Digests and Blog

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen speaks at ACA's event at the National Press Club on April 11, 2013 By Tom Z. Collina Four years after the historic speech in Prague laying out his nuclear policy priorities, President Barack Obama must now decide which issues to focus on in his second—and last—term. The administration accomplished many important arms control and nonproliferation milestones since April 2009, such as the New START treaty, the Nuclear Posture Review, the Nuclear Security Summits, and the 2010 NPT review conference consensus, but much is left to be done, as this ACA fact sheet underscores. To…

By Greg Thielmann North Korea parades a KN-08 in April 2012. Experts believe it is a mock-up. Enduring the continuous barrage of nuclear missile threats coming out of North Korea in recent days is not for the faint-hearted. But seeking to separate the real from the rhetorical is an essential task for policy-makers, pundits, and the public. What is clear is that North Korea is not likely to have nuclear-tipped missile capable of threatening the U.S. mainland for quite some time. However, North Korea can launch on short notice a devastating artillery attack on the ten million inhabitants of…

By Daryl G. Kimball and Tom Z. Collina The Barack Obama administration's fiscal year 2014 budget request proposes spending $7.87 billion for National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Weapons Activities, which would be an increase of $654 million, or nine percent above the 2012 enacted level, and $300 million more than the Continuing Resolution for fiscal year 2013. The cost of the NNSA's ambitious B61 bomb life extension program may exceed $10 billion. Cost-effective alternatives are available. And as John Fleck of the Albuquerque Journal notes in a report he posted Wednesday, "The…

Support for the CTBT is growing across the political spectrum. Senior statesmen, including former Secretaries of State George Shultz and Henry Kissinger, former Secretaries of Defense William Perry, Harold Brown, and William Cohen, as well as President George H. W. Bush's National Security Advisor Gen. Brent Scowcroft have called on the Senate to reconsider and approve the CTBT An overwhelming majority of Americans also support a global, verifiable treaty banning all nuclear weapons test explosions. A 2004 public opinion poll found that 87 percent of respondents support U.S. ratification of…

(Image Source: Missile Defense Agency - FTM-16 E2a Flight Test) By Tom Z. Collina, Daryl G. Kimball, and Greg Thielmann Today, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced adjustments to U.S. missile defense plans designed to counter a potential limited attack involving a small number of unsophisticated long-range ballistic missiles that could, at some point in the future, be developed by states such as North Korea and Iran. The Obama administration's decision to cancel the fourth phase of its missile defense plans in Europe is a prudent move given that the technology involving the Standard…

By Greg Thielmann Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testifies at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on March 12, 2013. The "Worldwide Threat Assessment," which Director of National Intelligence James Clapper presented to the Senate Intelligence Committee on March 12, contains some closely-watched language on evolving weapons of mass destruction (WMD) proliferation threats. Although this year's edition borrowed liberally from the language used last year, there were also some interesting changes. Iran As before, the report stresses that Iran has the capacity to eventually…

George Shultz walking with President Reagan outside the White House in December 1986.   By Daryl G. Kimball At a March 8 public forum, former Secretary of State George Shultz underscored once again his support for U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Shultz's remarks came in response to a question following his talk at an event organized by the Partnership for a Secure America on Capitol Hill. Shultz was asked for his "personal view on whether the U.S. should ratify the test ban treaty as a way to enhance U.S. security?" Shultz, who served as President…

The United Nations Security Council passed a unanimous resolution imposing a new round of sanctions on North Korea following the country's February 12 nuclear test explosion. These sanctions are particularly noteworthy because they were drafted by the United States in concert with China, Pyongyang's closest ally and supporter. This is the fourth set of UN sanctions imposed on North Korea since the country's first nuclear test in 2006. The resolution imposes new financial sanctions, which require states to block financial transactions that could contribute to North Korea's weapons programs…

At a March 8 event sponsored by the Partnership for a Secure America, President Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz underscored once again his support for U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Shultz’s remarks came in response to a question following his talk at an event organized on Friday, March 8 by the Partnership for a Secure America on Capitol Hill. Shultz was asked for his “personal view on whether the U.S. should ratify the test ban treaty as a way to enhance U.S. security?” Shultz, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of State…

The CTBTO has seen a marked increase in its ability to locate and analyze nuclear test explosions since North Korea's first nuclear test in 2006. This is largely a result of an increase in the number of completed monitoring stations in the CTBTO's International Monitoring System (IMS), combined with increasingly larger nuclear explosions by North Korea. The IMS uses a combination of seismic, hydroacoustic, infrasound, and radionuclide stations to detect nuclear test explosions. In October 2006, the IMS was approximately 60% complete, with 99 seismic stations in operation. The organization…