Diplomats at the 2012 NPT Preparatory Committee have been discussing an extraordinary range of issues, but the highlight of this week’s agenda was Jaakko Laajava, Finnish Ambassador and facilitator of the 2012 Conference on a WMD free zone in the Middle East, on Tuesday morning giving his first official presentation of his consultations throughout the past seven months.
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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty meeting, elections in Iran and France
The first annual NPT Preparatory Committee in the 2015 round begins today. With a full work plan agreed in May 2010, delegates have a varied agenda, but it seems likely that Iran’s nuclear programme will form a shadow over discussions in Vienna.
Nuclear weapons budget battles
Knives are out in the initial skirmishes over the fiscal 2013 funding for the nuclear weapons complex in the U.S., as a key appropriations committee meets this week.
The Partnership
Book review of “The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb” by Philip Taubman. At the height of the Cold War, eliminating nuclear weapons was seen as the province of dreadlocked hippies, peaceniks, and other “flower children” of the 1960s. It was a perspective that perversely marginalized the arms control agenda, just when it was needed the most.
Changing the narrative on U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe
A couple of events in Washington this week arising from a new report will focus attention anew on the presence of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, as NATO foreign and defence ministers prepare to meet in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday ahead of next month’s NATO summit.
Spotlight on Iran’s nuclear program
This week begins with Iranians celebrating their national day of nuclear technology today… and ends on Friday and Saturday with long-awaited critical talks between Iran and the E3+3 in Istanbul. Some may view the Iranian national day as a deliberately provocative act, but that would be to misunderstand the politics.
Reflecting on Obama’s vision
This Thursday is three years since President Obama delivered his Prague speech, bringing nuclear non-proliferation back on the agenda with his vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.
U.S. Report on the CTBT
Although all eyes are currently on the second Nuclear Security Summit happening today and tomorrow in Seoul, South Korea, a significant development on nuclear issues will also happen this Friday, when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences releases it long-awaited report on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The report, while technical, will have far-reaching political implications for nuclear arms control.