Barack Obama has called for a world free of nuclear weapons and has committed to reducing their number and salience during his administration. His continuing engagement with allies and Russia on nuclear arms control, and the results of posture reviews back home, could result in significant progress.
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Maintaining focus in negotiations for a START successor
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev's recent announcement that Russia will be upgrading its military forces in the face of Western encroachment (among other reasons) underscores the tenuousness of US-Russian relations. Despite enthusiasm shown by both sides for strengthening ties under President Obama, Washington and Moscow have very different, often conflicting, strategic interests.
NATO’s nuclear posture in the context of the Strategic Concept review
In partnership with the New America Foundation (NAF), BASIC hosted a breakfast discussion on NATO\’s nuclear posture within the context of the Strategic Concept review.
The meeting was held at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC with around 30 participants – including representatives from NATO-member embassies and U.S. government offices.
Getting to Zero Update
In this issue: BASIC and Getting to Zero ; Commitments to Disarmament and Arms Control ; Country Reports
PM Brown calls for increased global commitment to disarmament
On March 17 UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown delivered a speech before the International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Conference at Lancaster House in London. Expanding the agenda of the upcoming G20 Summit beyond repairing the global economy, he emphasized the need to take a “broader view” and work to establish a “new global society.” Central to this proposal was for nations to cooperate in reducing nuclear arsenals.
The non-proliferation priorities of the Obama administration
Carrying out President Obama's pledge to secure loose nuclear materials and strengthen the nonproliferation regime, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) plans to increase nonproliferation funding to the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) over the next several years and has set out plans to cancel funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead (RRW) program.
Iran and Kissinger
Henry Kissinger has just delivered another important speech, this week at the Munich conference. It contains a number of important challenges to anyone involved in the nuclear debate. One he rightly focuses on is Iran as a major puzzle within the necessary moves towards zero: