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.
Nuclear Arms Control and Disarmament
Turn off the Road to War
European Union foreign ministers agreed today a phased imposition of an oil embargo, committing to refrain from making any new contracts and phasing out existing contracts by July 1.
The Doomsday Clock should stay where it is
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists will tomorrow announce whether the danger of a nuclear cataclysm has moved closer since last year. The minute hand of the Bulletin’s Doomsday clock, which has measured since 1947 how close the world stands from catastrophic destruction through its symbolic proximity to midnight, has stood at six minutes to midnight since January 2010.
The Nuclear World in 2012
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the first Wall Street Journal op-ed from the four former US politicians, often known as the “Gang of Four”, that opened up the recent movement pulling together establishment support for serious moves towards multilateral nuclear disarmament.
News Backgrounder: North Korea and Nuclear Weapons
The sudden death of North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong-Il, from a heart attack has naturally raised questions about the transition in the isolated nuclear-armed state as power is handed to his youngest son Kim Jong-Un believed to be in his late twenties.
Wilton Park arms control conference
Some of the world’s leading nuclear arms controllers are meeting at the UK Foreign Office conference centre in Wilton Park, Sussex, this week. As the week progresses, there will be discussions on the state of the nuclear non-proliferation system, the initiatives currently in train after the NPT agreement around an Action Plan in May 2010, and prospects for progress in the current five-year NPT round that culminates in the 2015 Review Conference.
Getting to Zero Update
Nuclear weapons non-proliferation and disarmament developments seemed to be caught in a holding pattern, despite the upswing in news on the Iran and North Korea programs during recent weeks, including the release of the more detailed IAEA report on Iran’s alleged nuclear weaponization efforts.
This Week: Hope for North Korea Talks?
It’s election season in the United States, and the US delegation at talks in Geneva this week with North Korean officials will have one priority in mind – to avoid a provocation by nuclear-armed North Korea