Arms Control Today articles from March 2005

Arms Control Today archives from March 2005

Editor's note.(Editorial)
March 1, 2005... As director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei has the unenviable position of serving simultaneously in several, often conflicting roles: an investigator tracking down nuclear cheats; a diplomat trying...

Reinforce the nonproliferation bargain.(FOCUS)(nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty )
March 1, 2005... The nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) is a good deal that must be honored and strengthened. Since the NPT entered into force 35 years ago, the number of states forswearing the world's most destructive weapons now stands at 188. Only India,...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)(Jay Rockefeller, Porter Goss)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Sen. Rockefeller: "I'd ask you, sir, is the material missing from Russian nuclear facilities sufficient to construct a nuclear weapon?" Director Goss: "Senator, the way I would prefer to answer that question is there is sufficient...

Strengthening national security.(Twenty Years Ago in ACT)
March 1, 2005... If there is to be security enhancing arms control during the next four years, it must come from the U.S. Congress... The structure and powers of Congress are not optimally suited to the actual conduct of arms control, [but] our power of the...

By the numbers.(Libya's weapons)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Libya's Disarmament Over 1,000 Tons of weapons of mass destruction-related material and missile parts removed from Libya by the United States. 23 Tons of mustard gas (a chemical weapon agent) that Libya declared. 3,563...

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... In his fiscal year 2006 budget request to Congress released Feb. 7. President George W. Bush proposed significantly cutting U.S. funding for the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization's (CTBTO) International Monitoring System (IMS), which...

IAEA Additional Protocol.(Treaty Update)(International Atomic Energy Agency)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The Ukrainian parliament Jan. 12 rejected ratification of its version of the 1997 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Model Additional Protocol, which expands the ability of the IAEA to monitor nuclear activities and facilities. According...

Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Russia announced to the Conference on Disarmament late January that it had ratified Amended Protocol II of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) Dec. 7, 2004, committing to obey restrictions on the use of landmines and booby...

Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials Convention.(Treaty Update)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... The 1980 Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Materials was ratified by Nicaragua Jan. 9 and Turkmenistan Feb. 6. The convention, which now has 110 ratifiers, requires states-parties to ensure the proper protection of nuclear...

Stephen Krasner has replaced nonproliferation expert Mitchell Reiss as the new policy planning chief at the Department of State.(Comings and Goings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Stephen Krasner has replaced nonproliferation expert Mitchell Reiss as the new policy planning chief at the Department of State. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill has been appointed as the new chief negotiator in the six-party North Korean...

National Cable & Telecommunications Association.(Comings and Goings)(Kyle McSlarrow)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle McSlarrow has resigned to head the National Cable & Telecommunications Association.

Sandia National Laboratories.(Comings and Goings)(Douglas J. Feith resigns from Department of Defense)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... Douglas J. Feith, undersecretary of defense for policy, has resigned from the Department of Defense effective this summer, while John Shaw, deputy undersecretary of defense, has been dismissed. Jim Tegnelia, a Defense Department official...

CIA.(Comings and Goings)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2005... At the CIA, John Kringen, head of the crime and narcotics center, has been chosen to succeed Jami A. Miscik as deputy director for intelligence, responsible for overseeing the agency's analytical work.

What's ahead: on the calendar.(Calendar)
March 1, 2005... March 5 Thirty-fifth anniversary of the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty's entry into force. March 7-11 UN Certain Conventional Weapons Group of Governmental Experts meeting: 10th session. New...

Tackling the nuclear dilemma: an interview with IAEA director-general Mohamed ElBaradei.(NPT 2005)(Interview)(Cover Story)
March 1, 2005... Mohamed ElBaradei has served as the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) since 1997. In this position, he is charged with ensuring compliance with the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). In a Feb. 4 interview...

Turning a blind eye again? The Khan network's history and lessons for U.S. policy.(NPT 2005)
March 1, 2005... A little more than one year ago, the world learned that Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had provided nuclear-weapons-related technology to a number of countries, including North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Yet, the revelations could hardly...

Bombs, carrots, and sticks: the use of incentives and sanctions.(NPT 2005)
March 1, 2005... Policymakers have three primary tools: sanctions, targeted incentives, and war to encourage compliance with norms against the spread of unconventional weapons and related delivery systems. The Bush administration has emphasized the use of force...

The fiscal tug of war: special 2005 budget section.(In The NEWS)
March 1, 2005... President George W. Bush Feb. 7 sent Congress a $2.57 trillion federal budget request for fiscal year 2006, kicking off an annual debate on arms control, security, and nonproliferation priorities. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The following...

Examining North Korea's nuclear claims.(News ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2005... The North Korean Foreign Ministry's announcement Feb. 10 that Pyongyang has "produced nuclear weapons" made front-page news around the world. Yet, whether Pyongyang actually possesses such weapons is unknown, although U.S. officials say that...

North Korea nuclear talks in limbo.(News ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2005... Despite much diplomatic activity, six-party talks designed to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis have yet to resume after an approximately eight-month hiatus. North Korean leader Kim Jong II told a visiting senior Chinese official...

Small gains on Bush's Europe trip.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
March 1, 2005... During a five-day, fence-mending visit to Europe, including a brief summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President George W. Bush worked to shore up measures for denying weapons to Iran, China, and terrorists. Bush achieved some modest...

Europeans: Iran honoring agreement.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
March 1, 2005... In a Feb. 28 presentation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors, Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei indicated that no new evidence of illicit Iranian nuclear activities has surfaced. Meanwhile, Iran is adhering to...

IAEA: Egypt's reporting failures 'matter of concern'.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)(International Atomic Energy Agency)
March 1, 2005... Egypt failed to disclose nuclear facilities, material, and experiments to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to a Feb. 14 report from agency Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei. There is no indication, however, that Egypt...

Iraq weapons hunt ends; other investigations continue.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
March 1, 2005... The Bush administration has essentially wrapped up its investigation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs and of the failure to find significant stockpiles of such weapons after the U.S.-led invasion of that country in March...

Middle East nuclear forum postponed.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
March 1, 2005... A scheduled forum to discuss established nuclear-weapon-free zones and their possible relevance to creating such a zone in the Middle East has been postponed as Israel and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continue to hash out...

Bush second term: more diplomacy but same policies.(News ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2005... President George W. Bush has assembled a second-term foreign policy team whose views on arms control and nonproliferation issues are not expected to budge significantly from their predecessors. But the new team possesses considerably more...

State Department reorganization approved.(News ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2005... An approved merger of two Department of State bureaus devoted to dealing with nuclear, chemical, biological, and conventional weapons has produced a mixed reaction among current and former State Department officials. Some applaud the move as...

U.S. chemical demilitarization stalls.(News ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2005... The United States may miss a key international deadline for destroying chemical weapons because of budget shortfalls affecting the destruction of stockpiles at two sites, the Department of Defense told lawmakers privately in January. The...

Congress seeks nonproliferation measures.(News ANALYSIS)
March 1, 2005... As Congress began a new session in January, lawmakers kicked off the year with a flurry of proposals to stem the spread of nuclear arms and other deadly weapons, with most focused on ostensibly preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of...

Fissile material treaty dispute prolongs conference on disarmament deadlock.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2005... In past years, Washington severely criticized the UN Conference on Disarmament (CD) for not initiating work on a treaty to stop production of the key ingredients for building nuclear weapons. But a revised U.S. position on the proposed accord...

ElBaradei unopposed for third term.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2005... The Bush administration's efforts to block Mohamed ElBaradei from a third term as director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) appear to be falling short because of the U.S. failure to recruit a suitable alternative,...

Book review: can arms control be revived?(The Future of Arms Control)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Future of Arms Control By Michael A. Levi and Michael E. O'Hanlon Brookings Institution Press, 2005, 190 pp. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Michael Levi and Michael O'Hanlon claim that arms control has been rendered "nearly...

Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.(Books OF NOTE)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Ronald Reagan and His Quest to Abolish Nuclear Weapons By Paul Lettow. Random House Inc., February 2005, 327 pp. On the basis of recently declassified documents, Oxford scholar Paul Lettow argues that President Ronald Reagan's strategic...

Preventing Nuclear Meltdown: Managing Decentralization of Russia's Nuclear Complex.(Books OF NOTE)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... Preventing Nuclear Meltdown: Managing Decentralization of Russia's Nuclear Complex Edited by James Clay Moltz, Vladimir A. Orlov, and Adam N. Stulberg. Ashgate Publishing, November 2004, 258 pp. In this collection of essays. Russian...

The Russian Military: Power and Policy.(Books OF NOTE)(Brief Article)(Book Review)
March 1, 2005... The Russian Military: Power and Policy Edited by Steven E. Miller and Dmitri Trenin, MIT Press, September 2004, 239 pp. A group of Russian military experts examines Moscow's efforts to define its military infrastructure and position in...

Nuclear numerology Chinese style.(Letters TO THE EDITOR)(Letter to the Editor)
March 1, 2005... I would like to take issue with a figure included in the fact box "China on Key Nuclear Issues" in the January/February issue of Arms Control Today: the assertion that China may have "Up to 400 [nuclear] warheads total." Although this...