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"Though we have acheived progress, our work is not over. That is why I support the mission of the Arms Control Association. It is, quite simply, the most effective and important organization working in the field today."

– Larry Weiler

Former U.S.-Russian arms control negotiator

August 7, 2018

Arms Control NOW

A New Opening for Nuclear Talks?

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on June 14, 2023

Recent comments from U.S. and Iranian officials suggest that the space for negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program may be opening back up after talks broke down in August, but the two sides denied recent reports that an interim nuclear deal is on the table. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani confirmed a June 9 Axios report that the United States and Iran held indirect talks in Oman in May. Kanaani told reporters that Iran conveyed messages to the United States regarding the lifting of sanctions. He also said Tehran remains focused on restoring the 2015 nuclear deal, known...

An Opening to Deescalate the Iran Nuclear Crisis?

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on June 13, 2023

After months of ratcheting up its nuclear activities while negotiations remain stalled, Iran took a small, limited step toward deescalation in May. Iran’s recent willingness to work with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to increase transparency on its nuclear program could help open diplomatic space for additional steps toward decreasing tensions and rolling back Iran’s nuclear advances. The United States should take advantage of this limited window, given the growing risk posed by Iran’s nuclear program and the lack of progress in restoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action...

Deterrence and risk reduction are two sides of the same coin

Authored by Gabriela Iveliz Rosa Hernández on June 11, 2023

Centrum Balticum publishes a discussion forum, Baltic Rim Economies (BRE), which deals with the development of the Baltic Sea region. In the BRE review, high level public and corporate decision makers, representatives of Academia, as well as several other experts contribute to the discussion. The following contribution from Gabriela Iveliz Rosa Hernández appeared in the February 2023 issue . Russia’s unjustified war on Ukraine has unleashed much suffering, displaced millions, and wrecked any prospects of cooperative security for the foreseeable future. Moscow’s revisionist actions have...

At Hiroshima, Leaders Should Choose to End All Nuclear Threats

Authored by Daryl G. Kimball and Zia Mian on May 17, 2023

At a meeting of the G7 nations this week in Hiroshima, the first city destroyed by the bomb, President Joe Biden and other leaders have a chance to begin addressing the long-standing problem of states threatening to use nuclear weapons. Russia’s nuclear threats of the past year in support of its invasion of Ukraine have flashed for all to see a core purpose of nuclear arsenals: coercion and intimidation. At this historic gathering, Biden and his counterparts need to act on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s proposal that the G7 “demonstrate a firm commitment to absolutely reject the...

White House National Security Advisor to Address ACA In Wake of Hiroshima Summit

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kathy Crandall Robinson, and Tony Fleming on May 11, 2023

Inside the Arms Control Association May 2023 We are honored to have President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan , delivering the keynote address at our Annual Meeting, “ Reducing Nuclear Threats in a Time of Peril, ” on June 2, 2023, at 9:00 am, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. As President Biden wrote in his message to ACA at last year’s ACA annual meeting: “Today—perhaps more than any other time since the Cold War—we must work to reduce the risk of an arms race or nuclear escalation. In this time of intense geopolitical tension, arms control and...

Biden Must Deliver on Disarmament at the G7 Summit in Hiroshima

Authored by Daryl G. Kimball and John Tierney on May 5, 2023

On the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, during the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, Joe Biden pledged to “restore American leadership on arms control and nonproliferation…and work to bring us closer to a world without nuclear weapons.” This month’s summit of the Group of Seven (G7) in Hiroshima, the site of the first atomic attack that killed more than 140,000 men, women, and children in 1945, provides President Biden with a historic and timely opportunity to do so. To support America’s Japanese allies, Biden and the other leaders will need to acknowledge the horrors of...

A US-China War Over Taiwan?

Authored by Michael T. Klare on April 26, 2023

What will happen when China invades Taiwan, as so many in Washington believe is inevitable? To answer that question, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, an entity created at Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s behest in February, conducted a “tabletop exercise” involving a simulated attack of this sort on April 19. No official report on the closed-door exercise has been made public, but participants indicated that the outcome of such an encounter would prove catastrophic for all parties involved. Committee members were confronted “with the potential for death and destruction on...

Preventing Escalation of Russia’s War on Ukraine

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Tony Fleming, and Kathy Crandall Robinson on April 17, 2023

Inside the Arms Control Association April 2023 As Russia’s disastrous war against Ukraine enters its second year, the destruction and bloodshed continue. Despite the enormous human toll of the war, Moscow is still trying to seize more Ukrainian territory and Kyiv is still fighting hard to retake its Russian-occupied lands. As a result, a negotiated and lasting end to the war is not yet in sight. As long as the war continues, there is a serious risk of escalation, including further nuclear threats from the Kremlin. To help prevent a bad situation from becoming even worse, our team here at ACA...

Russia Stops Sharing New START Data

Authored by Shannon Bugos on April 11, 2023

Russia confirmed a month after it suspended the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( New START ) that it has cut off transmitting treaty-required data on Russian strategic nuclear forces to the United States. “All forms of notifications, all data exchange, all inspection activities, in general, all types of work under the treaty are suspended,” stated Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov March 29. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov maintained March 28 that Moscow will continue to adhere to New START’s central limits of no more than 1,550 strategic warheads deployed on 700...

The IAEA Just Bought Some Time for Nuclear Diplomacy With Iran

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on March 28, 2023

Earlier this month, Rafael Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, traveled to Tehran amid growing concern over the proliferation risk posed by Iran’s expanding nuclear activities. In particular, the IAEA had recently detected uranium enriched to 84 percent in an Iranian nuclear site, at a time of heightened tensions due to the breakdown in multilateral talks on reviving the Iran nuclear deal. During Grossi’s trip, Iran agreed to allow the IAEA to reestablish certain transparency measures at select nuclear sites. Iran had suspended IAEA access and...