Digests and Blog

A recently released GAO report highlights the value of U.S. arms sales, either by the U.S. government or licensed private companies, between 2005-2009, as well as some problems with the current U.S. system for reporting arms sales. In one oversight gap, the State Department authorizes direct commercial sales (DCS) but it does not collect data from the U.S. companies with DCS export licenses. Another gap in information is due to a lack of transparency regarding arms sales. The issue of transparency is partially due to something as simple as the Department of Defense not posting the…

Yesterday, foreign ministers from many different countries assembled at the United Nations to discuss the future of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. They released a Joint Ministeral Statement (PDF) reaffirming their "strong support" for the CTBT. Here are some of the highlights of the Statement: The CTBT is Necessary The entry into force of the Treaty is vital to the broader framework of multilateral disarmament and non-proliferation. Test ban will help preserve the nonproliferation regime [T]he CTBT will make an important contribution by constraining the development and qualitative…

At the fifth biennial ministerial meeting in support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivered a passionate statement in support of the CTBT. Nuclear testing has left a legacy of devastated and uninhabitable landscapes and lasting health and economic effects on local and downwind populations. More troubling, nuclear testing has still not been consigned to history. Two tests have been conducted in the past five years. Until we have universal adherence to a legally-binding global norm against nuclear testing, there is no guarantee that nuclear…

The Associated Press reports on vocal international support for U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Advocates said approval by the U.S. Senate, in particular, would encourage some of the other eight governments whose ratification is required to bring the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force, to outlaw all nuclear test explosions. "I believe the national security interests of the United States are enhanced by ratification of the CTBT," Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters after chairing the two-hour meeting to promote the treaty on…

By Eric Auner The Economist has written a compelling new editorial on the necessity of New START ratification. It is a sensible, incremental treaty that will cut America's and Russia's deployed strategic nuclear warheads by about a third, from the current maximum of 2,200 to 1,550, and the number of deployed missiles and bombers to 700 apiece. ... It does not stop America deploying anti-ballistic missile defences, developing strategic-range non-nuclear weapons systems or updating its nuclear weapons infrastructure (indeed, Mr Obama has promised to spend $80 billion on this over the next…

On September 23rd, Foreign Ministers from a range of countries will meet at the UN headquarters in New York City to hear a statement from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and to promote the CTBT's eventual entry into force. According to a CTBTO media advisory: The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions. Although already signed by 182 countries and ratified by 153, the Treaty can only enter into force once it is signed and ratified by 44 ‘Annex 2’ States. Nine have yet to do so: China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United…

In an op-ed for the New York Post, Heritage Foundation analyst Peter Brookes warns against New START on the grounds that treaty reductions may increase the strategic threat from China's arsenal. According to Brookes, "[U.S.] lawmakers haven't yet fully faced the problem that, as we build down our strategic nuclear forces (by some 20 percent under New START) in the White House's hopes that others will disarm, China is involved in a strategic buildup. So, before there's any final vote on an arms-control pact that would endure for the next 10 years, it'd be wise to give some thought to…

By ACA Intern Matt Sugrue John Bolton argues in the Wall Street Journal that: [United States] will pay for [the New START] mistake in future conflicts entirely unrelated to Russia....New Start's limits on delivery systems reflect military judgments only marginally. Fundamentally, they are political, diplomatic and legal in nature. The Pentagon is being told to structure its forces according to the treaty's limits, including a ceiling of 700 launchers. This sort of compulsion has happened before, as was the case with both Start I and Start II. Forced to live within limits, and knowing that…

By ACA Intern Matt Sugrue In his mea culpa op-ed for the Washington Post, Matt Miller reflects on how he, and others, was convinced by faulty intelligence that Saddam Hussein was pursuing nuclear weapons. Without opening up all of the failures leading to the U.S. decision to invade, I would like to extract one important lesson as it applies to the current need for the Senate to pass New START. While there has been plenty of evidence that the Bush administration did not provide a faithful rendition of the available intelligence before the invasion and had, in fact, decided to invade long…

Source: CDC By ACA Intern Matt Sugrue A recently published "proof of concept" by a joint USAMRIID (U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease) and AVI BioPharma team shows the possibility for developing a vaccine against the Marburg and Ebola filoviruses. USAMRIID is the lead research organization at Fort Detrick Maryland, the former home of the U.S. biological weapons program. On November 25, 1969, President Richard Nixon announced that, biological warfare...has massive, unpredictable, and potentially uncontrollable consequences. It may produce global epidemics and profoundly…