Digests and Blog

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…

By ACA Intern Daniel Salisbury Last week in Switzerland over 100 states party to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) are due to conclude an annual Meeting of Experts. As Global Security Newswire reported August 20: Law enforcement and public health experts from around the globe will gather next week in Switzerland to discuss the potential use of biological weapons and how nations can improve their preparedness to respond to intentional or natural disease outbreaks... The meeting is part of the "intersessional process" conducted between the convention's review conferences held every five…

By ACA Intern Matt Sugrue In the Washington Post, Stephen G. Rademaker's chastises New START supporters for not having the "patience and respect for dissenting views" to allay critics' concerns. He suggests steps treaty supporters could take in order to work out the differences between themselves and critics of New START. It is a valid point that proponents of New START should make time to listen to the concerns of critics, but many of Rademaker's concerns have already been dealt with. No Limits on Missile Defense and Prompt Global Strike Frequently expressed concerns that the treaty may…

By Eric Auner According to a recent Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Proliferation Analysis by Daryl Kimball, President Obama should use the International Day against Nuclear Tests to reiterate his pledge to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. American Does Not Need to Test Its Nuclear Arsenal [T]here is simply no technical or military rationale for resuming testing. Contrary to myth, the United States has never relied on nuclear testing to ensure that proven warhead designs still work, but rather to perfect new types of nuclear bombs, which the U.S. military no longer needs…