Top level officials from the five recognised NPT nuclear weapon states – United States, Russia, China, UK and France – meet on Thursday and Friday in Paris this week. This is the second dedicated meeting they have had to exchange information and to discuss as a group measures to facilitate transparency, reductions in numbers, and other disarmament measures (the first was in London, September 2009). The challenges to achieving agreement, both real and presumed, are sufficiently huge that expectations are low for any substantial breakthrough.
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Global Zero
This month is witnessing a flurry of conferences on nuclear disarmament. Global Zero has a ‘summit’ conference in London on Wednesday and Thursday this week, to educate and energize in support of abolishing nuclear weapons. It coincides with the UK launch of ‘Countdown to Zero’
Getting to Zero Update
NATO proceeded quietly with its Strategic Deterrence and Defense Posture Review, while U.S. and Russian disagreements over missile defense continued. The United States was also conducting a review of nuclear targeting. In the United Kingdom, the “successor” to the Vanguard-class submarine that carries Trident missiles officially entered “Initial Gate,” or the initial design phase.
Concrete steps needed towards 2012 conference on WMD-free zone in the Middle East
One year ago, on May 28, 2010, the signatory states of the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) agreed in New York to convene a 2012 conference on establishing a WMD-free zone in the Middle East (ME).
A global ban on fissile material?
Ask any diplomat what is happening at the Conference on Disarmament (CD) when a session resumes and the question usually provokes a burst of derisive laughter. The CD session which opens today in Geneva, where attempts to launch negotiations on a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) remain in the deep freeze, is no exception.
Apocalypse Never
If you have a nuclear addiction, Doctor Tad Daley has the cure. In his book “Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World,” Daley explains the risks from the most dangerous weapons known to man, describes a nightmare scenario of escalating nuclear non-proliferation, and sets out the steps for their abolition. Why? Because, he argues, nuclear weapons are not needed in the modern world.
U.S. Defense Budget
Going up! But in the elevator of the U.S. defense budget, it’s not hats, coats and lingerie but funding for the nuclear weapons complex. The House Armed Services Committee meets on Wednesday to mark up, or revise, the 2012 defense authorization bill.
Time to slay another anachronism?
This week has already witnessed a great deal of jubilation around the world for the rooting out and killing of Osama bin Laden, with the usual army of armchair commentators giving divergent opinions as the importance this has to the global threat, the project that used to operate under the name ‘War on Terror’, and ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.