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"No one can solve this problem alone, but together we can change things for the better."

– Setsuko Thurlow

Hiroshima Survivor

June 6, 2016

Arms Control NOW

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...

Iran Nuclear Deal Talks Stall Again

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on September 28, 2022

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he does not have “anything more to propose” to break the impasse between the United States and Iran over an agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Momentum toward a deal to restore the JCPOA flagged in late August after Iran demanded additional changes to draft accord. Borrell said Sept. 14 that the two sides had been converging toward a deal, but that the “last proposals from the Iranians were not helping.” He expects the stalemate to persist given the “political situation” in the United...

50 Years of Bilateral Nuclear Arms Control and Much More to Be Done

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kathy Crandall Robinson, and Heather Foye on September 20, 2022

Inside the Arms Control Association September 2022 Five decades ago, the first bilateral nuclear arms control agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union were concluded: the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the Interim Agreement on Strategic Arms Limitations (SALT), the latter being approved by a joint Congressional resolution and signed by President Richard Nixon in September 1972. “This is not an agreement which guarantees that there will be no war,” Nixon said. “But it is the beginning of a process that is enormously important, that will limit now and, we hope, later...

U.S., Russia Agree to Call for Negotiating New START Successor

Authored by Shannon Bugos and Heather Foye on September 8, 2022

The United States and Russia committed to a statement expressing the need for the world’s two largest nuclear-weapon states to negotiate a follow-on arms control arrangement to the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( New START ), which expires in under four years. This commitment came during the monthlong 10 th review conference for the 1968 nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty ( NPT ) held in August, at which U.S. President Joe Biden stated that his administration stands prepared to begin such arms control talks. “The Russian Federation and the United States commit to the full...

UN Member State Reactions at the Close of the 2022 NPT Review Conference

Authored by Heather Foye on September 6, 2022

The 10th Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) ended without consensus Aug. 26, 2022, after four weeks of contentious negotiations. Conference President Gustavo Zlauvinen of Argentina presented a consolidated 35-page draft final outcome document for adoption by consensus Aug. 25. But Russia decided to block consensus due to wording in paras 34 and 187.50 regarding nuclear safety matters at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which Russia has occupied since March 2022. Many other states expressed disappointment about the lack...

Updates from the 10th NPT Review Conference

Authored by Gabriela Rosa on August 26, 2022

State Parties Fail to Achieve Consensus at The NPT Review Conference August 26, 2022 After four weeks of negotiations, State-Parties failed to achieve consensus at the NPT Review Conference (RevCon). On Thursday night, President Designate Gustavo Zlauvinen released a final version of the conference document. During the last plenary session, Russia objected to the final document over paragraph 34. In its statement regarding the final outcome document, Russia claimed that many delegations had objections to the text and accused other states of politicizing the RevCon. “If there is a wish to find...

Iran Responds to EU Final Text

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on August 18, 2022

After the last round of indirect negotiations between the United States and Iran, EU High Representative Josep Borrell circulated a draft agreement to restore the 2015 nuclear deal that he referred to as “final.” In an Aug. 8 tweet , he said “what can be negotiated has been negotiated,” and that it is time for political decisions to be made in the capitals. If the “answers are positive, then we can sign this deal,” he said. Borrell’s decision to end the talks and table a final text appeared to take Iran by surprise. While Tehran rejected the description of the draft as “final,” the Iranian...

An Opening for Renewed Disarmament Diplomacy

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kathy Crandall Robinson, Michelle Liu, and Tony Fleming on August 13, 2022

Inside the Arms Control Association August 2022 Russia's ongoing, large-scale war on Ukraine has not only increased human suffering and reminded the world of the risks of nuclear weapons, nuclear threats, and nuclear deterrence, but it has also derailed talks that could lead to new arrangements to maintain verifiable caps, or perhaps reduce, the world’s largest nuclear arsenals–until, perhaps, now. Building on his letter to the Arms Control Association on June 2, U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement Aug. 1 at the start of the 10th NPT Review Conference in which he declared: "Even at...