Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The United States faces a series of critically important decisions on nuclear procurement, posture, and declaratory policy. Which policies will best ensure effective deterrence while minimizing the risks of escalation and arms racing?
While an additional round of U.S.-Russian nuclear arms control is in the national security interest of the United States, carrying out a new round of arms control talks will be extremely difficult.
The recent 5.8-magnitude earthquake had more of an impact on a Virginia nuclear plant than first thought. For the first time in American history, an earthquake has shifted the casts that hold spent nuclear fuel.
A regime to verify the abolition of nuclear weapons requires three distinct components: the verification that declared civilian nuclear materials are not weaponized, the dismantlement of declared warheads, and the absence of undeclared nuclear warheads.
The next round of U.S.- Russia arms control presents some truly daunting challenges but there is much that the Obama administration could do in the remainder of its first term to lay the groundwork for another treaty while reducing nuclear risks.
The board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), by nearly a three-to-one margin, declared Syria out of compliance with its safeguards obligations and reported the issue to the UN Security Council on June 9.
While strategic stability in China has traditionally reflected a concern for maintaining balance, the discussion has broadened in the past years to include concerns over issues such as nuclear terrorism and disarmament.
As the U.S. government expands its efforts to trim the federal budget, the devastation and global fears caused by Japan’s nuclear disaster clearly demonstrate the importance of continued funding for nuclear security.
As NATO debates its future nuclear policy, it should focus on concrete measures to maintain a credible nuclear deterrent in the medium term and avoid abstract debates over complete disarmament or the need to keep nuclear weapons indefinitely.
While public concerns about the safety of nuclear energy have resurfaced in the wake of the crisis at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, the case for nuclear power remains strong.
Although Russia, the United States, and American allies have been loath to downsize their nuclear arsenals, deep reductions would not undermine a nation’s security since arsenal size has little bearing on effectiveness of deterrence.