On 1 July 2014 Elaine Grossman covers the launch of the Trident Commission's concluding report in this article for Defense One. In it, she quotes BASIC's executive director Paul Ingram as saying: “In the end, it comes down to a calculation which involves the value of nuclear weapons in national security strategy against the contributions of strengthening global nonproliferation norms…Britain does have a leadership role which it cannot wash its hands of.
Content Type
What’s behind the deepening US-UK nuclear weapon cooperation?
The Mutual Defense Agreement (MDA) lies at the heart of the special nuclear relationship between the United States and United Kingdom. The nuclear relationship set up by the MDA is seen to be beneficial to both the US and UK by cementing the bilateral relationship in sharing of nuclear weapons technology, as well as enshrining a certain uneven power structure in law.
Iran: beyond the concessions and expectations
What will it take for negotiating parties to reach a lasting deal over Iran's nuclear programme–and what does it mean for the non-proliferation regime?
A vote for Scotland’s independence could reverberate through NATO
Research Fellow at the National Defence University, Leo Michel, wrote an op-ed for the LA Times ahead of the Scottish referendum on independence and the implications on the future of the British nuclear forces and NATO. Michel cites the Trident Commission in his article.
Read the full article here: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0725-michel-scotland-independence-nuclear-fo-20140725-story.html
TacNukes News
This newsletter is published by BASIC.
TacNukes News No. 6 and earlier editions were jointly published in cooperation with the Arms Control Association and the Institute for Peace Research and Security at the University of Hamburg. BASIC currently works with the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) under a joint project funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
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Response to the Trident Commission Concluding Report
The Commission’s concluding report, published on 1 July 2014, is intended to inform a more considered debate over Britain’s nuclear weapon policy focused on national security, mindful of the politics and the strategic and diplomatic context. This is a direct response to the report and represents the views of the author. BASIC publishes it here as part of an ongoing discussion.
Talking about Trident & the Next Generation of Global Threats
BASIC and WMD Awareness kicked off their Talking Trident: A Conversation with the Next Generation event series on July 9th in Shoreditch in east London. These events are a series of debates being held to give young adults in Britain the opportunity to express their opinions on the issue of nuclear weapons before the government makes a decision on whether to renew its nuclear system, Trident, in 2016.
The prospect of success with Iran
This week, Iran and the P5+1/E3+3 group of world powers are under pressure to produce a comprehensive agreement around the former’s nuclear program by a deadline of Sunday, July 20th, or otherwise agree to extend their existing interim arrangement. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry were holding direct discussions after several foreign ministers from the P5+1 gathered in Vienna this past weekend to assess progress toward a long-term deal that would provide reassurance that Iran’s program will not be used for producing nuclear weapons.