Issue Briefs

Volume 1, Number 29

The initial 30-day clock for Congress to review the $60 billion U.S.-Saudi arms deal expires next week. Although some members of Congress have promised to fight it, lawmakers will have little time to muster a joint resolution of disapproval required to stop it at this stage, should they want to do so. Nonetheless, the unprecedented size of this deal warrants Congressional hearings and greater oversight.

Volume 1, Number 27

Misinformed sources, such as Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), are claiming that the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) is somehow in trouble as a result of a recent missile communications incident in Wyoming.  These claims are simply false, and the Senate should not let this incident get in the way of ratifying New START when it returns to Washington after the elections.

Volume 1, Number 26

In the October issue of Air Force Magazine, chief editor Adam J. Hebert effectively addresses many of the misguided criticisms of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) and calls for prompt Senate approval of the treaty.  The editorial is but the latest example of the overwhelming support for New START from uniformed and retired military officers including seven former commanders of Strategic Air Command and U.S. Strategic Command. It's also the latest in a long list of editorials from across the nation that have been written in support of the treaty.

Volume 1, Number 25

Friday, Oct. 1, will be the 300th day since the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) expired, ending direct, on-site inspections of thousands of nuclear weapons in Russia for the first time since the Cold War.

Volume 1, Number 24

In the run-up to the Nov. 19-20 NATO Summit in Lisbon, today a group of over 30 senior European leaders, including former Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Defense Ministers from Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Slovac Republic, and the United Kingdom, released a joint statement declaring that "NATO should make disarmament a core element of its approach to providing security."

Volume 1, Number 23

Over the past few months, newspapers across the United States have published editorials and op-eds in support of U.S. Senate ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, New START. On Sept. 16, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 14-4 to send the treaty to the full Senate. This issue brief catalogues the wide and growing support for New START from all regions of the country.

Volume 1, Number 22

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to vote on New START Sept. 16. Over the last few weeks, newspapers across the country have published editorials and op-eds in support of U.S. Senate ratification of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, New START. This issue brief highlights the broad editorial support for New START from all regions of the United States.

Volume 1, Number 21

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), signed in April by the United States and Russia, is scheduled for a Thursday vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Over the last five months, the Senate has held 21 hearings and briefings and built a formidable, bipartisan case for New START. This Issue Brief highlights the reasons why New START deserves prompt Senate approval and briefly addresses several of the questions raised by treaty skeptics.

Volume 1, Number 20

For the first time in more than 20 years, the United States cannot "look under the hood" and conduct direct, on-site inspections of thousands of nuclear weapons in Russia.  This unprecedented strategic blackout began when the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, START I, expired last December--278 days ago.

Volume 1, Number 19

In response to new expressions of urgency by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on the need for ratifying the New START agreement, Paula DeSutter, George W. Bush's assistant secretary of state for verification and compliance, tries to attack the adequacy of that treaty’s verification provisions.  DeSutter's latest jabs not only miss the mark, but achieve new heights of chutzpah given her role in the Bush administration's failure to utilize earlier opportunities to maintain and update the U.S.-Russian strategic nuclear weapons verification regime.