BASIC held a joint workshop with Tallinn-based International Centre for Defence Studies on NATO’s Nuclear Deterrence Posture and Baltic Security on Tuesday 15th March, one of a series of roundtables around Europe to focus on Alliance nuclear posture in the context of the new Strategic Concept and the review of deterrence and review currently under way. Nuclear posture was a source of significant internal wrangling in the run-up to the NATO summit in November last year, and differences remain.
Content Type
Middle East unrest complicates quest for WMD-free zone
The recent uprisings in the Middle East have clouded the picture for a planned 2012 conference on establishing a zone free of weapons of mass destruction, BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh writes.
IAEA Chief Presses Iran, Syria to Come Clean on Nuclear Activities
When the U.N. nuclear watchdog Director General Yukiya Amano reported to the IAEA Board of Governors this week, updating about Syrian and Iranian atomic activities, Paul Ingram, BASIC's executive director said “There is little in Amano's report that would enable the United States or other nations to press for new Iranian sanctions” ….”Tehran is already subject to four rounds of U.N. Security Council resolutions and independent penalties from a number of nations.”
Deterrence in the Age of Nuclear Proliferation
In their fourth The Wall Street Journal OpEd promoting the need for global nuclear disarmament, former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and former Senator Sam Nunn call for nations to begin moving now toward a new, safer and more stable form of deterrence with decreasing nuclear risks and an increasing measure of assured security.
This Week: Iran’s nuclear program
The IAEA Board meets this week, and will receive the latest report from the Secretary General on Iran’s nuclear program. Since Yukiya Amano’s assumption of the lead post at the IAEA, reports have been more critical of Iran’s failure to ‘implement a number of its obligations’.
Unrest Complicates 2012 Middle East Meeting
The upheavals sweeping across the Middle East have cast a long shadow over diplomatic negotiations aimed at organizing a conference on establishing a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in that region, according to officials involved in the process.
February 2011
BASIC launched its Trident Commission in Parliament on February 9th. Speakers at the event warmly welcomed the establishment of the Commission and pointed to its potential to change the political landscape of the debate in Britain. Minister of State for the Armed Forces Nick Harvey attended the launch, strongly welcoming the establishment of the Commission.
The technology requires four fully-armed submarines to provide Britain’s nuclear deterrent
The UK Defence Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, argued against the cut in submarines on BBC Radio Scotland last night. He maintained that the UK requires all four submarines to provide a continuous at sea deterrent (CASD); and that to reduce that number reduces the United Kingdom's ability to deploy that deterrent.