Paul Ingram's piece on NATO's contradictions on nuclear deployments and delayed decisions on nuclear weapons was featured on the website of The Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Ingram highlights that NATO members are divided on how they view relations with Russia and “the Alliance is failing to recognize that the Cold War is over, and so it lives with a cancerous contradiction”.
Nuclear security
U.S. Tactical nuclear weapons in Europe: “Politically, a bad idea”
Ted Seay, BASIC policy consultant, was interviewed on tactical nuclear weapons and NATO defence policies by the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung after the Shadow NATO Summit III in Washington, D.C.
NATO’s Twin Crises
John Feffer, a panelist at the Shadow NATO Summit III in Washington earlier this month, wrote an article for IPS about the “existential and fiscal crisis” facing NATO. Feffer takes quotes and discussion points from panelists at the Shadow Summit, including Juliane Smith, deputy national security advisor to Vice President Joseph Biden.
Amb. Francois Rivasseau at the Shadow NATO Summit
Ambassador Francois Rivasseau, member of the UN Secretary-General's disarmament advisory board, discusses US tactical nuclear weapons in Europe and NATO's nuclear weapon sharing arrangements at the Shadow NATO Summit hosted by BASIC, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Elliott School of International Affairs, NATO Watch, and Strategy International in Washington, DC on May 14 and 15, 2012.
Shaping a better, more open NATO
NATO Watch director and former BASIC executive director, Ian Davis, wrote this timely piece for The Hill's Congress Blog about build up to the NATO Summit in Chicago on May 20-21, 2012 and the elements that should be discussed amongst policymakers.
Nuclear weapons budget battles
Knives are out in the initial skirmishes over the fiscal 2013 funding for the nuclear weapons complex in the U.S., as a key appropriations committee meets this week.
Norway’s Approach to NATO’s Deterrence and Defence Posture Review
NATO is currently debating its nuclear posture as part of the Deterrence and Defence Posture Review, for discussion at the May 2012 Chicago summit. This could have an important bearing on the future direction for NATO – an Alliance bent on maintaining superior and comprehensive capabilities, or one that plays a proactive role in multilateral disarmament.
The Partnership
Book review of “The Partnership: Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb” by Philip Taubman. At the height of the Cold War, eliminating nuclear weapons was seen as the province of dreadlocked hippies, peaceniks, and other “flower children” of the 1960s. It was a perspective that perversely marginalized the arms control agenda, just when it was needed the most.