"I find hope in the work of long-established groups such as the Arms Control Association...[and] I find hope in younger anti-nuclear activists and the movement around the world to formally ban the bomb."
Digests and Blog
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) recently released an update (dated January 6, 2010, as there is often a delay between the update and release) of its "Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty: Background and Current Developments" report. Have a look here.
Remarks of Vice President Biden National Defense University Washington, DCFebruary 18, 2010 The Path to Nuclear Security: Implementing the President’s Prague Agenda Ladies and gentlemen; Secretaries Gates and Chu; General Cartwright; Undersecretary Tauscher; Administrator D’Agostino; members of our armed services; students and faculty; thank you all for coming. Many statesmen have walked these grounds, including our Administration’s outstanding National Security Advisor, General Jim Jones. You taught him well. George Kennan, the scholar and diplomat, lectured at the National War College…
Today, Vice President Joe Biden delivered a major policy speech in Washington on the Obama administration's strategy for stopping the spread of nuclear weapons, including the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. In his remarks, Biden said that the questions raised when the CTBT was last considered by the Senate a decade ago have been successfully addressed, and he reiterated the administration's commitment to win Senate approval for U.S. ratification of the treaty. "The test ban treaty is as important as ever," Biden told a full audience at Fort McNair's National Defense University, including…
(February 16, 2010, Washington, D.C.) Today, the nonpartisan research and policy advocacy organization Arms Control Association (ACA) released a new report detailing the case for U.S. ratification of the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The report, "Now More Than Ever: The Case for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty," is available for download here. "Our new report underscores the fact that there is no technical or military reason to resume U.S. nuclear weapons testing and advances in test ban monitoring make the treaty effectively verifiable," said Daryl G.…
Responding to the Jan. 20 WSJ op-ed, "How to Protect Our Nuclear Deterrent," by statesmen Shultz, Perry, Kissinger and Nunn, Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) claimed in a January 24th letter to the editor that the op-ed endorses "the recommendations of Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the experts on the bipartisan Perry-Schlesinger Commission, who have urged significant and immediate funding to develop a modern warhead ..." In reality, neither the Shultz, Perry et al op-ed nor the Perry-Schlesinger Commission endorse what Kyl calls a "modern warhead," which is a euphemism for a newly-designed…
On February 1, the Obama administration proposed a 10 percent increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration's stockpile management programs. If approved, funding for the weapons complex including stockpile surveillance and warhead life extension programs would rise to just over $7 billion. The proposal would ensure funds for the agency to reach full production of the refurbished Navy W-76 Trident submarine warhead, to refurbish the B-61 bomb, and to study options for maintaining the W-78, the warhead in the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. The request would also…
In today's Deseret News, former Senator from Utah Jake Garn cites the changing nature of 21st century security threats and a growing bipartisan consensus in his call for U.S. ratification of the CTBT. He points out that many political and technical realities have changed since the Senate declined to approve the treaty in 1999, including significantly enhanced treaty verification and advances in stockpile stewardship programs that help to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He writes, "Today, we stand to gain more than any other nation from a global, verifiable ban on all nuclear weapons…
In today's edition of The Wall Street Journal, Vice-president Biden pens an op-ed entitled, "The President's Nuclear Vision," stating that the administration's fiscal year 2011 budget request to Congress will propose a $600 million increase in the National Nuclear Security Administration's nonproliferation and stockpile management programs budget (about 10% above current levels) and will seek an increase of approximately $5 billion over the next 5 years. He writes in part: "Our budget request is just one of several closely related and equally important initiatives giving life to the…
Native Iowan and Arms Control Association Senior Fellow Greg Thielmann outlines the nonproliferation and security benefits of U.S. ratification of the CTBT in a January 22, 2010 op-ed in The Des Moines Register. In order to contain Iran's nuclear program, the United States must pursue an effective "full court press" involving robust diplomacy, targeted international sanctions, and U.S. reconsideration and ratification of the CTBT, Thielmann argues. U.S. ratification will spur other Annex 2 countries to ratify, and increase international pressure on Iran, he writes. "The United States no…
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