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.
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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.”
Iran Update: Number 149
- Latest IAEA assessment of Iran’s nuclear program echoes recent Agency reports
- The impact of Stuxnet
- International divide over sanctions grows
- Speculation on Iran’s intentions and capabilities
- Iranian rocketry, missile developments
- Middle East protests: context and meaning for Iranian leadership and U.S. influence
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’.
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.
Getting to Zero Update
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) officially entered into force on February 5, 2011, and Russian and American leaders expressed their expectations for another, more challenging round, of arms control negotiations. BASIC has established a new high-level Trident Commission to examine the decisions around the United Kingdom’s nuclear weapons system.
This Week – U.S. Defense Budget
It’s a big week for the U.S. military budget for fiscal 2012 with details of the billion budget – the largest in the nation’s history – being unveiled today by the Pentagon. Also relevant to arms control will be the Energy Department budget and particularly that of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Should Israel join NATO?
NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has called for the alliance to expand cooperation with Israel. Israel has been part of the Mediterranean dialogue with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which includes Arab states such as Tunisia and Egypt, since 1994. But there have been recent calls for NATO to deepen the relationship still further by accepting Israel as a member.