Hans Blix, former executive chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and former director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), spoke with Arms Control Today June 19. He shared his...

Building a forward line of defense: securing former Soviet biological weapons.
July 1, 2004... Preventing a biological weapons attack--long a terrifying battlefield danger and now a serious threat to civilian populations as well--is a major contemporary global security priority. The anthrax attack on the U.S. Congress, the discovery of...

Global nuclear agency rebukes Iran.(The Middle East and Africa)
July 1, 2004... The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors adopted a resolution June 18 condemning Iran for failing to cooperate fully with the agency's investigation of its nuclear programs. Iran retaliated by announcing that it would...

IAEA report questions Iran's nuclear programs.(The Middle East and Africa)(International Atomic Energy Agency)
July 1, 2004... International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei provided an update on the agency's investigation of Iran's nuclear programs in a June 1 report to the IAEA Board of Governors. According to the report, the most...

Satellite photos show possible nuclear site in Iran.(The Middle East and Africa)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Iran has demolished buildings at the Lavizan Shian site located in Tehran and removed a layer of topsoil, according to commercial satellite images obtained by a U.S. nongovernmental organization. The disclosure led U.S. officials to suggest...

IAEA: questions remain about Libya.(The Middle East and Africa)(International Atomic Energy Agency )
July 1, 2004... A May 28 report from International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei fills in some key missing details about Libya's now-dismantled nuclear weapons program, while acknowledging that holes remain in the account....

UN: Iraqi weapons sites looted.(The Middle East and Africa)
July 1, 2004... Since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, sites associated with Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs have been destroyed, and Iraqi missile engines have turned up in Europe, according to a May 28 report from the UN Monitoring,...

Congress backs Bush's defense budget.(The United States and the Americas)(George W. Bush)
July 1, 2004... Bush administration nuclear weapons and missile defense funding requests are likely to emerge from Congress largely unscathed, with administration plans having only suffered modest setbacks after several weeks of debate. White House appeals for...

Abraham announces nuclear initiative.(The United States and the Americas)(Spencer Abraham)
July 1, 2004... The Department of Energy is making organizational changes and boosting funding to better keep global nuclear materials from falling into hostile hands, but two key projects with Russia remain stalled. On May 26, Energy Secretary Spencer...

Bush plans to cut atomic arsenal.(The United States and the Americas)(George W. Bush)
July 1, 2004... After a long internal debate, the Bush administration told Congress June 1 that it intends to cut the U.S. nuclear arsenal in half by 2012. The United States currently deploys approximately 6,000 strategic nuclear warheads, out of a total...

Kerry details nonproliferation agenda.(The United States and the Americas)(John Kerry)
July 1, 2004... Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, used several June speeches to promise a more aggressive approach than President George W. Bush on keeping "weapons of mass murder" out of the hands of...

U.S. unveils offer at North Korea talks.(Asia and Australia)
July 1, 2004... In late June, the United States for the first time presented a detailed proposal for resolving a nearly two-year-old nuclear crisis with North Korea, demonstrating new flexibility in a series of meetings that has already stretched on for more...

Parsing the U.S. proposal.(Asia and Australia)
July 1, 2004... In a June 24 interview with Arms Control Today and a June 23 press briefing by Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher, Bush administration officials fleshed out the details of their two-phase offer to Pyongyang. During the initial...

India, Pakistan hold nuclear talks.(Asia and Australia)
July 1, 2004... Efforts to ease tensions between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan continued in June, despite a change in government in New Delhi. In nuclear confidence-building talks June 19-20, the two South Asian nations agreed to continue a 1998...

U.S. eyes missile defense site in Europe.(Europe and the Former Soviet Union)
July 1, 2004... The United States is currently holding discussions with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland about building a U.S. missile defense interceptor site on one of their territories, Arms Control Today has learned. Although no final decision has...

Greenland radar cleared for U.S. missile defense.(Europe and the Former Soviet Union)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... The Danish parliament has unanimously approved a Bush administration request to upgrade a radar located in Greenland so it can play a future role in a planned U.S. missile defense system. The vote came approximately 18 months after the...

Russia joins Proliferation Security Initiative.(Europe and the Former Soviet Union)
July 1, 2004... In an anniversary gift to the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), Russia on May 31 joined the effort to intercept deadly weapons shipments worldwide on its one-year mark. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and...

New European Defense Agency approved.(Europe and the Former Soviet Union)
July 1, 2004... The creation of a European Defense Agency (EDA) was jumpstarted after receiving a 2 million euros allocation June 14, and being enshrined in the new European Union Constitution June 17. The agency's mandate involves defense capabilities...

G-8 summit advances bush proposals.(The World)(Group of 8)(George W. Bush)
July 1, 2004... At a June 8-10 summit at Sea Island, Georgia, leaders of seven of the other richest countries in the world endorsed some but not all of the nonproliferation proposals that President George W. Bush offered earlier this year. The summit left the...

Nuclear suppliers pass on U.S. proposals.
July 1, 2004... President George W. Bush's proposals for tightening exports of nuclear materials and technologies failed to win support at a May 27-28 meeting of nuclear suppliers. But the group did adopt other nuclear export measures and accepted four new...

The mixed arms control legacy of Ronald Reagan.(Looking Back)(Obituary)
July 1, 2004... Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States, died on June 5, 2004, at his home in California. His presidency spanned one of the most tumultuous periods in U.S.-Soviet relations and the history of the nuclear arms race. This article...

Letters to the editor.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2004... Jofi Joseph is to be congratulated on his well-balanced feature article on the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) in the June 2004 Arms Control Today. With the Russian Federation joining at the end of May and Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
July 1, 2004... In the March 2004 issue, an article by Senator Richard G. Lugar, "Eliminating the Obstacles to Nunn-Lugar," included a listing of six conditions the president must certify or waive before releasing chemical weapons destruction funding. The...