Experts shared their views on what the next U.S. administration should do to manage the urgent threat from nuclear weapons and how it could take advantage of transatlantic relationships. The event was co-sponsored by BASIC and Women in International Security, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.
Please see the attached document (PDF) for a summary.
Whilst spending on public services is to be tightened in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), public money is being wasted on new carriers and Trident submarines irrelevant to the security threats facing Britain.
One of my second or third reactions to the news last Friday was shock over the impact on our agenda that depends so heavily upon establishing a positive relationship between the US and Russia. I have been avoiding being pessimistic in public because that doesn't help anyone, but it really doesn't look good. From my perspective, though, while the Russian response on Friday was undoubtedly disproportionate, it would be wrong to characterize this as Russia displaying a disinterest in negotiations with the United States and instead challenging democracy head-on.
Republican presidential candidate John McCain earlier today gave a landmark speech on the responsibility to engage more seriously in disarmament. Given the two Democrat frontrunners have already explicitly leant their weight to the vision, this is the clearest indication yet that nuclear disarmament has now achieved the mainstream – and it is now out of touch to oppose it.
George Shultz and Sam Nunn are addressing the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG, clerked by BASIC) in London on Thursday after the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament that is underway now in Oslo, Norway.
From the International Conference on Nuclear Disarmament website:
The Government of Norway, in cooperation with the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Hoover Institution, is convening an international conference on Achieving the Vision of a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, in Oslo 26-27 February 2008.
The New Year marked a dramatic turn-around in the mood music towards Iran in Washington, and attention focused almost entirely upon Pa
The eight-year Iran–Iraq war and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait were often reported as the reason Iran considered nuclear weapons. With Iraq neutralized, Iran may have felt secure enough to cease weapons-related work.
China's successful ASAT weapons test makes it more difficult for the US to ignore its potential as a competitor in space and makes essential the revitalization of Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space (PAROS) negotiations.