Arms Control Today articles from November 2007

Arms Control Today archives from November 2007

Editor's note.(Editorial)
November 1, 2007... Few would disagree that if Iran were to obtain nuclear weapons, it would represent an extraordinarily destabilizing development in an already shaky region. So how close is Iran to obtaining such arms, and what can be done to prevent it from...

Time to rethink U.S. strategy on Iran.(FOCUS)
November 1, 2007... Since Iran's leaders two years ago rejected a multilateral package of incentives to halt their uranium-enrichment program, the United States and Europe have adopted a strategy of targeted sanctions. But this effort has failed to slow progress...

Notable quotable.(InBRIEF)(Quotation)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... "A nuclear disaster will not hit at the speed of a glacier melting. It will hit with a blast. It will not hit with the speed of the atmosphere warming but of a city burning. Clearly, the attention focused on nuclear weapons should be as...

Glenn: stopping the spread of the wrong stuff.(Twenty Years Ago in ACT)(John Glenn )(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Back in 1978, when we passed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Act, I felt we had a limited time available to us to control nuclear weapons. I still think time is running out. Nuclear information and equipment is much more commonplace now around the...

By the numbers.(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Highly Enriched Uranium (HEU) Stockpiles 600-1200 Metric tons of HEU that the United States and Russia maintain for weapons. 300 Metric tons of Russian weapons-grade HEU blended down into non-weapons-usable material. 87...

Falling behind: international scrutiny of the peaceful Atom.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... The Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, August 2007. This report concludes that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is losing its ability to ensure that peaceful nuclear materials and facilities are not used for weapons...

Securing the bomb 2007.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Matthew Bunn, Project on Managing the Atom, Harvard University, and Nuclear Threat Initiative, September 2007. This report by Harvard University's Project on Managing the Atom reviews projects worldwide that seek to secure nuclear weapons...

Global fissile material report 2007.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... International Panel on Fissile Materials, October 2007. This second annual report updates the status and disposition of worldwide fissile material stocks and describes efforts to reduce and consolidate them. The United States and Russia,...

Arms trade treaty.(Treaty Update)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recently invited 28 countries to form a governmental group of experts to review suggestions for an arms trade treaty. The group is expected to meet in February 2008 and could make recommendations on what type of...

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)(Brief article)(Calendar)
November 1, 2007... Nov. 5-9 Annual conference of States-Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, The Hague. Nov. 7-13 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons annual meeting, Geneva. Nov. 14-16 Nuclear Suppliers Group...

A witches' brew? Evaluating Iran's uranium-enrichment progress.
November 1, 2007... What a difference a year makes. In November 2006, Iran had slightly more than 300 gas centrifuges running at its pilot uranium-enrichment plant at Natanz, approximately 200 kilometers south of Tehran. One year later, Iran has close to 3,000...

Missile nonproliferation and missile defense: fitting them together.
November 1, 2007... Missile nonproliferation and missile defense are directed against the same threats. Each seeks to prevent damage from proliferators' missiles, one by acting before launch and the other after launch. (1) For good reason, the United States has...

Keeping WMD from terrorists: an interview with 1540 committee chairman Ambassador Peter Burian.(wapon of mass destruction)(Interview)
November 1, 2007... Since January 2006, Slovakian Ambassador Peter Burian has chaired a UN committee charged with examining the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1540. Unanimously adopted in April 2004, Resolution 1540 requires all states to implement...

Deadline set for Yongbyon disablement.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
November 1, 2007... On Oct. 3, China, Japan, North Korea, Russia, South Korea, and the United States issued a joint statement in which North Korea pledged to complete the disablement of its plutonium-production facilities and provide a full accounting of all of...

Indian politics stall U.S.-Indian nuclear deal.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)
November 1, 2007... Domestic political opposition has compelled India's government to put off required negotiations with the world's nuclear monitoring agency, miring in doubt a U.S.-Indian initiative to peel back U.S. and multilateral civil nuclear trade...

U.S., Russia swap arms ideas.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
November 1, 2007... Senior U.S. officials recently offered proposals to their Russian counterparts to ease escalating bilateral tensions, particularly on U.S. plans to base strategic anti-missile interceptors in Europe. The Kremlin said it would study the offers...

Panel questions warhead concept plausibility.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
November 1, 2007... The jury is still out on whether the United States can develop a new nuclear warhead without using a test explosion to verify its performance, a leading scientific panel has concluded, urging further study. Meanwhile, two key congressional...

Pentagon repeats missile defense test success.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
November 1, 2007... Repeating essentially the same scenario as a successful test last year, the Pentagon Sept. 28 conducted a strategic anti-ballistic missile test that destroyed a target high above the Pacific Ocean. Pentagon officials say they will raise the...

GAO issues warning on biodefense research.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(Government Accountability Office)
November 1, 2007... Congressional researchers have issued a warning that the increase in the number of laboratories handling dangerous pathogens for anti-terrorism and defense purposes may be causing more harm than good because of a lack of oversight. ...

Senate endorses threat reduction action plan.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
November 1, 2007... The Senate recently approved legislation calling on the president to submit to Congress a comprehensive plan that would secure nuclear weapons-usable material at vulnerable sites worldwide by 2012. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The measure,...

Nuke overflight probes continue.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
November 1, 2007... The first of several investigations into the unauthorized transportation of six U.S. nuclear-armed missiles in late August has identified several breaches of Air Force procedure regarding the handling of strategic weapons. At an Oct. 19...

UN Iran sanctions decision awaits.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
November 1, 2007... On Sept. 28, the foreign ministers of the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany, as well as the high representative of the European Union, adopted a joint statement indicating they intended to move forward on a third UN...

Congress takes aim at Iran.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
November 1, 2007... On Sept. 25, the House of Representatives adopted a controversial bill that would expand the reach of U.S. sanctions against entities that do business in Iran. Although the bill has received overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, the...

Clues emerge surrounding airstrike in Syria.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
November 1, 2007... In the wake of a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike in Syria, members of Congress and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have pressed for more information regarding the attack and any undeclared Syrian nuclear facilities that may have been...

U.S. again outsells other arms suppliers.(THE WORLD)
November 1, 2007... The United States in 2006 continued to lead the world in conventional arms sales agreements and deliveries. The latest installment of an annual report to Congress on global arms sales also found that Washington reclaimed the top spot in arms...

UN register reveals small arms trade.(THE WORLD)
November 1, 2007... The number of countries voluntarily providing data to the United Nations on their small arms and light weapons trade has jumped substantially this year, shedding new light on the pervasiveness and complexity of this often murky commerce. ...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
November 1, 2007... * On page 12 of Arms Control Today's October 2007 issue, the picture caption on page 12 reads, "A Ground-Based Interceptor is launched Sept. 2, 2006 from Vanderberg Air Force Base." It should have read, "A Ground-Based Interceptor is launched...

Looking back: the additional protocol.
November 1, 2007... The theory of punctuated equilibrium posits that life on Earth has evolved not in constant, linear fashion but through long periods of stasis, interrupted by catastrophic events, such as meteor impacts, which suddenly push it in new, adaptive...

In memoriam: Wolfgang K.H. Panofsky.(Obituary)
November 1, 2007... With the passing of Wolfgang K.H. Panofsky--"Pief" to his many friends--the world has lost not only an internationally acclaimed scientist but also a dedicated leader of the effort to reduce the threat of nuclear war through arms control....