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Arms Control NOW

Iran Agrees to Additional Transparency

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on March 15, 2023

Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency agreed March 4 to increase monitoring of the country’s nuclear program. While any additional transparency is a positive step, it is difficult to determine how beneficial the new measures will be as the details of the agreement remain to be negotiated. According to the statement released by the IAEA and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), Tehran committed to allow the agency to “implement further appropriate verification and monitoring activities” on a “voluntary basis.” The agreement was reached during IAEA Director General Rafael...

Nuclear Arms Control at High Risk

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Tony Fleming, and Kathy Crandall Robinson on March 9, 2023

Inside the Arms Control Association March 2023 In a rambling Feb. 21 speech attempting to justify Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced his decision to “suspend” implementation of New START, the last remaining treaty limiting the world's two largest nuclear arsenals. While this does not mark the end of the treaty, Putin’s announcement makes it far more likely that, after New START expires Feb. 5, 2026, there will be no agreement limiting U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear arsenals for the first time since 1972. Despite Russia’s failure to comply with...

U.S. Cites Russian Noncompliance with New START Inspections

Authored by Shannon Bugos on February 9, 2023

Russia has failed to fully comply with the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( New START ) because of its refusal to allow on-site inspections and to reschedule a meeting to discuss treaty concerns, according to a U.S. assessment released in January. Senior Russian officials have accused the United States of “politicizing nuclear arms control,” saying that Washington “would have to adjust its policy towards Russia to move to a constructive arms control agenda.” In August, Moscow prohibited U.S. on-site inspections of its nuclear weapons-related facilities subject to the treaty over...

No End in Sight for Iran Talks Stalemate

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on February 2, 2023

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran as “completely stalled” but argued that the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is not dead. In a Jan. 30 article, the Financial Times quoted Borrell as saying that “if the Iranian regime is so bad… we have to try to avoid this kind of regime from having a nuclear bomb” and that “making the JCPOA work” is the only way to do that. Borrell's comments came during the EU debate over whether to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group. He...

A Pivotal Year Lies Ahead

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kathy Crandall Robinson, and Tony Fleming on January 26, 2023

Inside the Arms Control Association January 2023 Since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine last February, our work to reduce and eliminate the dangers posed by nuclear weapons has become even more challenging. It is no wonder that our partners at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved their “Doomsday Clock” 10 seconds closer to midnight. Despite support from President Biden, U.S.-Russian nuclear risk reduction and arms control talks remain on hold. The last remaining bilateral nuclear arms control agreement, New START, will expire in just 1,106 days. Unless Washington and Moscow begin...

Moving the World Back from the Nuclear Brink

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kathy Crandall Robinson, and Tony Fleming on December 15, 2022

This past year, we have been reminded that the nuclear weapons threat still hangs over all of us. Nuclear competition is accelerating. The risk of military confrontation between the nuclear-armed states is rising. Nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament diplomacy is currently stalled. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats in the context of Russia’s illegal and brutal war on Ukraine underscore the growing dangers of nuclear war, the risks of nuclear deterrence-based strategies, and the unfinished business that lies ahead. Our collective actions today, as citizens, organizations,...

IAEA Board Censures Iran Again

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on November 21, 2022

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)’s Board of Governors passed its second resolution this year censuring Iran for failing to cooperate with the agency’s investigation into past nuclear activities that should have been declared under Tehran’s safeguards agreement. The censure was expected, particularly after a Nov. 10 IAEA report said that there has been “no progress” in resolving the outstanding issues despite IAEA and Iranian officials meeting in September and November. In a Nov. 17 statement introducing the resolution on behalf of France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the...

U.S., Russia Discuss Threats of Nuclear Use

Authored by Shannon Bugos on November 17, 2022

The U.S. intelligence community assessed in October that some senior Russian officials, not including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have discussed the potential use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, though Russia denies the assessment. The U.S. National Intelligence Council circulated the assessment within the Biden administration in mid-October, according to multiple senior U.S. officials who spoke with The New York Times . CNN also described the division among U.S. officials over the implications of the analysis, with some believing the Russian discussions might signal genuine...

The Prospect of Nuclear Armageddon

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kathy Crandall Robinson, and Heather Foye on November 10, 2022

Inside the Arms Control Association November 2022 On September 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued another round of thinly veiled nuclear threats in the context of his ongoing military assault on the people of Ukraine. On October 6, President Biden called the “prospect of Armageddon'' the highest since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The President is justifiably alarmed and people in the United States and around the globe are far more aware and concerned about the risk of nuclear war. In response, our Arms Control Association team has been working overtime. In the face of global...

EXCERPT: The Art of the Possible: Minimizing Risks as a New European Order Takes Shape

Authored by Gabriela Rosa and Olga Oliker on November 9, 2022

The following is an excerpt from the FPRI report, " The Art of the Possible: Minimizing Risks as a New European Order Takes Shape ," co-authored by ACA research associate Gabriela Iveliz Rosa-Hernandez . N ote: Research for this analysis was completed on October 13, 2022. The text does not reflect events since that date. INTRODUCTION Europe, a seeming bastion of stability since the end of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, has once again grown dangerous. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, which had followed eight years of lower-grade conflict, has brought the heaviest...