Pliable Preferences? The U.S. Public and Missile Defense
Jamie Kwong | Center for Strategic and International Studies
The future of U.S. missile defense policy remains uncertain. While the Biden administration has made some early decisions, many expect a more comprehensive review before the administration releases a formal missile defense policy document. In the meantime, experts have conveyed various perspectives on how the administration might address key challenges and concerns about the U.S. missile defense program, ranging from threats posed by North Korea, to Chinese and Russian concerns about U.S. missile defense capabilities, to the technological hurdles of advancing those capabilities. But what does the U.S. public think about missile defense, and what implications might this have for the administration’s policy?
Northeast Asian Security Will Require North Korea’s Regional Reintegration
Toby Dalton and Ankit Panda | The Diplomat
Amid pandemic fears, North Korea has shut its borders, but eventually, this period of insularity will give way to diplomatic opportunities. When this happens, Seoul and Washington should test the plausibility of regional efforts that could lead to risk reduction on the Korean Peninsula. Recently, a group of senior scholars and practitioners from the region convened by the Asia Pacific Leadership Network endorsed a list of ideas aimed at building a more robust security “eco-system.” Three ideas, in particular, deserve serious consideration in the context of North Korea.
IAEA Sounds Alarm on Iran’s Atomic Work as EU Tries to Save Deal
John Follain and Golnar Motevalli | Bloomberg
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog said his agency was “extremely concerned” about undeclared uranium enrichment in Iran with negotiations aimed at restoring the 2015 nuclear deal still “frozen.” In the last few months the International Atomic Energy Agency was “able to identify traces of enriched uranium in places that had never been declared by Iran as places where any activity was taking place,” Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi told the European Parliament on Tuesday. “We are extremely concerned about this,” he said. “The situation does not look very good. Iran, for the time being, has not been forthcoming in the kind of information we need from them.”
Australia Considering Next-Generation US and UK Designs for Nuclear Submarines
Brendan Nicholson | Australian Strategic Policy Institute
Australia is involved in complex negotiations to ensure that its plan to acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines doesn’t weaken the international non-proliferation regime. The chief of the Royal Australian Navy’s nuclear-powered submarine taskforce, Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, tells The Strategist talks are underway with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure the project embraces such high safety standards that it sets a rigorous new benchmark under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation Nuclear Weapons, or NPT. The submarines are to be built in Australia under the AUKUS arrangement with the United States and United Kingdom.
Nervous South Koreans Seek Ways to Counter North’s Nuclear Threat
Christian Davies | Financial Times
Ahead of his inauguration as South Korea’s president on Tuesday, Yoon Suk-yeol promised he would “dramatically strengthen” his nation’s defenses against the rapidly developing nuclear forces of North Korea. The conservative president’s campaign pledge highlighted an intensifying debate in the country whether to push for a return of US nuclear weapons to the Korean peninsula — and even whether South Korea should seek to develop its own nuclear deterrent. Yoon used his inauguration address to offer “an audacious plan that will vastly strengthen North Korea’s economy” if Pyongyang committed to denuclearization. But experts believe it is highly unlikely that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will give up its arsenal.
Atomic Energy Chief: Ukraine’s Nuclear Safety Situation ‘Far From Being Resolved’
Louise Guillot | POLITICO
The risk of a nuclear accident in Ukraine is still a source of concern, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday, calling the situation “far from being resolved.” Speaking at European Parliament hearing, IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi said the agency’s main “preoccupation” remains Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine’s largest functioning nuclear power plant, which has been under Russian military control since early March. “We have been living in a very fragile situation,” he said, explaining that the plant is currently run by Ukrainian state nuclear operator Energoatom but occupied by Russian troops.