Letter of May 14, 2010 at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference (signatories listed below):
As the United States and Russia negotiate reductions in their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons, the world is at an historic moment that provides unique opportunities to withdraw from deployment, reduce and eliminate the particularly destabilising class of short-range nuclear weapons variously described as non-strategic, sub-strategic, tactical or battlefield weapons.
The prospect of a shift in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's position on tactical nuclear weapons in Europe in 2010 was the subject of a BASIC event held at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference.
Britain’s “Mick Jagger election,” at which nobody got any satisfaction, was the topic of this joint BASIC event with the Center for Transatlantic Relations. The event took place at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, EU Center of Excellence in Washington, DC.
Essential questions for NATO as the alliance considers calls for the further drawdown of US tactical weapons in Europe.
Far more remains to be done before the world can feel assured that nuclear security issues are being addressed seriously enough…..
BASIC is referenced in this IPS News article on the release of the new U.S. Nuclear Posture Review. The article surveys a range of reactions by security experts.
Read more:
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50936
Nuclear weapons states must respond to security demands before non-nuclear weapons states will agree to additional non-proliferation obligations under the NPT.
The stage is set for the signing in Prague of the first arms control treaty of the Obama era. It is the initial step on the road to the US President's declared goal of a world without nuclear weapons, which he vibrantly described in the Czech capital a year ago.
But now that the applause has died down after the US and Russia reached agreement on capping their deployed long-range nuclear weapons in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) follow-on pact, the treaty's limits have become apparent. T