Nuclear weapons policy looks set to feature as a political issue in the 2015 general election. A broad consensus on UK nuclear weapons policy since of the end of the Cold War amongst the party leaderships of the three main Westminster parties has been disturbed by the debate on whether and, if so, how to replace the current Trident nuclear weapons system.
Content Type
Trident downgrade would be reckless, say Tories on eve of Lib Dem review
Richard Norton-Taylor references recent BASIC publication, Trident in UK Politics and Public opinion, in his article preceeding the release of the UK goverenment's Trident Alternatives Review.
Read the full article on the Guardian website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk-news/2013/jul/15/trident-downgrade-reckless-philip-hammond
The Future of Nuclear Weapons
On 11th June, Warwick University's Politics and International Studies department (PAIS) hosted a meeting in collaboration with BASIC entitled 'The Future of Nuclear Weapons: Between Disarmament and Proliferation'. The event, which brought together experts from diverse backgrounds and with significant experience on these issues, consisted of two roundtable discussions on the future of Trident and British nuclear weapons policy and prospects for non-proliferation and disarmament in the Middle East.
Reading the findings of the UK Trident Alternatives Review
The long-anticipated government Trident Alternatives Review, which will outline options for the next British nuclear weapon platform and delivery system, is expected to be made public next week. This short briefing anticipates the publication of the Government’s TAR, and provides analysis on how it should be read.
Egypt & the Middle East – Stability through Fairness
While we are witnessing ever-more violent clashes on the streets of Cairo, and Egyptians now contemplate their next moves in the long and faltering steps towards democracy, few are now thinking much about the regional efforts to establish a process with the objective of creating a zone free of WMD.
Could the renewed focus on non-strategic nuclear weapons signal a new era in Euro-Atlantic security?
It is 22 years since the Presidential Nuclear Initiatives were announced soon after the fall of the Berlin wall. Presidents Bush and Gorbachev declared massive unilateral cuts to their holdings of short range tactical nuclear weapons, and their militaries set about the task of dismantling them.
Counting on Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Today is the 45th Anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and also this week, Wednesday marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Presidential announcement to extend the moratorium on nuclear explosive testing. These are admirable anniversaries, but what have they achieved?
The NPT has become the bedrock of the nuclear arms control regime, but back in 1968 when it was first signed, states had no clue how long it would last; and written into the Treaty was a 25-year lifespan.
The M51 missile failure: where does this leave French nuclear modernization?
The latest M51 ballistic missile test was a failure. The missile blew up minutes after emerging from the French submarine, Le Vigilant, in the Audierne Bay (off the coast of Brittany) on May 5. French leaders have always claimed that France has never participated directly in the Cold War arms race; but, the scale of its current modernization program of nuclear weapon systems, running for over fifteen years, is massive.