Sitting down before the start of the afternoon workshop on Getting to Zero yesterday I have to admit to being a little intimidated. I was to open before Michael Krepon, someone highly involved in the issue for many years and whose work I had read a great deal of.
Russian resurgence and diplomacy
Whether the Russian operation against Georgia was premeditated or not, the leadership has used it effectively to strengthen nationalistic support within the country, and to challenge the view domestically and internationally of expanding, unbridled US dominance.
Bilateral nuclear disarmament strategies after the Ossetian conflict: A personal perspective
One of my second or third reactions to the news last Friday was shock over the impact on our agenda that depends so heavily upon establishing a positive relationship between the US and Russia. I have been avoiding being pessimistic in public because that doesn't help anyone, but it really doesn't look good. From my perspective, though, while the Russian response on Friday was undoubtedly disproportionate, it would be wrong to characterize this as Russia displaying a disinterest in negotiations with the United States and instead challenging democracy head-on.
Taking responsibility: what can NPT states realistically do to build on today’s momentum behind nuclear disarmament?
If NPT states cling to a culture of blame rather than focusing on our shared interests, proliferation is inevitable.
McCain supports GTZ: Nuclear disarmament now mainstream
Republican presidential candidate John McCain earlier today gave a landmark speech on the responsibility to engage more seriously in disarmament. Given the two Democrat frontrunners have already explicitly leant their weight to the vision, this is the clearest indication yet that nuclear disarmament has now achieved the mainstream – and it is now out of touch to oppose it.
BASIC in Tehran
BASIC Co-Executive Director, Paul Ingram, is to present two papers seeking to change the frame of the international debate over Iran's nuclear program to an international conference on the subject in Tehran on 9th March, hosted by the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS), a think-tank closely associated with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic. One is entitled Iran's Role in Moving Towards a Nuclear Weapon Free World, the other Other solutions to Iran's Energy Insecurity.
Oslo meeting
George Shultz and Sam Nunn are addressing the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG, clerked by BASIC) in London on Thursday after the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament that is underway now in Oslo, Norway.
From the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament website:
The Government of Norway, in cooperation with the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Hoover Institution, is convening an international conference on Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, in Oslo 26-27 February 2008.
US TV commercial heightens awareness over nuclear terrorism
The Partnership for a Secure America, a bipartisan group of government and foreign policy veterans, will start airing a television commercial in major cities to raise awareness about the threat of nuclear terrorism (see NTI report).