This fact sheet outlines the core issues involved in US plans to modernise the B61 bombs through the Life Extension Program (LEP), the reactions and costs associated with this, and the future of the B61s in Europe.
Europe
UK Disagrees With EU Saudi Trade Embargo
Alexander Mosesov from Sputnik News featured a story about the UK’s disagreement with the EU-Saudi trade embargo. The article argues that the reaction by the UK to the decision was predictable. Paul Ingram was quoted in the article saying,
“This response [to oppose the embargo] from the British government is absolutely predictable. There is a strong belief in Whitehall [the British civil service] that the British defense industry depends upon exports to Saudi Arabia, and the strategic support the UK gives to Riyadh benefits UK influence in the region”
From Munich to Warsaw: NATO rethinks deterrence
The Munich Security Conference is possibly the biggest annual event in the calendar for global elites talking strategic security and stability. This year’s shindig confirmed that the myriad of challenges facing the world is as complex as ever. One issue in particular was vexing delegates: the confrontation between the West and Russia and its implications for NATO’s eastern flank.
The state of the UK and European debates on nuclear weapons
BASIC and the Federation of American Scientists hosted a joint discussion on the state of the UK and European nuclear weapons debates, and the importance of this in a global context.
Tactical Nuclear Weapons, NATO and Deterrence
Nuclear sharing arrangements and the active deployment of US theatre nuclear weapons (TNW) in Europe under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are viewed as critical components of its deterrence posture. Previously, this nuclear posture was aimed at the former Soviet Union (USSR) and Warsaw Pact alliance during the Cold War. Since the end of the Cold War and the absorption of former Warsaw Pact states into NATOthe official justification for those systems remaining is not connected to any specified enemy.
Consider the alternative: what opposition to the Iran nuclear deal could signal
The deal is at last concluded over Iran’s nuclear program, lifting many economic sanctions imposed on Iran by the United States, European Union and United Nations in return for long term curbs on the country’s nuclear program and the most extensive long-term verification and inspections regime ever accepted by a state.
New Cold War
We tend to see new events as a continuation of past ones. The first automobiles were called “horseless carriages”. So the worsening of relations between Western Europe and Russia is called a “new Cold War”
