Once again Trident emerges as a key flag issue that establishes where candidates for the Labour leadership election stand. Andy Burnham has perhaps the most difficult task, being deeply sceptical about nuclear weapons personally but claiming that current international instability, and particularly Russian threats to European security, means it is not now the time for Britain to consider abandoning the weapons.
Analysis
A breakthrough for Iranian fanatics
Iranian radicals who see themselves on the front line against Zionism and the Great Satan are on tenterhooks this summer. Iran, a weak middle-power country often itself isolated from the rest of the world, could succeed in dealing a huge blow to the credibility of the most powerful state on the planet, and with it the positive values it represents.
Iran Deal: Now We Must Change Direction
This nuclear deal is a good one for an international community that desperately needs strong assurance when it comes to nuclear non-proliferation.
Consider the alternative: what opposition to the Iran nuclear deal could signal
The deal is at last concluded over Iran’s nuclear program, lifting many economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for long term curbs on the country’s nuclear program and the most extensive long-term verification and inspections regime ever accepted by a state.
Where is the UK government’s nuclear weapons policy heading?
Whichever way you look at it, it seems that the fiscal hawks and disarmament doves have been blown out of the sky and have sunk into a deep blue ocean where the Trident Successor programme stares them head-on.
Meet the Next Generation of Policy Shapers: Insights & Findings
Between October 2014 and March 2015 as part of the Next Generation Shapers project, BASIC hosted a series of discussions with US and UK based policy students and young professionals with different interests and areas of expertise.
Iran: It’s the Final Countdown.
Leaders of the E3+3 and Iran are working towards crafting a binding agreement aimed at increasing controls on Iran’s nuclear program that would impact upon the time it would take for Iran to create a nuclear bomb, and reducing sanctions.
Preserving the character of the nation: British military attitudes to nuclear weapons
What are the views of the British military on nuclear weapons today? How can we answer this question given both the different actors and institutions and the level of secrecy surrounding this issue? Moreover, why should those supportive of non-proliferation and disarmament, or anyone else- especially given the political nature of these weapons- care what the military thinks?