The British American Security Information Council (BASIC), Bertelsmann Stiftung, International Security Information Service (ISIS), Europe and NATO Watch are organizing the NATO Shadow Summitt II in Brussels on 15-16 November 2010.
The Shadow NATO Summit II
Civil Society Perspectives on the Lisbon Summit and NATO’s New Strategic Concept
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee agreed by a 14-4 vote to send the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) to the full Senate for advice and consent to ratification.
The treaty requires support from two-thirds of the full Senate. It is uncertain whether this process will be completed by the end of the year. If the treaty is approved by both Russia and the United States, it will limit their arsenals to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear warheads on each side.
For more information on the New START agreement and the U.S. Senate, see:
This Washington Post article by Mary Beth Sheridan recounts how the United States has lost the ability to peek into the Russian nuclear arsenal because the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), along with its accompanying verification measures, expired without a replacement in force.
Read the full article:
“In the last few weeks, watching the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on New START unfold, I have sometimes felt like shouting out 'Senators, get a world view,' because in the minutiae of 18 public hearings, the bigger picture has been lost.”
Excerpt from article by BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh, written for The Hill's Congress Blog.
Read the full article:
This BASIC Backgrounder covers the essential developments in the Senate ratification hearings for the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and Russia on reductions to their deployed long-range nuclear weapons arsenal.
May has been an intense and hectic month for BASIC and for nuclear diplomacy. The month-long global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference (NPT RevCon) in New York draws to a close today.
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.
“I think the Americans have got an uphill struggle based on the speeches here today.”
BASIC Program Director Anne Penketh quoted in The Guardian, on the opening-day of the NPT Review Conference.
Read more:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/03/iran-ahmadinejad-us-nuclear-threats