Read below to get the most up to date Getting to Zero country reports or click the links below for a chronological history.
Content Type
Country Report: Russia
While the Russia and the United States have signed and ratified the New START Treaty and have started making strategic cuts to their nuclear arsenals, there is still much work to be done getting to zero by breaking free of Cold War theories of nuclear security and deterrence. BASIC monitors Russia's nuclear policies and shifts in politics on ballistic missile defence, tactical nuclear weapons, and deterrence policy in its Getting to Zero updates. Read the summaries below in reverse chronological order.
Country Report: United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is a member of the NPT as a nuclear weapon state. The country faces the decision on the renewal of its Trident nuclear weapon system in 2016. BASIC monitors the progress on this decision and other news relevant to the UK nuclear weapons policy in its Getting to Zero update. Read the summaries below in reverse chronological order.
Country Report: United States
Under legal obligations of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the United States must make continuous efforts towards nuclear disarmament, and yet, the U.S. continues to make plans to modernize their nuclear forces. BASIC monitors the nuclear policies and the nuclear reduction efforts of the United States in our Getting to Zero updates. Read the summaries below in reverse chronological order.
Threat of Sequestration
The House of Representatives resumes debate tomorrow on the energy and water appropriations bill which covers nuclear weapons and the non-proliferation program of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Trident In Question
Debate around the decision facing Britain on the renewal of its Trident nuclear weapon system continues after Financial Times published an Op-Ed by Sir Menzies Campbell, Lib Dem foreign policy grandee and co-chair of the BASIC Trident Commission. The decision to begin the process by engaging in concept studies, and later design was confirmed by Parliament in March 2007. Parliament was assured by ministers at the time that this was not a final decision to build the submarines.
NATO Continues Dangerous Delays over Nuclear Decisions
Paul Ingram's piece on NATO's contradictions on nuclear deployments and delayed decisions on nuclear weapons was featured on the website of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Ingram highlights that NATO members are divided on how they view relations with Russia and “the Alliance is failing to recognize that the Cold War is over, and so it lives with a cancerous contradiction”.
Middle East free of nuclear weapons can become reality
BASIC's program director, Anne Penketh, discusses the security risks in the Middle East and the prospects of a WMD-free zone treaty in the region in this article for The National. She writes, “A WMD-free zone in the Middle East would take years to negotiate, but the alternatives, including possible military action against Iran, are chilling. This is not about only the security of a region, but of the world.”