Arms Control Today articles from September 2008

Arms Control Today archives from September 2008

Editor's note.
September 1, 2008... Talk to Egypt's outgoing ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy, and you will quickly realize how adamant he is that the Middle East will see no end to nuclear crises until states agree to establish a zone free of nuclear, chemical, and...

Averting a nonproliferation disaster.(FOCUS)
September 1, 2008... Decision time has arrived on the controversial proposal to roll back three decades of nuclear trade restrictions on India, which violated peaceful nuclear cooperation agreements by detonating its first nuclear bomb in 1974. As early as...

Notable quotable.(In BRIEF)(Quotation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... "[T]he President should withhold support from any proposed exemption for India in the NSG guidelines that is not fully consistent with the Hyde Act and that does not incorporate a number of key provisions, including: the immediate termination...

The Hyde Act.(In BRIEF)(Quotation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... "We have got a dialogue with people in our Congress including Congressman Berman. Some would like to see all the provisions of the Hyde Act legislated in some international fashion. We don't think that is the right way... Secretary Rice has...

Twenty years ago in ACT: the end of the sofaer doctrine: a victory for arms control and the constitution.(In BRIEF)(Arms Control Today)(Quotation)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... While the INF Treaty itself does not substantially shrink the superpower arsenals, it crosses a major threshold by eliminating newly deployed, highly capable missiles. In doing so, it codifies intrusive verification procedures that could prove...

Global small arms and light weapons.(BY THE NUMBERS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... 4 billion Estimated authorized annual trade in small arms, light weapons, and their ammunition (U.S. dollars). * 640 million Individual firearms worldwide ** 76 million Military firearms estimated to be surplus 20 to...

China, space weapons, and U.S. security.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... In the aftermath of China's 2007 anti-satellite weapon test, national security technology expert and former White House adviser Bruce MacDonald argues that space may soon become a realm of intensified international competition. He contends that...

The cart before the horse: the DOE's plan for the future of the nuclear weapons complex.(Reports of Note)(Department of Energy)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) urges the Bush administration to halt its plan for restructuring the Department of Energy's Cold War-era industrial infrastructure for designing, constructing, and providing maintenance for nuclear...

Iran: assessing U.S. strategic options.(Reports of Note)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... This recent Center for a New American Security report aims to provide policy prescriptions to the incoming president on the current standoff regarding Iran's nuclear program. The authors argue that a military strike on Iranian nuclear...

The Proliferation Security Initiative.(Treaty update)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... On Aug. 11, the United States and the Bahamas concluded a bilateral shipboarding agreement under the voluntary Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The agreement establishes an expedited process under which either government can seek...

On the calendar.(What's Ahead)(Brief article)(Calendar)
September 1, 2008... Sept. 1-5 Fourth session of the group of governmental experts (cluster munitions) of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, Geneva. Sept. 4-5 Plenary meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group...

The Middle East and nonproliferation: an interview with Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's ambassador to the United States.(Interview)
September 1, 2008... Ambassador Nabil Fahmy has served in Egypt's Foreign Ministry for 30 years and has focused particularly on disarmament and regional security issues. Most recently, he acted as Cairo's ambassador to Washington from October 1999 to August 2008....

Reforming the nuclear fuel cycle: time is running out.
September 1, 2008... Revelations earlier this decade about Iran's clandestine nuclear activities reignited global concerns that the spread of such sensitive fuel-cycle technology would lead to nuclear weapons proliferation. In a 2003 Economist op-ed, International...

National fuel stockpiles: an alternative to a proliferation of national enrichment plants?
September 1, 2008... Iran's national uranium-enrichment program has provoked international concern, evidenced by UN Security Council sanctions and even threats of possible military attack, because it provides the means to make highly enriched uranium and thereby a...

U.S.-Indian nuclear deal reaches NSG brink.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA.)(Nuclear Suppliers Group)
September 1, 2008... After piloting a controversial nuclear trade initiative for more than three years through sometimes stormy domestic political processes that threatened to sink it, the United States and India in August brought the proposal before other...

Verification dispute stalls NK nuclear talks.(ASIA AND AUSTRALIA)(North Korea)
September 1, 2008... On July 12, the six parties involved in negotiations over North Korea's denuclearization agreed on a vague outline for verifying Pyongyang's nuclear program. Further agreement on the specific verification measures to be taken, however, have...

Georgian conflict clouds future arms pact.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
September 1, 2008... Russia's August military intervention into and diplomatic recognition of two separatist Geogian regions casts doubt not just on their future political status but also that of a pair of already languishing threaties limiting battlefield weapons...

U.S. signs European anti-missile deals.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
September 1, 2008... The Bush administration has moved closer toward its goal of establishing long-range anti-missile outposts in Europe, completing basing agreements recently with the Czech Republic and Poland over Russian objections and threats. The earliest that...

U.S.-Russian nuclear agreement faces delay.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)
September 1, 2008... Russia's August 2008 military confrontation with U.S. ally Georgia is likely to be the final blow to the Kremlin's hopes of winning U.S. approval of a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement this year. The agreement, signed by both...

NATO mulls nuke modernization, security.(EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION)(North Atlantic Treaty Organization )
September 1, 2008... Reports about security problems at U.S. nuclear weapons bases in Europe have led to renewed calls from parliamentarians of European allies for an end to NATO's nuclear weapons-sharing arrangements. But a senior NATO official interviewed by Arms...

Iran not receptive to revised nuclear proposal.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
September 1, 2008... The United States indicated that it intends to pursue additional UN sanctions against Iran after Tehran did not accept a June proposal for negotiations regarding its nuclear program. Plans for a fourth Security Council sanctions resolution may...

Iran space launch raises missile concerns.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
September 1, 2008... Iran carried out a test of a space launch vehicle Aug. 17, claiming the test was in preparation for placing an Iranian satellite in orbit. Although not believed to have been successful, the test has continued to raise concerns in the West. U.S....

Treasury tightens sanctions net on Iran.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
September 1, 2008... While U.S. and European diplomats pursue a fourth round of UN sanctions on Iran, the Bush administration and Congress are moving forward with a parallel strategy of using U.S. financial clout to tighten the noose on the Iranian economy. The...

Syria shirks follow-up IAEA probe.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)(International Atomic Energy Agency )
September 1, 2008... Syria has denied the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) permission to conduct additional inspections to verify claims by Washington that it had a clandestine nuclear weapons program. In September 2007, Israel bombed a facility near the...

U.S. removes uranium from Iraqi nuclear site.(THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA)
September 1, 2008... In early July, U.S. forces transferred 550 metric tons of yellowcake, the compound made from mined natural uranium ore, from the Iraqi nuclear site of Tuwaitha to a port in Montreal. If the material were processed for military purposes, it...

Small Arms conference nets agreement.(THE WORLD)
September 1, 2008... After failing to achieve consensus at a 2006 review conference, this year's delegates to an international gathering to address the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons overcame procedural objections to vote for modest next steps. ...

Russian cluster use alleged; U.S. clarifies policy.(THE WORLD)
September 1, 2008... In July, the United States clarified its military policy on cluster munitions, weapons that Russia has subsequently been accused of using in Georgia. The developments come amid global efforts to limit the weapons. On July 9, the Department...

UN report urges progress on WMD controls.(THE WORLD)(United Nations, weapons of mass destruction)
September 1, 2008... A UN nonproliferation committee issued a progress report July 30 on states' efforts to implement a global instrument aimed at preventing terrorists and other nonstate actors from acquiring weapons of mass destruction. The report indicated that...

G-8 nonproliferation effort to shift focus.(THE WORLD)(Group of 8)
September 1, 2008... At a July 8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan, the heads of government of the Group of Eight (G-8), a forum of the largest economies worldwide, continued discussions on expanding their current nonproliferation partnership from a focus on the former...

Efforts to limit fuel cycle capabilities falter.(THE WORLD)(Global Nuclear Energy Partnership)
September 1, 2008... As the Bush administration seeks to curtail the spread of uranium-enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technologies abroad, its preferred approaches are losing needed support. These include the controversial Global Nuclear Energy Partnership...

Panel backs long-range conventional missile.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)
September 1, 2008... An expert panel commissioned by Congress advocated Aug. 15 that the United States embark expeditiously on a controversial initiative to substitute conventional projectiles for existing nuclear warheads on some submarine-based missiles. The...

U.S. ICBM cuts completed.(THE UNITED STATES AND THE AMERICAS)(intercontinental ballistic missile)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The United States over the past year reduced its land-based ICBM fleet by 50 missiles, leaving a force of 450 nuclear-armed Minuteman IIIs in silos spread across Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming. On June 29, 2007, the Air Force chief of...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
September 1, 2008... * On page 34 of Arms Control Today's June 2007 issue, the news article "Panel Endorses U.S. Global Strike Initiative" misidentified the National Academy of Sciences' Naval Studies Board as conducting a study on prompt global strike programs....

Keeping a Tight Lid on Pandora's Box.(The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945 By Nina Tannenwald, Cambridge University Press, January 2008, 472 pp. In the spring of 2006, when rumors spread about a possible U.S. military...

Prescription for Survival: A Doctor's Journey to End Nuclear Madness.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Written by Nobel Peace Prize winner Bernard Lown, Prescription for Survival chronicles the author's role in founding the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Established in 1981 by Lown and Soviet cardiologist...

South Asia's Cold War: Nuclear Weapons and Conflict in Comparative Perspective.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... In his succinct new book, Rajesh Basrur examines the nature and history of cold wars between nuclear-armed states, focusing on the bilateral tensions among China, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Drawing lessons from these historical...

Nuclear Safeguards, Security, and Nonproliferation: Achieving Security With Technology and Policy.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Editor James Doyle, a nonproliferation expert at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, brings together physicists, social scientists, and nonproliferation experts for this reference work addressing the technical, organizational, and political...

Dimona: close it for peace, not radiation danger.(Israel's nuclear reactor)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... Israel's nuclear weapons program is indeed a troublesome catalyst in the Middle Eastern political cauldron, and closing its plutonium-production reactor is a worthy goal. But in rhetorically advising that Israel shut down its Dimona nuclear...

Bennett Ramberg responds.(Dimona nuclear reactor)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... Alexander DeVolpi argues that the boundaries of uncertainty regarding the radiological consequences from an attack on Dimona should remove this risk as a criterion for closing the plant. This contention conflicts with his concession that, were...

Additional NPT milestones.(Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... The very valuable timeline "The Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty: The Past 40 Years" (June 2008) has inspired me to suggest the addition of two more milestones in the history of the NPT. 1. The very first active nuclear nonproliferation...