“If it is stalled, then clearly it will harm the prospects for future negotiations that follow, that use this as a foundation for the next round. It will be impossible to have another round of arms control negotiations, as such. If that treaty comes up for ratification on the floor of the Senate, it will pass. The debate is when it comes up for votes.”
Analysis
Experts Call NATO Strategic Concept ‘Missed Opportunity to Reduce Role of Obsolete Tactical Nukes from Europe’
U.S. and European nuclear arms control and security experts criticized NATO\’s new “Strategic Concept” as a conservative, backward-looking policy, a missed opportunity to reduce the number and role of the 200 forward-deployed U.S. tactical nuclear bombs and engage Russia in a dialogue on removing all tactical nuclear weapons from Europe.
Getting to Zero Update
The Obama Administration was hoping for the U.S. Senate to ratify the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) now that the U.S. mid-term elections are over.
Tussle over New START ratification intensifies
The fight over ratification of New START has intensified, after the key Republican Senator being courted by the Obama administration, Jon Kyl, indicated that he opposed a vote in the lame duck session of Congress. However the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, John Kerry, said the door is not yet closed. The New York Times reports on the treaty battle.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/senate-leader-deals-blow-t…
Barack Obama’s hopes for a nuclear-free world fading fast
“I wouldn't say it was dead. It's in emergency resuscitation” … “If there is hope, no, it's not coming from Washington. The leadership of this is not going to come from Washington.”
Paul Ingram, executive director of BASIC, was quoted in the Guardian. To read more see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/16/barack-obama-nuclear-hopes-f…
The Shadow NATO Summit II: Civil Society Perspectives on the Lisbon Summit and NATO’s New Strategic Concept
In this second Shadow Summit, NATO officials, civil society and policy experts again gathered to examine the organization’s future and explore how civil society groups and parliamentarians could advance NATO-related policies and actions.
Click on the hyperlinks below to view the agenda and presentation documents from this event that was organized by NATO Watch, BASIC, Bertelsmann Stiftung, and ISIS-Europe, with support from the Marmot Charitable Trust.
NATO Shadow Summit II
The British American Security Information Council (BASIC), Bertelsmann Stiftung, International Security Information Service (ISIS), Europe and NATO Watch are organizing the NATO Shadow Summitt II in Brussels on 15-16 November 2010.
The Shadow NATO Summit II
Civil Society Perspectives on the Lisbon Summit and NATO’s New Strategic Concept
US and India urge “meaningful dialogue” of all nuclear states
U.S. President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have issued a joint statement calling for “a meaningful dialogue among all states possessing nuclear weapons” with a view to reducing the salience of nuclear weapons globally. In the statement, issued at the end of President Obama's visit to India, both leaders firmly stated their belief in a world free from nuclear weapons as well as expressing concerns over illegal smuggling and trafficking of nuclear material.