Arms Control Today

Editor's Note

Oliver Meier reports on the election of a new director-general for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and Jeff Abramson describes a change in the U.S. position on an arms trade treaty.

Five Years Ago in Act: Time for Arms Talks? Iran, Israel, and Middle East Arms Control

Why the U.S. Doesn't Need Nuclear Testing

Today, a growing bipartisan majority of national security leaders and experts agrees that, by ratifying the CTBT, the United States stands to gain important national security benefits by constraining the ability of other states to build new and more deadly nuclear weapons that could pose a threat to U.S. security. Since the Senate's 1999 rejection of the CTBT, there have been significant advances in the Stockpile Stewardship Program and nuclear test monitoring that should address earlier con...

By the Numbers

Preventing Nuclear Dangers in Southeast Asia and Australasia

U.S. Strategy Towards North Korea: Rebuilding Dialogue and Engagement

According to the report, North Korea's recent nuclear activity has not been motivated by Kim Jong N's poor health or the nation's internal political problems.

Skirting the Law: Sudan's Post-Cpa Arms Flows

According to the Small Arms Survey, this failure stems from suppliers' inadequate end-use monitoring and poor export risk assessment, which allow for the diversion of arms to Sudan from neighboring countries.

Convention On Cluster Munitions

On the Calendar

Pressing a Broad Agenda for Combating Nuclear Dangers: An Interview with Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Ellen Tauscher

The interview covered a range of issues in Tauscher's portfolio, from strategic arms control to plans for an international fuel bank. Shortly before the interview, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a high-profile speech at the U.S. Institute of Peace on arms control and nonproliferation. Secretary Clinton said in her confirmation hearing that the administration "will seek deep, verifiable reductions in all U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons, whether deployed or nondeployed, strat...

The Role of Nuclear Weapons: Japan, the U.S., and 'Sole Purpose'

Because of a fear in the United States and elsewhere of the perceived prospect that Japan might acquire its own nuclear arsenal if it came to regard the nuclear umbrella as unreliable, the arrangement in effect gives Japan significant leverage. According to the report, Obama called for a range of more far-reaching options, including more radical reductions of nuclear weapons and a redrafting of nuclear doctrine to narrow the range of conditions under which the United States would use nuclear...

Weighing the Case for a Convention to Limit Cyberwarfare

The convention would also preclude assistance to others in conducting prohibited attacks. Because the cyberthreat is evolving rapidly and is difficult to define, any proposed solution is very unlikely to address the problem effectively for the long term or perhaps even the medium term.

Start Deadline Looms; Endgame Begins

There would need to be agreement on the major components by mid-November in order to leave sufficient time before Dec. 5 for drafting, translation, and final administration review, according to officials. Because of the tight schedule and slow progress since the basic outlines of the new treaty were established in the presidents' joint understanding document in Moscow July 6, speculation is growing that the talks might not conclude in time without personal attention from the two national lea...

China, Russia Agree On Launch Notification

In an Oct. 24 e-mail to Arms Control Today, Pavel Podvig of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation praised the agreement for enhancing transparency between the two countries. The official Chinese media took pains to distinguish the Chinese-Russian notification accord from "offensive agreements" in place between Russia and the United States, as the notification agreement does not limit the nuclear arsenal of either side.

Opcw Chooses New Director-General

According to a diplomatic source close to the process, three straw polls conducted in the eight days before the Executive Council meeting quickly established Üzümcü as the front-runner. According to the observers, there was relief that a lengthy selection process and formal vote could be avoided.

U.S. Supports Arms Trade Treaty Process

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an Oct. 14 statement that "the Arms Trade Treaty initiative presents us with the opportunity to promote the same high standards for the entire international community that the United States and other responsible arms exporters already have in place to ensure that weaponry is transferred for legitimate purposes." Far from resolving all issues, the group reported that the meetings had "allowed for constructive, indepth, and extensive discussion...

Arms Exports Fell in 2008, Un Data Say

Missiles Lead Decline in Major Weapons Five of the seven major weapons categories saw a drop in deliveries, led by a dramatic decline in claimed missile and missile launcher exports. Because a missile and a warship are each counted as one unit in the register despite the difference in size and capability, comparing overall numbers can be misleading. According to the U.S. report, Turkey received 114 missiles from the United States.

Iranian Response to Leu Fuel Deal Unclear

According to U.S. officials and independent experts, Iran has produced enough LEU to be able to build one nuclear weapon if the material were further enriched. According to IAEA reports, Iran has enriched its cunent LEU stockpile to levels below 5 percent, consistent with the needs of most nuclear power reactors.

Officials Air Views On Key Stockpile Issue

The United States has not conducted a nuclear test since 1992. [...] no new warhead types have been introduced into the arsenal. According to knowledgeable sources, the NPR has not reached a conclusion about the need for new warhead designs.

Congress Funds Nonproliferation Work

Congress largely approved President Barack Obama's nuclear nonproliferation budget, with some small adjustments, when both chambers approved the fiscal year 2010 energy and water development appropriations bill last month. In the section covering weapons programs, the appropriations act provides $1.51 billion, $8.8 million below the administration's request, for work directly related to maintaining the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

Uae-U.S. Nuclear Pact Gets Green Light

At an Oct. 7 hearing on the agreement by the Senate Foreign Relations Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs Subcommittee, Vann H. Van Diepen, acting assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproiiferatlon, said that "the idea that we want to have the best possible controls on enrichment and reprocessing technology will absolutely be part of the mix" in negotiating agreements with other countries but that "once you start getting into specific negotiations with s...

Correction

China Says N. Korea Wants Better Relations

According to an Oct. 5 report by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim told Wen during their meeting that his country was ready to hold multilateral talks "depending on the outcome" of bilateral discussions with the United States.

Dismissing Doomsday

The fact that atomic weapons and ballistic missiles are being tested reduces otherwise sensible people in Washington to trembling panic. The book does indeed have a soporific effect, not through dry prose but through devastating logic. Since reading it, I have felt a tiny bit better about the world my children will inherit.

Inside Nuclear South Asia

Scott D. Sagan of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation has compiled the work of a number of South Asia experts who discuss nuclear proliferation in the region and offer alternatives to the common explanations for its occurrence.

Preventing Catastrophe: The Use and Misuse of Intelligence in Efforts to Halt the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction

The authors' nonjudgmental prose and obvious sympathy for the challenges confronting the producers of intelligence may leave some readers hungry for tougher critiques of the intelligence community for its record during the debacle over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and for its use of controversial counterterrorism methods.

Living Weapons: Biological Warfare and International Security