Arms Control Today articles from March 2006

Arms Control Today archives from March 2006

Editor's note.(Iran's nuclear program)
March 1, 2006... For more than two years, the United States has been pressing for the UN Security Council to confront Iran's nuclear program. As our news section details this month, it looks like the Bush administration will finally get its wish. Still, that...

Solving the Iranian nuclear puzzle.(FOCUS)
March 1, 2006... Three years after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Iran had secretly built uranium-enrichment facilities, diplomatic opportunities to resolve concerns about Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions are narrowing fast. ...

Notable quotable.(Iran's nuclear program)(Image)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... "No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program. It is a clandestine military nuclear program." --French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on France-2 television Feb. 16, 2006. "We want civilian nuclear...

Reducing the threat of nuclear theft in the former Soviet Union.(Ten Years Ago in ACT)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The control of plutonium and HEU--the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons--is perhaps the most serious and urgent security challenge facing the United States in the coming decade. Successful acquisition of enough material for one or a few...

By the numbers.(America's nuclear policy)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Entities per Country Sanctioned by the Bush Administration for Alleged Unconventional Weapons Proliferation Activities 33 China 12 North Korea 7* India 6 Iran 4 Russia 3 Moldova 2...

Biological Weapons Convention.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Ahead of a preparatory meeting for a once-every-five-years Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) Review Conference later this year, representatives from 26 states-parties met in Tokyo for a conference titled "Future Measures for Strengthening the...

Cooperative Threat Reduction.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... On Jan. 27, the United States through the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program helped Ukraine destroy its last Tu-22M Backfire strategic bomber. In October 1993, the United States and Ukraine signed a CTR umbrella agreement for the...

Conference on Disarmament.(Treaty Update)
March 1, 2006... The 65-member Conference on Disarmament (CD) held its first plenary meeting of 2006 on Jan. 24. Negotiating a fissile material cutoff treaty to end the production of highly enriched uranium and plutonium for nuclear weapons has been a top CD...

IAEA Additional Protocol.(International Atomic Energy Agency )(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Turkmenistan and Ukraine Jan. 3 and 24, respectively, became the latest states to ratify versions of the 1997 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Model Additional Protocol, which expands the IAEA's ability to monitor a state's nuclear...

Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan has been designated president of the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention.(Comings and Goings)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan has been designated president of the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention, which will be held Nov. 20-Dec. 8. He has also been nominated to chair the conference's preparatory committee....

Joseph DeTrani, who resigned his post as U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, has been tapped by National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to serve as his senior adviser for North Korea.(Comings and Goings)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... Joseph DeTrani, who resigned his post as U.S. special envoy to the six-party talks, has been tapped by National Intelligence Director John Negroponte to serve as his senior adviser for North Korea. In his new role, DeTrani will identify and...

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has appointed his top nuclear negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, as his national security adviser.(Comings and Goings)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has appointed his top nuclear negotiator, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, as his national security adviser. Yun Byung-se, chief policy coordinator at the National Security Council, is expected to...

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)
March 1, 2006... March 1-3 President George W. Bush visits India and Pakistan. March 6-10 International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting, Vienna. March 6-10 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons 13th Group of ...

Making the right call: how the world can limit Iran's nuclear program.
March 1, 2006... After the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Feb. 4 voted to report Iran to the UN Security Council because of concerns over its nuclear program, the rituals of diplomacy persist. The international community sees the Security Council...

U.S. space aid to India: on a "glide path" to ICBM trouble?
March 1, 2006... In the weeks leading up to this month's presidential visit to India, the U.S. nonproliferation community has been preoccupied with one facet of President George W. Bush's push to bolster ties with New Delhi: his proposal for enhanced...

Plagued by errors: new approach needed to tackle proliferation threats from anti-plague system.
March 1, 2006... The former Soviet anti-plague system stands today as a little-known but profoundly important proliferation challenge facing the international community. The Soviet Union managed this unique system, consisting of more than 80 facilities, to...

IAEA reports Iran to UN Security Council.(International Atomic Energy Agency)
March 1, 2006... The International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors voted Feb. 4 to report its concerns about Iran's nuclear activities, including Tehran's failure to comply with its agency safeguards agreement, to the UN Security Council. ...

Questions surround Iran's nuclear program.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
March 1, 2006... Since its investigation of Iran's nuclear programs began during the latter half of 2002, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has discovered a series of clandestine nuclear activities, some of which violated Iran's safeguards agreement...

Missile defense funding soars to new heights.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2006... President George W. Bush's fiscal year 2007 budget request reaffirms his administration's commitment to deploying an array of anti-missile systems, including to Europe, despite continuing uncertainty about whether they work. Submitted to...

Warhead initiative looms large in NNSA plans.(National Nuclear Security Administration)
March 1, 2006... The Bush administration is asking lawmakers for more than $6 billion to support U.S. nuclear weapons activities in its fiscal year 2007 budget request. But administration officials are portraying the future of the U.S. nuclear stockpile as...

Bush promotes new nuclear plan.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2006... The Bush administration hopes emerging nuclear fuel-cycle technologies will help meet U.S. and global energy needs and reduce dangers that civilian nuclear programs might be corrupted for nuclear weapons. But even administration officials...

Bush plans changes in threat programs.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2006... Continuing the shift in emphasis of U.S. threat reduction efforts toward programs with global reach, the Bush administration's fiscal year 2007 budget request includes cuts to a number of traditional threat reduction programs in the former...

CTBTO funds rebound in Bush budget.(Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization)(Brief article)
March 1, 2006... The Bush administration's fiscal year 2007 budget request, unveiled Feb. 6, calls for a $19.8 million U.S. contribution to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). That is short of the $23 million assessment that the Vienna-based...

Pentagon seeks strategic arms shifts.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2006... In a much-anticipated strategy document released Feb. 3, the Department of Defense disclosed plans to trim the number of land-based nuclear missiles and nuclear-capable bombers and convert some submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) to...

Latin American arms sales moving forward.
March 1, 2006... Spain plans to proceed with arms sales to Venezuela despite U.S. claims that the exports might upset Latin American security. Meanwhile, the United States recently delivered advanced combat aircraft to Chile, marking the first such transfer to...

Nuclear deal center stage for U.S., India.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
March 1, 2006... U.S. and Indian government officials often evoke the similarities between their two countries and the breadth of their blossoming "strategic" relationship. But in the prelude to President George W. Bush's March trip to India, one issue...

U.S., NK meeting could aid six-party talks.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
March 1, 2006... For several months, progress in talks aimed at a negotiated solution to the North Korean nuclear crisis has been held up by Pyongyang's complaints about U.S. pressure on North Korean financial transactions. But the two sides recently agreed to...

Chirac outlines expanded nuclear doctrine.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
March 1, 2006... French President Jacques Chirac Jan. 19 outlined changes to his country's strategic policy, providing unprecedented detail about the circumstances under which France might be prepared to use nuclear weapons. The speech at the nuclear...

Small arms talks hamstrung.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2006... As the United Nations prepares to host a review conference on curbing trade in small arms and light weapons, disputes over the extent of such measures and whether they should be legally binding are hampering progress. The disputes have helped...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2006... * William Burr's "The Limits of Limited Nuclear War," in the January/February issue of Arms Control Today incorrectly described the smallest nuclear option in current U.S. military war plans as an attack with 150 nuclear weapons. The relevant...

Book review: a never-ending story?(War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare From World War I to Al-Qaeda)(Book review)
March 1, 2006... War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare From World War I to Al-Qaeda By Jonathan B. Tucker, Pantheon Books, February 2006, 496 pp. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In War of Nerves: Chemical Warfare From World War I to Al-Qaeda, Jonathan Tucker...

Striving for Military Stability in Europe: Negotiation, Implementation, and Adaptation of the CFE Treaty.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Striving for Military Stability in Europe: Negotiation, Implementation, and Adaptation of the CFE Treaty By Jane M. O. Sharp. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, January 2006, 292 pp. Jane Sharp offers a critical assessment of the role...

The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Means for the World.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... The Bomb in the Basement: How Israel Went Nuclear and What That Means for the World By Michael Karpin. Simon & Schuster, January 2006, 416 pp. This history of Israel's nuclear program, written by a veteran Israeli journalist, appears...

Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence From Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea.(Book review)
March 1, 2006... Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence From Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea By Jeffrey T. Richelson. W.W. Norton & Company, March 2006, 702 pp. Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archive,...

Ending Brazil's nuclear weapons program.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... In recent months, several reports have appeared in the media--in this magazine and elsewhere--discussing Brazil's efforts to develop nuclear weapons and when and how they came about ("Brazilian Regulator Denies Uranium Claims," ACT, November...

Seismic sensors for improved early warning.(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2006... In his recent article ("Space Weapons and the Risk of Accidental Nuclear War," December 2005), Thomas Graham Jr. notes correctly that Russia's deteriorating early-warning system increases the risk of accidental nuclear war. For example, he...