BASIC & the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) held a one-day conference on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The conference brought together key thinkers from academia, policy-making, and non-governmental organsations to discuss the future of British nuclear weapons policy, and the prospects for non-proliferation and disarmament in the Middle East.
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Iran’s presidential election: new possibilities for nuclear negotiations?
There is a certain fatalism surrounding Iran’s presidential election this Friday, June 14th, with many people having lost interest because of the limited field of candidates (eight) being allowed to stand. This is coupled with soaring unemployment and inflation in the Islamic Republic, caused by mismanagement and encroaching economic sanctions from the Western countries over its nuclear program. Many of the country’s young people, who constitute a very large proportion of the electorate, are disheartened by the diplomatic damage to Iran’s international reputation, and the economic hardship that is impacting on their everyday lives.
IAEA Board of Governors meeting and Iran
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of Governors will meet this week, starting today in Vienna, and Iran’s nuclear program will be on the agenda. The May 22ndIAEA report concluded that little has changed since previous assessments of the nuclear program – with Iran continuing to enrich nuclear fuel and Tehran and the Agency at loggerheads over what is necessary to show that all of Iran’s nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes.
Russia and the US: realising nuclear disarmament and building trust
According to the most recent estimate by the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), the world's combined stockpile of nuclear warheads stands at more than 17,000. The US and Russia have over 93% of the world's nuclear weapons, with about 1,800 on high alert, ready to unleash their devastating explosive power against each other at short notice.
TacNukes News No. 5
1. TNW and Confidence and Security Building Measures 2. The Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Initiative at…
Considering future US-Russian arms control & global dynamics
This week Moscow hosts an international security conference that will focus on the future of missile defense, more specifically, the need for effective US reassurances that it will never undermine Russia’s nuclear deterrent, and the possibility of cooperation on the issue.
Moscow Roundtable: Prospects for Russian-US Arms Control
On Thursday May 16th, BASIC co-sponsored a roundtable in Moscow with the Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS), Arms Control Association (ACA), the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy (IFSH) on new prospects for Russian-US Arms Control.
Open Ended Working Group
Geneva saw something new this week: actual constructive conversation about nuclear weapons. The United Nations established the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in its current form in 1978, expecting it to be the main forum for disarmament negotiations for a number of different types of weapons, including nuclear weapons. But the rules of the CD–limited membership, any one member can block action–have caused its work on nuclear weapons to stagnate for 20 years.