Blogs | Arms Control Association

Login/Logout

"ACA's journal, Arms Control Today, remains the best in the market. Well focused. Solidly researched. Prudent."

– Hans Blix

Former IAEA Director-General

Arms Control NOW

U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Watch, June 20, 2019

Authored by Daryl Kimball, Kingston Reif, and Shervin Taheran on June 19, 2019

Senior Russian, U.S. Diplomats Meet in Prague to Discuss Arms Control In the midst of a crumbling U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control architecture, the top arms control diplomats for each country met June 12 in Prague in an apparent effort to resume a stalled strategic stability dialogue . But it remains to be seen whether or when the dialogue will resume. According to the State Department , Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Andrea Thompson and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov met to “build on the discussions” held by Secretary of State Mike...

U.S. Accuses Iran Prematurely of Violating Nuclear Deal | P4+1 and Iran Nuclear Deal Alert

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on June 14, 2019

U.S. Accuses Iran Prematurely of Violating Nuclear Deal Tensions over the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran continue to rise after the Trump administration accused Tehran of violating one of its commitments under the agreement, but Iran’s decision to install additional advanced centrifuges appears to fall into a gray area not covered by the accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Despite the lack of clarity, the United States urged Iran to return to compliance even though U.S. President Donald Trump violated the deal by reimposing sanctions in May 2018 and...

Despite Threat to Breach Limits, Iran Remains Below the Nuclear Deal’s Caps

Authored by Kelsey Davenport on June 5, 2019

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) most recent report on Iran’s implementation of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal indicates that Tehran continues to adhere to the accord’s limits—a positive development after President Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran would reduce compliance with the agreement. Specifically, the Supreme National Security Council stated May 8 that Iran would no longer be bound by the stockpile limits on heavy water and low-enriched uranium (LEU) put in place by the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) . According to the May 31...

New START Must Be Extended, With or Without China

Authored by Daryl G. Kimball on May 27, 2019

This op-ed originally appeared in The National Interest , May 27, 2019. The baffling non-answers from the senior administration officials strongly suggest that the president’s impulse for a grand U.S.-Chinese-Russian arms control bargain is not backed up with a realistic plan. On May 14, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled to Sochi, Russia to discuss what the State Department called a “new era” in “arms control to address new and emerging threats” with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin. The trip follows reports that Donald Trump has directed his...

Let’s not spend $1.7 trillion on our nukes, a group of N.J. professors say. Let’s get rid of them, and the threat of a catastrophic war.

Authored by Zia Mian, Alan Robock, and Sharon Weiner on May 26, 2019

This op-ed originally appeared in New Jersey Star-Ledger , May 26, 2019. On May 23rd, the New Jersey General Assembly approved Resolution 230 , urging the federal government to pursue a broad range of measures to reduce the danger of nuclear war and to join the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. California and some American cities have already adopted similar resolutions to call for action in Washington on nuclear weapons. Here’s why. It has been understood since the U.S. destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II that the explosion of a single...

U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Watch, May 2019

Authored by Kingston Reif and Shervin Taheran on May 24, 2019

U.S.-Russian Arms Control Talks to Begin Amid Uncertainty Following a May 14 meeting in Sochi, Russia with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the two countries “agreed that … we will gather together teams that will begin to work not only on [the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] New START and its potential extension but on a broader range of arms control issues that each of our two nations have.” But it remains unclear when such talks will begin, who will lead the U.S. negotiating team, what the Trump...

Door to Diplomacy Remains Open Despite Missile Tests | North Korea Denuclearization Digest, May 2019

Authored by Alicia Sanders-Zakre and Kelsey Davenport on May 21, 2019

Door to Diplomacy Remains Open Despite Missile Tests The next steps for U.S. diplomacy with North Korea remain unclear after Pyongyang tested several short-range ballistic missiles in early May. Despite the missile tests, South Korea and the United States urged a resumption of dialogue. North Korea, however, has said little about returning to talks since Chairman Kim Jong Un declared in April that he would give the Trump administration until the end of the year to change its approach to negotiations or face a "bleak and very dangerous" situation. North Korea tested a salvo of rockets May 4 (...

Reporting on the 2019 NPT PrepCom

Authored by Alicia Sanders-Zakre on May 10, 2019

NPT Looks Ahead to 2020 Review Conference Without Consensus Recommendations May 10, 2019 NPT states-parties failed to adopt a common set of recommendations for the 2020 Review Conference on the final day of the two week-long 2019 PrepCom on Friday, May 10. Nevertheless, most states expressed optimism in concluding statements about prospects for next year’s review conference and underlined the importance of action in the intervening 12 months on key NPT-related commitments. The recommendations drafted by the chair, Syed Hussin of Malaysia, failed to garner consensus especially after a round of...

Iran Announces Countermoves on Nuclear Deal | P4+1 and Iran Nuclear Deal Alert

Authored by Kelsey Davenport and Daryl G. Kimball on May 10, 2019

Iran Announces Countermoves on Nuclear Deal Tehran announced it will no longer be bound by certain limits set by the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. Iran’s leaders also threatened to restart other nuclear activities restricted by the agreement in the future if the Europeans, China, and Russia do not deliver on sanctions relief (see below for details). The announcement was a delayed if not predictable response to the Trump administration’s systematic attempt over the past year to deny Iran any benefits under the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Iran’s...

Leaving the Arms Trade Treaty would be another shot in America’s foot

Authored by Thomas Countryman, Rachel Stohl on May 10, 2019

This op-ed originally appeared in Defense News , May 10, 2019. President Donald Trump‘s announcement in late April that the U.S. will withdraw its signature from the Arms Trade Treaty is the latest move by an administration innately hostile to nearly every form of international cooperation . In a move that was intentionally deceptive and rife with political theater — with the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association as a symbolic backdrop — the president’s decision damages both America’s security and its credibility. It took more than five years of negotiations to develop the ATT and...