Elzbieta Okuniewska published “Talking about the Bomb in Tel Aviv” for the Palestine-Israel Journal which covers the roundtable discussion that BASIC jointly organised with the Green Cross, the Israeli Disarmament Movement, and IKV Pax Christi. Paul Ingram shared his experience working with Iran on nuclear issues while BASIC senior fellow Ward Wilson presented narratives around rethinking nuclear weapons.
Israel
Fathoming Iran’s nuclear intentions
Al-Monitor Israel Pulse columnist, Akiva Eldar, wrote about BASIC's joint roundtable meeting in Tel Aviv in November 2013. The two-day meeting, organised in cooperation with the Green Cross, IKV Pax Christi, and the Israeli Disarmament Movement, brought together a dozen nuclear experts and some high level officials from Israel, Europe, and the United States.
Steps on the way forward to a WMD-Free Zone in the Middle East
On October 29th, 2013, BASIC hosted a small group of academics and experts on and from the Middle East region for a private roundtable in Washington, D.C. on the current challenges surrounding a WMD–free zone in the Middle East. This paper highlights the key points discussed.
PAIS/BASIC Nuclear Weapons Conference: The Future of Nuclear Weapons – Between Disarmament and Proliferation
BASIC & the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) held a one-day conference on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. The conference brought together key thinkers from academia, policy-making, and non-governmental organsations to discuss the future of British nuclear weapons policy, and the prospects for non-proliferation and disarmament in the Middle East.
Split: A Tale of Two Alliances
NATO & the Arab League
NATO is currently hosting its annual conference on WMD Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-proliferation in Split, Croatia. Participants have been considering how best to tighten the verification mechanisms and strengthen commitments states make in demonstrating they will not deploy WMD. The meeting is considering issues such as WMD terrorism, regional proliferation threats (particularly in the Middle East) and NATO’s contributions to non-proliferation and disarmament.
The time for positive ideas on the Zone is NOW!
BASIC's Executive Director, Paul Ingram, reflects on the NPT and where we are on the establishment of the Middle East WMD-free zone:
The NPT PrepCom this week has been overshadowed by the near-universal frustration over the lack of progress on holding a conference on a Middle East zone free of WMD. State after state got up in plenary to express that frustration, many condemning the co-sponsors’ decision in late 2012 to postpone.
Gulf states discuss non-proliferation, Iran, and the NPT
This week, BASIC is in Istanbul hosting our second conference on Nuclear Non-Proliferation in the Gulf. Decision shapers–including officials and experts–from the Gulf region, Iran, the UK, and the US are meeting to discuss the current state of global nuclear diplomacy and collective security in the region, the potential for nuclear proliferation in the Gulf and Middle East, the prospects of the establishment of a nuclear and WMD-free zone in the Middle East
This Week: Obama’s inauguration, just in time for Israeli elections and the opening of the CD
This week marks the formal start of Barack Obama’s second term as President of the United States. On Monday, he will make his public inaugural address in Washington (having been sworn in formally on Sunday, January 20th). The current agenda in the United States is dominated by the fiscal cliff and domestic gun control issues so Obama may have little time initially to kick off on foreign policy issues for a while.