We are witnessing shifts in the global security debate as nations are beginning to emphasize human security in the face of far reaching advancements in military technology. The recent development of autonomous weapons systems or lethal autonomous robots (LAR) that are being manufactured without a “human in the loop” have triggered serious ethical concerns and as a result, civil society and NGOs began talks in Geneva last year on the humanitarian implications.
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Will diplomacy prevail?
U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today on the sidelines of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference. Netanyahu announced that the conversation would include the the P5+1 (U.S., UK, Russia, China, France, and Germany) and Iranian nuclear negotiations, which will continue this week at the technical level in Vienna.
A progressive nuclear weapons policy for the next Labour government
The UK has now embarked on an expensive, long and controversial programme to replace Trident, beginning with a new fleet of ballistic missile submarines to carry the US-designed and built Trident missiles into the 2060s.
Nuclear disarmament: the case for engagement, not division
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) articulates a collective ambition: a world free of nuclear weapons. And since its inception, we have made significant progress: 189 countries have signed up to the NPT; nuclear weapons have reduced in number from an estimated 70,000 at the height of the Cold War to somewhere in the region of 17,000 today;
US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement Renewal 2014: a foregone conclusion?
1958 saw the first protest march to Britain’s nuclear bomb factory at Aldermaston, the start of the deployment of US THOR ballistic missiles with thermonuclear warheads at RAF Feltwell, a series of British thermonuclear tests at Christmas Island and the US and the UK signing the Agreement For Cooperation on the Uses of Atomic Energy for Mutual Defence Purposes – also known as the Mutual Defence Agreement (MDA).
TacNukes News No. 8
This edition of TacNukes News includes updates on political developments in Germany and The Netherlands, and on the B-61 nuclear bomb Life Extension Program in the United States.
The Challenges of Coherent U.S. Extended Nuclear Deterrence and Assurance
In this brief paper, Paul Ingram discusses U.S. commitments on extended nuclear detterence and expectations among allies. He explores the issues facing NATO and focuses on the UK-US security relationship around Trident.
A Conservative approach to the forthcoming debate on Trident
Although the final decision to renew the UK’s nuclear deterrent is not due to be taken until 2016, during the next Parliament, it was during the previous Parliament that the lengthy process of authorising and establishing the process of renewal was initiated.