Today, the Obama Administration will roll out the FY2013 federal budget and nuclear weapons watchers will be scanning through the details of the financial plans released for the Departments of Defense and Energy.
Content Type
Getting a ‘New START’ on the next negotiations
Today will be Ellen Tauscher’s final day as the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, and Rose Gottemoeller is expected to be named as her successor for the time being. As the Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Gottemoeller negotiated New START for the US and this weekend marked the one year anniversary of its entry into force.
Getting to Zero Update
BASIC recently wrapped up a series of events in Cairo, including a joint press workshop with the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization and an off-the-record seminar on the politics of regional nuclear proliferation.
BASIC in Cairo – Preparing for the 2012 conference
BASIC and the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs held a conference in Cairo on January 29th 2012 on “Preparing for the 2012 conference: towards a zone free of nuclear weapons and all other WMD in the Middle East.”
Iran, the IAEA, and the U.S. Presidential Race
The International Atomic Energy Agency has sent special representatives to Tehran. The senior team will be there to discuss with Iranian officials outstanding questions related to a possible military dimension in the country’s nuclear program.
New Sanctions Aimed at Averting Wider Conflict
BASIC's program director, Anne Penketh, was quoted by Barbara Slavin of IPS news agency in an article about new European sanctions against Iran and the consequential impact in Europe and in the Middle East.
Obama and the Bomb
The rhetoric in the arms control community has changed in the past 5 years. Working to achieve “Global Zero” or a “world free of nuclear weapons” have become common expressions, vocalized by governments and top level officials whom previously subscribed to a much different school of thought. It is unquestionable that U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration have made a massive impact on the strength and direction of the non-proliferation and disarmament regime and thus it is not surprising to have a compilation of essays by nuclear experts entitled “Obama and the Bomb.”
A Thorn in Their Side
A Thorn in their Side: The Hilda Murrell Murder? by Commander Robert Green. This book could have been a crime novel except the plot was too complicated for a fictional writer to dream up and, unlike most crime novels, the murder is not solved nor are the real perpetrators apprehended. But it comes very close.