Arms Control Today articles from November 2003

Arms Control Today archives from November 2003

Course correction on North Korea?(Focus)
November 1, 2003... Wearing a somber gray suit, North Korea's number two leader entered the White House and met with President Bill Clinton for 45 minutes. The unprecedented visit produced a joint communique and put efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear...

Curbing nuclear proliferation: an interview with Mohamed ElBaradei.(Interview)
November 1, 2003... ACT: Obviously, it looks like there's been some good news this morning coming out of Tehran. I just wanted to get your reaction to Iran's announcement that it will allow IAEA inspections and suspend its uranium-enrichment activities. ...

Iran at the nuclear threshold.
November 1, 2003... For the past decade, Iran's nuclear program has been a proliferation concern to the United States. Given that Iran is awash with oil and gas reserves and regularly flares off vast quantities of natural gas, Tehran's decision to allocate a major...

The emergence of a European 'strategic personality'.
November 1, 2003... Is the sound of banging we hear the mending of fences between Europe and the United States or the nailing closed of doors? As has been widely acknowledged on both sides of the Atlantic, the rift between the allies over Iraq has been significant...

Consolidating threat reduction.
November 1, 2003... In recent years, the leaders of Russia and the United States have had to acknowledge a profound irony: the more they succeed in reducing Cold War arsenals of alert nuclear weapons, the greater their vulnerability to nuclear terrorism. The...

With deadline looming, European foreign ministers strike deal to restrict Iran's nuclear program.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... IN A JOINT statement with three European foreign ministers, Iran agreed Oct. 21 to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands that it cooperate with the agency's efforts to allay fears that Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program....

White House ready to support sanctions on Syria.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... A BILL THAT would levy sanctions on Syria is winding its way through Congress and is expected to be signed by President George W. Bush when it lands on his desk later this fall. The House of Representatives voted 398-4 on Oct. 15 to impose...

Israel allegedly fielding sea-based nuclear missiles.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... U.S. AND ISRAELI officials have declined directly to address an October news report that Israel was arming U.S.-supplied cruise missiles with nuclear warheads. The news came amid increased international attention to nuclear weapons in the...

Effort to find WMD in Iraq comes up short.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... THE U.S.-LED effort to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has so far found no evidence that Iraq possessed chemical or biological weapons or that it was actively reconstituting its nuclear weapons program at the time coalition forces...

Deconstructed: Kay's congressional testimony.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... Biological Weapons David Kay, chief U.S. weapons inspector, told Congress that "Iraq after 1996 further compartmentalized its program and focused on maintaining smaller, covert capabilities that could be activated quickly to surge the...

Army report details patriot record in Iraq war.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... A NEW ARMY report reaffirms earlier Pentagon claims that the Patriot missile defense system destroyed all Iraqi missiles that it engaged during the invasion of Iraq, but does not fully account for why the system failed to target several other...

Battle brewing over congressional investigations.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... AS CONGRESS PROBES the Bush administration's failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, battle lines are forming over how far the investigations should go. The Republican chairs of both the House and Senate Select Committees on...

Bush hints at North Korea security agreement.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... SOME HEADWAY WAS made in October toward breaking the stalemate between the United States and North Korea, but it is far from clear that the year-long crisis surrounding North Korea's nuclear program will be settled anytime soon. President...

Former negotiator warns Bush: last chance for diplomacy with North Korea.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... ONE GLANCE AT the wall in Charles L. "Jack" Pritchard's new office lined with magazine covers of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il makes clear that the veteran diplomat may have left the State Department, but his interest in striking a deal to...

Russia mulls altered nuclear doctrine.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... THE RUSSIAN MINISTRY of Defense issued a paper Oct. 2 on modernizing its strategic forces that promises a rejuvenated land-based nuclear weapons arsenal for the next 30 years and warns that Russian military doctrine may need to be revised if...

State department sets up new office to control some conventional arms.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... THE DEPARTMENT OF State established a new office in October with the stated aim of improving its ability to aid countries plagued by excess, abandoned, and unexploded weapons. The office consolidates under one roof programs to address...

Brazil prepares to enrich uranium for reactors.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... BRAZIL PLANS TO begin enriching uranium for its nuclear reactors next year and hopes to export enriched uranium by 2014, Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Roberto Amaral announced Oct. 6. The news comes 10 months after Amaral made...

Interdiction initiative participants agree on end, differ on means.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... THE UNITED STATES has enlisted 10 other countries for its plan to seize shipments of deadly arms to terrorists and countries suspected of pursuing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs. However, they have yet to reach consensus on all the...

India, Pakistan move forward with new weapons.(News And Negotiations)
November 1, 2003... SOUTH ASIA'S BALLISTIC missile competition moved to a new phase in October. Amid news that India's Agni I and II ballistic missiles were ready for deployment and had been handed over to the army, Pakistan conducted a round of three ballistic...

Asian and Pacific leaders pledge to control shoulder-fired missiles.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Leaders of countries from Asia to the Western Hemisphere pledged Oct. 21 to better control the international trade in shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles that could be used by terrorists against civilian and commercial aircraft. ...

Contracts awarded to replace Russian reactors with fossil-fuel plants.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... In another step toward shutting down Russia's three remaining reactors that produce weapons-grade plutonium, the U.S. Department of Energy Sept. 29 announced that the Russian company Rosatomstroi inked agreements with Washington Group...

U.S. civilian nuclear reactor to produce weapons material.
November 1, 2003... In a break from decades-long U.S. policy, a civilian nuclear power reactor will generate power (for homes and businesses) while producing materials for nuclear weapons. The Watts Bar Nuclear Station, operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority...

Defense Science Board calls for new nuclear weapons capabilities.
November 1, 2003... The Defense Science Board (DSB) is recommending that the United States scale back its current reserve nuclear weapons stockpile and develop lower-yield nuclear weapons that cause less collateral damage. The recommendation is contained in a...

GAO covertly buys bioweapons gear from Defense Department.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The General Accounting Office (GAO), the auditing and investigative agency for Congress, disclosed in a congressional hearing Oct. 7 that it was able to purchase surplus laboratory and safety gear from the Defense Department that could be used...

New U.S., Russian chemical destruction deadlines approved.
November 1, 2003... States-parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention have approved the extension of U.S. and Russian interim deadlines for destroying portions of their chemical weapons holdings, leaving undetermined the final date for destroying all stockpiles....

U.S. requests license for plutonium shipment to France.
November 1, 2003... The Department of Energy has filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking permission to ship up to 140 kg (308 lbs) of weapons-grade plutonium oxide to France next year to advance U.S. efforts to convert excess U.S....

Congressional delegation cancels trip to North Korea at White House request.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A bipartisan congressional delegation led by Representative Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) postponed a late October trip to North Korea after the White House expressed opposition to the visit. "At the eleventh hour, the White House withdrew its support,"...

France's deterrence policy in question.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... French President Jacques Chirac has denied an Oct. 27 report published in the French newspaper Liberation that he plans to modify the country's current policy of nuclear deterrence to "target what the Americans call rogue states." The paper...

U.S. reviewing FMCT policy.
November 1, 2003... The United States has long pushed for a treaty to end the production of the two key building blocks of nuclear weapons, but the Bush administration may change that policy. Even as the U.S. commitment to other arms control agreements has...

National Academy of Sciences releases key report on biomedical research liabilities.(Document)
November 1, 2003... The National Academy of Sciences' National Research Council released a report October 8 that calls on the U.S. government to institute a formalized screening system to help mitigate the possibility that biomedical research could be used by...

Russia tops in quantity of arms shipped in 2002.(Factfile)
November 1, 2003... DUE TO ITS export of hundreds of missiles to China and Kuwait, Russia shipped more individual weapons around the globe than any other country list year, according to data volunteered by arms sellers to the UN Register of Conventional Arms. ...

Arms control in print.
November 1, 2003... OF SPECIAL INTEREST Biotechnology Research in an Age of Terrorism: Confronting the "Dual Use" Dilemma, Committee on Research Standards and Practices to Prevent the Destructive Application of Biotechnology, Development, Security, and...