Book Excerpt: Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb
Togzhan Kassenova | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
I am Kazakh, and the two main topics of this book—the Soviet nuclear tests in the Semipalatinsk region of Kazakhstan, and the nation’s early days of independence—are very personal to me. Despite living abroad since the age of nineteen, my ties to my homeland are deep. I treasure the memories of my youth, even those of such turbulent times as the collapse of the Soviet Union and the struggle of my newly independent country to find its place in the world. Kazakhs have a particular attachment to their place of birth, and I still call my hometown—Almaty—my first love. My heart skips a beat when my plane lands in Almaty, and I see the majestic Zailiiskii Alatau mountains that surround the city.
Could High-Altitude Satellites in Space Spark Nuclear War?
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
High-altitude satellites in space play a critical role in the command-and-control systems of nuclear-armed states like the United States, Russia, and China. But what if these same satellites could also inadvertently spark a nuclear catastrophe? Carnegie's Nuclear Policy Program explains how keep-out zones may very well prevent nuclear war.
US Says Iran Nuclear Deal 'In Sight' but Urgent Need to Finalize
France 24
The United States said Monday a deal was possible with Iran on its nuclear program but that an agreement had to be completed urgently as Tehran advances its capabilities, on the eve of renewed talks. The negotiations—attended by China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, Iran and the United States—will resume in Vienna after being halted at the end of last month. They come after parties in recent weeks cited progress in seeking to revive the 2015 accord that was supposed to prevent Iran from acquiring an atomic bomb, a goal it has always denied pursuing.
North Korea: ‘Kim Doesn’t Just Want More Missiles, He Wants Better Ones’
Christian Davies | Financial Times
North Korea last month fired a ballistic missile capable of hitting the US territory of Guam, the latest in a record flurry of tests that demonstrated the unrelenting progress of the country’s illicit nuclear weapons programme. But of all the missile systems tested in recent weeks, it is the development of a new generation of manoeuvrable weapons designed to evade missile defence systems that has most intrigued defence experts. “Kim Jong Un [the North Korean leader] doesn’t just want more missiles, he wants better missiles,” said Ankit Panda, a nuclear weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “The qualitative arms race has kicked off in a very big way.”
North Korea Builds ICBM Base Near China as Fears of New Test Loom
Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times
North Korea began this year with a record-breaking spate of missile launches, but stopped short of a truly provocative step: ending its self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests. Some experts say that next move could be just a matter of time. Kim Jong-un, the country’s leader, has already threatened to end the moratorium, saying at a party meeting in January that his country would consider “restarting all temporarily suspended activities” and switching to “more powerful physical means” to deter the United States. He has spent several months unveiling new weapon technology. And, according to new research, his military has been building a base strategically located for future ICBM launches.
Could Ukraine Have Retained Soviet Nuclear Weapons?
Cheryl Rofer | Nuclear Diner
This issue keeps coming up, now in the New York Times. “If only Ukraine hadn’t give up its nuclear arsenal, Russia wouldn’t be able to bully it.” No. There’s no way Ukraine could have kept the Soviet nuclear weapons stationed there when the Soviet Union ended. . . . The Soviet Union stationed missiles with nuclear warheads in the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1991, those republics became independent countries. Kazakhstan quickly decided to go non-nuclear and shipped the warheads back to Russia, which inherited the Soviet Union’s nuclear status in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Belarus followed. Ukraine used those missiles as a bargaining chip.