Digests and Blog

Russian Topol-M ICBM crosses Red Square in Moscow during a Victory Day parade on May 9, 2008. (Image source: AFP/Getty Images) By Daryl G. Kimball Today, the White House announced that President Barack Obama has "reached the conclusion that there is not enough recent progress in our bilateral agenda with Russia to hold a U.S.-Russia Summit in early September." The White House said "we have informed the Russian Government that we believe it would be more constructive to postpone the summit until we have more results from our shared agenda." Despite the decision, the hard work of dealing with…

Signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty, 5 August 1963. Secretary of State Dean Rusk signing for the United States; Foreign Minister Andre Gromyko, signing for the Soviet Union; and Lord Hume signing for the United Kingdom. Photo: CTBTO. Note: The following essay by Daryl G. Kimball and Wade Boese was originally published in the October 2003 issue of Arms Control Today as "Limited Test Ban Treaty Turns 40" Like all first steps, it was long awaited, tentative, and not without risk. Yet, it also held out promise. The Limited Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), the first agreement negotiated to regulate the…

Hasan Rouhani was inaugurated president of Iran onAugust 3. By Kelsey Davenport Hassan Rouhani's inauguration today as president of Iran offers an important new opening for the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) to establish satisfactory controls over Iran's controversial nuclear program. A regime-insider and former nuclear negotiator, Rouhani will likely have influence with Supreme Leader Khamenei that could enable him to cut a deal, if the P5+1 seizes the moment to reinvigorate negotiations. But for diplomacy to have a chance, the United States…

This bulletin highlights significant events in the world of arms control in the coming week, as compiled by staff and friends of the Arms Control Association. (Send your suggestions for events to be covered here.) - Jefferson Morley,Senior Editorial Consultant,Arms Control Today Taking Stock on the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Anniversaries August 6 marks the 68th anniversary of the surprise U.S. nuclear attack on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, which killed an estimated 140,000 people. Three days later, the United States dropped a second bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Three years ago on this date, Arms…

This bulletin highlights significant events in the world of arms control in the coming week, as compiled by staff and friends of the Arms Control Association. (Send your suggestions for events to be covered here.) - Jefferson Morley,Senior Editorial Consultant,Arms Control Today Rouhani inauguration expected to reset nuclear talks Following the August 3 inauguration of President Hassan Rouhani, it is widely expected that the world powers will extend a formal invitation to Iran to resume talks on the country's nuclear program. The IAEA and Iran may also resume their discussions on completing…

By Greg Thielmann As warnings of the Iranian ICBM threat continue to emanate from the halls of Congress and the sound bytes of strategic missile defense advocates, it is worth taking a moment to observe the yawning gap between the rhetoric and the evidence. During an interview last Sunday on CBS's Face the Nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left no doubt that he wished to underscore the threat to the United States posed by Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs): "[The Iranians are] building ICBMs to reach...the American mainland within a few years. They're pursuing…

This bulletin highlights significant events in the world of arms control in the coming week, as compiled by staff and friends of the Arms Control Association. (Send your suggestions for events to be covered here.) - Jefferson Morley,Senior Editorial Consultant,Arms Control Today Biden Meets Indian officials on Nuclear Issues In his July 22-25 visit to New Delhi and Mumbai, the Vice President is expected to press Indian authorities to approve changes to their nuclear liability laws that would enable U.S. nuclear vendors to operate in India. Five years ago the U.S. pushed the Nuclear…

By Greg Thielmann The 2013 Arms Control Compliance Report issued by the State Department on July 12 showed little change in the assessments of U.S.-Russian arms control treaty compliance provided by last year's report. Covering the period ending on December 31, 2012, the report provided no obvious basis for the conclusion rendered in a recent amendment adopted by the House Armed Services Committee that Russia was "in active noncompliance with existing nuclear arms obligations." The vague public charge made by the House Committee appears to be a reference to more specific allegations in a June…

By Kelsey Davenport Delegates gather at the IAEA on July 1 for the opening of the International Conference on Nuclear Security.   Last week, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held its first ministerial-level meeting on nuclear security, the International Conference on Nuclear Security: Enhancing Global Efforts. The purpose of the high-level conference was to strengthen and bring greater global attention to nuclear security and inform the agency's nuclear security plan for 2014-2017. However, after producing a ministerial declaration with lowest common denominator language, "…

Missile interceptor test lights up the night sky By Tom Z. Collina In its own multi-million dollar display of fireworks, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) will conduct an intercept test of the Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) system on Friday, July 5. This will be the first test of the system's ability to hit a mock target since two failures in 2010. The last successful intercept was in 2008. However, this is not the key test that will determine if the Pentagon can go ahead with its $1 billion-plan to field 14 additional GBIs in Alaska by 2017, as announced by Defense Secretary Hagel in…