Digests and Blog

The Associated Press reported on Dec. 27, 2012 that satellite photos indicate North Korea has repaired flood damage at its nuclear test facility and is now capable of conducting a nuclear test explosion at the site. According to 38 North, a program of the U.S.-Korea Institute at SAIS, North Korea is capable of conducting a nuclear test at the site "in as little as two weeks" from the point a decision to proceed is made. North Korea conducted a satellite launch on Dec. 12, 2012, which many believe was meant to gather data to construct an intercontinental ballistic missile. The United States…

By Tom Z. Collina and Daryl G. Kimball In all the last minute drama about whether the nation would fall off the 'fiscal cliff,' it went largely unnoticed that the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) almost took the plunge as well. The fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), signed by President Obama on Jan. 2, included language that Obama, in his signing statement, called "deeply problematic" as it would "impede the fulfillment of future U.S. obligations agreed to in the New START Treaty, which the Senate provided its advice and consent to in 2010, and…

Want help with your last minute holiday shopping for that arms control enthusiast in your office or family? Here are some ideas... A Gift to Arms Control Today! First and foremost, give a gift subscription to Arms Control Today, the journal of the Arms Control Association read by hundreds of policy makers, educators, and students. Subscriptions start at $65 per year and includes both print and digital access. Student rates are $35 per year. Digital subscriptions are only $25. For the Mobile Arms Control Enthusiast Just Released! Arms Treaties app for Apple iPad is the must-have app for…

By the ACA Staff Since 1971, the Arms Control Association has promoted practical solutions to address the dangers posed by the world's most dangerous weapons-nuclear, biological, and chemical, as well as certain types of conventional arms. Every year since 2007, ACA's staff has nominated several individuals and institutions that best exemplify leadership and action in pursuing effective arms control solutions. Each, in their own way, has provided leadership to help reduce weapons-related security threats. We invite you to cast your vote (one per person) for the 2012 Arms Control Person(s) of…

By Greg Thielmann The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which was signed in Washington 25 years ago tomorrow, December 8, is legendary among arms controllers for its improbable outcome and the depth, pace, and duration of its accomplishments. With implementation of this agreement, an entire category of U.S. and Soviet nuclear weapons delivery vehicles –land-based missiles with ranges between 500 km and 5,500 km -- was eliminated. Equally important, the United States and the Soviet Union found their way back to negotiating mutually beneficial nuclear arms control limits, which…

President Barack Obama speaks Dec. 3, 2012 at the National Defense University along with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, fmr. Sen. Sam Nunn, and Sen. Dick Lugar. By Daryl G. Kimball In his first foreign policy-related address since his reelection, on Monday Dec. 3 President Obama praised the architects of the highly-successful Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, he reaffirmed his commitment to the action plan toward a world without nuclear weapons, and he underscored his commitment to achieve further progress to reduce the threats posed by nuclear, chemical and biological…

By Greg Thielmann As a general rule, serious security concerns and hyperbolic news reports are a bad combination. The November 27 Associated Press "Exclusive," based on an Iranian graph reportedly now in possession of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides the latest example. The AP acknowledges upfront that the document, which appears to depict calculations of nuclear warhead yield potential, was leaked by officials from a country that wishes to "to bolster their arguments that Iran's nuclear program must be halted before it produces a weapon." That should have led the AP to…

By Tom Z. Collina The FY 2013 Defense Authorization Bill is on the Senate floor this week, and Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) is planning to offer an amendment that would promote the construction of a missile defense site on the East Coast. This was a bad idea when the House proposed it this summer, and it's a bad idea now. Sen. Ayotte borrowed this proposal from Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee, which voted in May to build a third strategic missile interceptor site on the East Coast by the end of 2015. Sen. Ayotte can be congratulated for taking a more measured approach,…

By Kelsey Davenport, Daryl G. Kimball, and Greg Thielmann IAEA Director-General Yukiya Amano, left, with Iran's Ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, in May 2012 (photo credit: Adel Pazzyar/IRNA/AP) The new quarterly report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Iran's nuclear program, which is now in circulation, finds that Tehran has continued to install more centrifuges for uranium enrichment at its underground complex at Fordow. The November 16 IAEA report says that Iran has installed an additional 644 centrifuges at Fordow and 991 at Natanz, both of which are…

President Obama at his 2009 Inaugural Address. Weeks later, he pledged to "immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty." (Image Source: New York Magazine) By Daryl G. Kimball Following the November 2012 U.S. election, the prospects for achieving U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) have improved. Moving forward and gaining the necessary 67 Senate votes in support of ratification of the CTBT remains difficult, but is within reach. Since the beginning of his first term, President Barack Obama and senior…