Arms Control Today articles from March 2008

Arms Control Today archives from March 2008

Editor's note.(Editorial)
March 1, 2008... Recently, four senior statesmen called for renewed action toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons. Our cover story this month is an interview with one of them, former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.). Nunn says that, without such action,...

Contradictions plague U.S.-Indian nuclear deal.(FOCUS)
March 1, 2008... Two and a half years after President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced their proposed U.S.-Indian civil nuclear cooperation deal, the ill-conceived arrangement faces a highly uncertain future. In the next few weeks,...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... "[F]acing serious challenges from Iran and North Korea, we must send a powerful signal to all members of the international community that the race for more and bigger stockpiles of nuclear destruction is over. The expiry of the remaining...

Republican candidates on arms control.(Twenty Years Ago in ACT)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... We must promote the perception among populations and leaders of non-nuclear countries that nuclear weapons are simply not useful to them. Their acquisition requires an expensive and difficult cycle of maintenance and testing and gives them no...

By the numbers.(InBRIEF)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The Fiscal Year 2009* Department of Defense Budget Request and Select Programs $585.4 Billion Fiscal Year 2009 budget request and emergency funding for global war on terrorism. $1.620 Billion Request for chemical...

Lockheed Martin recently confirmed a sale of its C-130J Super Hercules military transport planes by the United States to India has been finalized.(Conventional Arming and Disarming)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Lockheed Martin recently confirmed a sale of its C-130J Super Hercules military transport planes by the United States to India has been finalized. Media reports indicate that the deal is worth $1 billion and involves the transfer of six...

Norwegian People's Aid announced that it has helped to clear more than 50,000 mines in the Aqaba and Wadi Araba regions of Jordan.(Conventional Arming and Disarming)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Norwegian People's Aid announced that it has helped to clear more than 50,000 mines in the Aqaba and Wadi Araba regions of Jordan. Under the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty, Jordan has until March 2009 to clear all of its landmines.

In Togo, the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa worked with the Togolese National Commission on small arms and light weapons to dispose of thousands of arms illegally held by civilians.(Conventional Arming and Disarming)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... In Togo, the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa worked with the Togolese National Commission on small arms and light weapons to dispose of thousands of arms illegally held by civilians. More than 8,000 locally manufactured...

The U.S. Department of State and the Albanian Ministry of Defense have completed a joint project destroying Albania's stockpile of its most dangerous surplus munitions.(Conventional Arming and Disarming)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The U.S. Department of State and the Albanian Ministry of Defense have completed a joint project destroying Albania's stockpile of its most dangerous surplus munitions. The project succeeded in disposing of nearly 40,000 munitions, including...

On Jan. 14, the Bush administration officially notified Congress of its intent to sell $123 million worth of sophisticated precision-guided bomb technology to Saudi Arabia as part of a $20 billion arms package first announced in July 2007.(Conventional Arming and Disarming)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... On Jan. 14, the Bush administration officially notified Congress of its intent to sell $123 million worth of sophisticated precision-guided bomb technology to Saudi Arabia as part of a $20 billion arms package first announced in July 2007....

According to the Russian News and Information Agency, Malaysia will receive 12 Su-MKM fighters from Russia by the end of year.(Conventional Arming and Disarming)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... According to the Russian News and Information Agency, Malaysia will receive 12 Su-MKM fighters from Russia by the end of year. Under a $900-million contract signed in 2003, Malaysia will receive a total of 18 fighters, six of which were...

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Colombia, Barbados, and Malaysia ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in January, bringing the total number of countries ratifying the treaty to 144. Colombia's accession is significant given that Colombia is one of the 44...

Kazakhstan extends CTR agreement.(Treaty Update)(Cooperative Threat Reduction )(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... On Dec. 13, the Department of Defense announced that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Kazakhstani Ambassador Erlan Idrissov had signed a seven-year extension amendment for the bilateral Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) agreement. The CTR...

U.S.-Turkey 123 agreement.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... President George W. Bush Jan. 22 submitted to Congress a long-delayed nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and Turkey. President Bill Clinton had signed the legislation in 2000 but had held off sending it to Congress as...

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)(Table)(Brief article)(Calendar)
March 1, 2008... March 3-7 International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors meeting, Vienna. March 28 First session ends, 2008 UN Conference on Disarmament, Geneva. April 2-4 NATO Summit in...

A world free of nuclear weapons: an interview with Nuclear Threat Initiative co-chairman Sam Nunn.(Interview)
March 1, 2008... Sam Nunn has long been a leader in the U.S. national security community. A Democrat from Georgia, Nunn served four terms in the U.S. Senate from 1972 to 1996, including as chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is currently...

Getting down to the hard cases: prospects for CWC universality.(Chemical Weapons Convention )
March 1, 2008... When states-parties to the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) gather next month in The Hague for their second review conference, the plenary sessions will be unusually full, and for good reason. Since the ban on developing, producing,...

Advances in science and technology and the Chemical Weapons Convention.
March 1, 2008... With the second review conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) approaching in April, a raft of studies have appeared making clear that fundamental changes in science and technology are affecting the implementation of the treaty and...

Arms Control Association: setting an ambitious agenda.
March 1, 2008... The Arms Control Association was established to serve as an authoritative, independent source of information and sound solutions about the dangers of nuclear, biological, chemical, and certain conventional weapons. In 2007, ACA continued that...

IAEA: Iran work plan progress incomplete.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)(International Atomic Energy Agency )
March 1, 2008... International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei issued a report Feb. 22 on Iran's nuclear program indicating that the agency has made considerable progress in clarifying some of Iran's past nuclear activities, but...

New UN sanctions on Iran proposed.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)(United Nations)
March 1, 2008... France and the United Kingdom Feb. 21 formally introduced a new draft sanctions resolution on Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council. The draft lays the basis for a third UN sanctions measure against Iran. Tehran has refused to...

Senate still examining pre-war Iraq Intel.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)(United States' intelligence gathering )
March 1, 2008... Five years after the March 2003 invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led coalition forces, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has yet to conclude its investigations into the pre-war intelligence that was cited by the Bush administration as the...

Bush budget revives cut warhead.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2008... Lawmakers last year dealt what many thought was a knockout blow to research into a new type of nuclear warhead, but the Bush administration is seeking to raise the program off of the canvas with renewed funding in its fiscal year 2009 budget...

Missile defense budget boosts requested.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2008... Heading into its final year in office, the Bush administration is asking Congress to give a spending boost to anti-missile systems, particularly a controversial project to extend systems to Europe. Although missile defenses have been a constant...

Bush requests less for threat reduction program.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(George W. Bush)
March 1, 2008... After Congress bumped up the budgets for a number of non-proliferation programs for countries in the former Soviet Union in its 2008 appropriations bills, the Bush administration has requested less money in a number of cases for fiscal year...

Bush calls for more GNEP, MOX facility funds.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, mixed-oxide )
March 1, 2008... President George W. Bush's fiscal 2009 budget request, unveiled Feb. 4, calls for a significant increase in funding for two controversial administration nuclear efforts: the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) and a new mixed-oxide (MOX)...

Bush issues directive on additional protocol.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(George W. Bush)
March 1, 2008... President George W. Bush issued an executive order Feb. 4 that called for relevant U.S. departments and agencies to take steps to implement an additional protocol to the U.S. safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency...

White House aims to expedite arms exports.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2008... On Jan. 22, President George W. Bush issued a directive designed to expedite export licensing of defense equipment, services, and technical data. The directive may ease criticism from industry and Congress that the U.S. export controls system...

GAO report chides energy department program.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Government Accountability Office )
March 1, 2008... A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last December offers stinging criticism of the Department of Energy's management of its Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention (IPP). The criticism and the fact that some of these...

Weapons labs biological research raises concerns.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2008... Two U.S. nuclear weapons labs are opening biological research labs capable of studying more dangerous pathogens, raising concerns about the U.S. ability to meet demands for transparency in line with the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention (BWC)....

Air force issues new nuclear weapons procedures.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
March 1, 2008... The U.S. Air Force has issued new procedures and requirements for the handling of nuclear weapons in the wake of an incident last August in which six nuclear warheads were unknowingly transferred across the country. The Air Force decision was...

U.S.-Indian deal in limbo as clock ticks.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
March 1, 2008... Bush administration officials and some U.S. lawmakers are prodding India to accelerate its efforts to advance a civil nuclear trade initiative or risk losing it. At the same time, domestic political opponents in India are pressing the Indian...

North Korea slows nuclear disablement.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
March 1, 2008... Two months after a Dec. 31, 2007, deadline to disable its nuclear reactor complex and provide a declaration of all nuclear activities, North Korea has slowed disablement work and has yet to offer a complete declaration. Pyongyang says that...

Pakistan defends nuke security amid instability.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
March 1, 2008... In recent months, Pakistani officials have sought to allay concerns that the deteriorating security situation in their country would allow extremist elements to acquire nuclear weapons or materials. Political instability in Pakistan has...

Russia halts missile launch notices.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
March 1, 2008... Russia recently stopped providing advance notice of its ballistic missile launches to fellow members of a voluntary missile transparency and restraint regime. Other participants, including the United States, also are not fully implementing...

Correction.(Correction notice)
March 1, 2008... On page 45 of Arms Control Today's January/February 2008 issue, the news article "Concerns Raised as South Korea Joins GNEP" inaccurately identified the timing of a number of meetings. The sentence "GNEP partners held their first steering...

Chemical weapons parlay's outcome uncertain.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2008... During April 7-18, representatives of 183 states-parties of the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) will meet in The Hague for the second time to review the operation of the treaty and to find ways to adapt it for the future. Although there...

Russia pushes pacts as U.S. kills satellite.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2008... At the stalemated Conference on Disarmament (CD), Russia recently urged states to pursue separate pacts to outlaw all arms in space and ban certain types of missiles already forsworn by Russia and the United States. Chances for work on those...

Cluster munitions talks gain steam.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2008... A Geneva-based multilateral forum on conventional weapons is showing some small signs of progress in restricting the use of controversial cluster munitions, as a separate international effort, spearheaded by Norway, appears to be gaining steam....

U.S. joins study of arms trade treaty.(THE WORLD)
March 1, 2008... All 28 countries invited to do so, including the United States, sent representatives to a UN-sponsored experts meeting in February to explore a global arms trade treaty (ATT). The United States originally voted against starting the effort (see...

Looking Back: the continuing legacy of old and abandoned chemical weapons.
March 1, 2008... I hear a dull thud. A blue mist comes floating across the frosty fields. In the field behind the cemetery, the DOVO, the Belgian War Munition Demolition Service, has blown up another heap of First World War ammunition. They do it twice a day,...

"Trust us" is not enough in Pakistan.(Letters TO THE EDITOR)
March 1, 2008... It is good to see Kenneth N. Luongo and Brigadier General (Ret.) Naeem Salik's unbridled optimism about Pakistan's ability to safeguard its nuclear arsenal ("Building Confidence in Pakistan's Nuclear Security," December 2007). But a more...