What will it take for negotiating parties to reach a lasting deal over Iran's nuclear programme–and what does it mean for the non-proliferation regime?
Beyond the Trident Commission Report
The Trident Commission report on Britain’s nuclear weapons policy aims to distill core national security arguments and challenge vague pro-renewal stances. Public and political engagement remain minimal despite the crucial timing and evolving global threats. The Commission debates Britain’s independent nuclear deterrence and its role in NATO, ultimately questioning the alignment of current policies with global disarmament goals.
Background Briefing Papers to the Trident Commission Concluding Report
This collection of background papers is published on the same day as the final report from the Commission and can be read alongside it. They are not representative of the views of the Commission but rather of the authors that submitted them. They have fed into the Commission’s deliberations and have been affected by them.
Behind the Trident Commission Report
The village of Westminster is failing the UK public over Britain’s nuclear weapons policy at this most critical of moments. The Scots are about to vote on whether to leave a Union that is supposedly defended by Trident, and yet Trident is currently the most potent symbol for the SNP of what they claim is wrong with the Union. And the government in London is two years away from a final decision on whether to replace the nuclear weapon system.
The case for complexity
Football, the modern-day opiate of the masses, is a simple passionate game of two teams and one simple, generally zero-sum result. We have a winner and loser; even drawn matches contribute to victory and defeat in the tournament. In attempting to make meaning out of the complexity of regional and sub-regional conflict by reducing it to the binaries of the football pitch, we often make monumental errors.
NATO: Slipping Into Confrontation
NATO defense ministers met in Brussels to discuss the Afghanistan withdrawal and Russia’s actions in Crimea and Ukraine. There are calls for stronger security assurances within the alliance, especially from countries near Russia. President Obama has pledged increased US military presence in Europe. However, NATO’s role remains focused on military rather than cooperative security strategies, which heightens tensions with Russia. This approach risks moving towards a competitive relationship rather than fostering mutual security.
Is UK disarmament quite so irrelevant?
The very quiet failure of this year’s Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee to agree any final document and the daunting challenge of the treaty Review Conference next year mean frustration is growing about the pace of progress by the nuclear-weapons states to disarm—so slow it feels like we are going backward.
How Do We Change the Global Nuclear Order?
Whenever diplomats get together to address the really big global issues of our time, the already daunting challenges of co-ordination are made more complex by their governments’ competing policy commitments—to economic growth (simplistically conceived), special-interest groups, “national security” and prestige.