Digests and Blog

... Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Umarov, National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Administrator Tom D'Agostino, and their international partners "for securing material containing 10 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and three metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium, which is enough to make about 775 nuclear weapons. The operation is the largest of its kind and is an example of the international cooperation envisaged by the leaders attending the April 2010 Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C." The winners received the highest number votes in ACA's online poll…

On December 22, by a margin of 71-26, a bipartisan coalition of senators recognized that U.S. and international security is stronger when the United States takes the lead to reduce the size of world's two largest nuclear arsenals and to limit the ability of other states to improve their nuclear capabilities. The New START vote suggests it is possible for the Obama administration encourage the Senate to reconsider and come together around the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). The strong vote for New START is remarkable in this time of hyper-partisanship. As Senator John Kerry noted…

By Daryl G. Kimball Over the past 24 hours, a number of Republican Senators have added their voice in support for ratification of New START, reinforcing that it is a common sense, mainstream step forward that transcends the traditional partisan political divide. Minutes ago, the Senate voted 67-28 to bring debate on the treaty to a close, which should lead to a vote on final passage by tomorrow or sooner. Unfortunately, over the past several days, the few Senators speaking on the floor against the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty have chosen to go against the bipartisan mainstream and…

By Greg Thielmann, Senior Fellow, Arms Control Association The U.S. Senate will meet today in the historic Old Senate Chamber for a classified session on the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. While we do not know exactly what will be discussed or what will be said, open testimony and statements from senior U.S. military leaders and intelligence officials suggest that the following points—all of which argue for prompt ratification—will be discussed and reviewed. Verification and Monitoring -- The classified session will likely make clear why senior U.S. defense and intelligence officials…

by Daryl G. Kimball Against the advice of the U.S. military and intelligence community who unanimously support prompt ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, several Republican Senators have filed several misguided, treaty-killer amendments to the treaty itself, as well as some ill-conceived amendments to the resolution of advice and consent for ratification that should all be rejected. The commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, the command that oversees the Air Force's nuclear enterprise, says the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia should be ratified…

By Daryl G. Kimball In their zeal to push a treaty-killing amendment offered by Sen. John McCain to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, several Republican Senators are twisting facts, ignoring history, and defying the advice of the U.S. military. Sens. John McCain (R.-Ariz.) and John Barrasso (R.-Idaho) have filed an amendment that would strike the language in the preamble to the treaty "Recognizing the existence of the interrelationship between strategic offensive arms and strategic defensive arms, that this interrelationship will become more important as strategic nuclear arms are…

By Tom Z. Collina and Daryl G. Kimball On Thursday, Dec. 16, Minority Whip Jon Kyl made 14 points on the Senate floor against ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START). None of Sen. Kyl's concerns are new; all have been previously addressed by the administration and the Foreign Relations Committee's Sept. 16 bipartisan resolution of advice and consent. Sen. Kyl's 14 points and ACA's rebuttals are below. 1. "I think one thing you have to talk about, first of all, is whether we are going to have sufficient time in order to do what needs to be done to both amend…

by Daryl G. Kimball Earlier today, Senator Kyl (R-Ariz.) erroneously claimed on the floor of the Senate that New START's verification system is weaker than the system of the 1991 START treaty. Such superficial comparisons miss the point and twist the facts. The 1991 START was negotiated in a different time and established different limits on strategic nuclear weapons, and its verification system was different from the more modern New START. Once upon a time, Kyl couldn't care less about effective verification of deployed warhead limits. During the 2003 Senate floor debate on George W. Bush's…

As three days of voting near their conclusion, exit polls indicate that two nominees are currently leading the field in the hotly contest Arms Control Person(s) of the Year competition. Last year's winner, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind), nominated this year for: ... his courageous and unflinching leadership for prompt Senate approval of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty despite months of partisan division in the Senate on the treaty. More info here and here. And NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino, Kazakhstan's Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Umarov, and their international…

By Farrah Zughni As the Senate commences floor debate on New START this week, the features in the December edition of Arms Control Today invite readers to look ahead to even broader efforts in reducing nuclear arsenals globally. In "Britain Leads the Way to Global Zero," Harold Smith and Raymond Jeanloz argue that the United Kingdom's nuclear arsenal reductions offer a blueprint for the United States and Russia as they move to further reduce their own stockpiles. According to Smith and Jeanloz, the British approach makes an implicit statement about the kind of deterrence that nuclear…