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Iran Update: Number 159

Talks in Baghdad concluded without making substantive progress, but parties agreed to meet again in Moscow on June 18.  The IAEA’s meeting with officials in Tehran to address “possible military dimensions” of the nuclear program showed more promise.

Shadow NATO Summit III in Washington, DC

BASIC, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Elliott School of International Affairs, NATO Watch, and Strategy International held a conference in Washington, DC on May 14 and 15, 2012, a week before the NATO Summit in Chicago.

Evidence submitted by Sir David Omand, GBC. Visiting Professor, Department of War Studies, King’s College London

MAY 2011

We benefit from the collective security arrangements of the North Atlantic Alliance including a framework of deterrence extended from the US to its European allies. As a result, the future risk of the UK becoming engaged in conflict remains very low. However, we know how unpredictable the international security environment can turn out to be. Looking ahead several decades we could be surprised by new and unforeseen threats; thus, we have no objective justification for seeking major changes today in the collective security that our NATO membership provides.

Evidence submitted by Profs. Keith Barnham, David Caplin, Tom Kibble and Jenny Nelson, Imperial College London

MARCH 2011

British nuclear weapons have never had credible independent military value. They were acquired and have been maintained as an expensive exercise in political and diplomatic prestige; primarily to impress and influence allies rather than deter adversaries. Whether that approach was ever worthwhile is questionable, but it is certainly no longer valid.