The following articles and essays provide additional insight into current developments and issues which our staff and experts are following.
A new CBO report eviscerates the claim by the Trump administration’s top arms control official that the United States can spend Russia and China “into oblivion” in a new arms race.
Attempting to unilaterally snapback sanctions would be a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration’s already irresponsible policy toward Iran that could have serious ramifications for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the future of the Security Council.
The humanitarian disarmament approach has led to four treaties and inspired cooperative engagement between civil society, international organizations, and like-minded governments which provides "a better alternative for the future."
The executive council’s comprehensive decision hailed dissent and dissatisfaction from certain member states that appear intent on shielding Syria from accountability for its egregious violations of the CWC.
Though concerning, possible violations of arms-related provisions of Resolution 2231 by Iran are not grounds for the unilateral U.S. actions to prevent the embargo’s expiration.
The June 5 IAEA report provides additional detail about the agency's investigation into possible undeclared nuclear materials and activities tied to Iran's past nuclear weapons development efforts and noted that Tehran has yet to comply with the agency’s requests for information and access.
The IAEA's latest report assessing Iran’s compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal noted that Tehran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium continues to increase beyond limits set by the accord.
While the Chemical Weapons Convention bans the use of toxic chemicals in warfare because they do not discriminate between combatants and non-combatants, but carves out an exception for their use for "domestic riot control purposes" despite their indiscriminate use against non-violent protestors and those engaged in acts of violence alike.
The Arms Control Association hosted a briefing on "The Future of New START and U.S. National Security" on April 29. Here are some answers to additional questions that participants submitted but that the speakers were unable to address due to time constraints.
An inaugural report released April 8 by the OPCW's new Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) attributes a series of chemical weapons attacks in Syria in March 2017 to the Syrian Air Force. The new OPCW team has a mandate to assign responsibility for chemical attacks identified by the OPCW's Fact-Finding Mission reports that were not investigated by the United Nations-OPCW Joint Investigative Mechanism, which was dissolved in 2017.