Space is a Great Commons. It’s Time to Treat It as Such.
Benjamin Silverstein and Ankit Panda | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Traditionally, commons are areas beyond state dominion that host finite resources available to all (like the oceans) or that provide non-excludable global benefits (like the atmosphere). Outer space is no different, though some dispute this fact. Beyond micrometeoroids, the only natural resource in near-Earth space is the volume of Earth orbits themselves. Space is available for all to use, and states and commercial enterprises use satellites in Earth orbits to deliver agricultural, educational, financial, and security benefits to communities around the globe. Yet not all leading space powers have endorsed the concept of outer space as a great commons. The United States has not consistently considered space to be a commons.
Impasse Over Iran Nuclear Talks Set Off International Scramble to Save Accord
Lara Jakes | New York Times
Three weeks ago, in a show of both good faith and diplomatic pressure, the United States offered to rejoin nuclear talks with Iran. The double-edged overture fell flat: Iran refused to meet without first receiving financial incentives, and the Biden administration made clear, as the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, put it, that “the ball is in their court.” That set off a new rush among world powers to resuscitate a 2015 nuclear accord that the United States exited three years after negotiating it, leaving Iran to steadily violate the terms of the deal.
The Missile Trap
Fred Kaplan | Slate
For the first time in two decades, the Pentagon is considering, and Congress is debating, whether to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a new nuclear-armed missile. The new weapon, called the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), would replace America’s 400 Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at an estimated cost of $264 billion over the next few decades. The debate is particularly fierce, and will become more so once the Biden administration releases its defense budget sometime next month, because one faction in this debate—with adherents in the Pentagon, Congress, and the White House—want not only to halt funding for the GBSD but to dismantle some or all of the 400 existing missiles.
Biden North Korea Review Expected ‘In Next Month or So’ – Senior U.S. Official
David Brunnstrom and Michael Martina | Reuters
The Biden administration’s review of its policy towards North Korea is expected to be completed “within the next month or so,” a senior official of the administration told Reuters on Tuesday while declining to say what direction it might take. The new administration, which took office in January, announced the review following former President Donald Trump’s unprecedented engagement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which failed to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear weapons. “We are involved and engaged in a highly intense strategic review. Our expectations are that it will be done in within the next month or so,” the official said.
S. Korea Considers Joining Quad Plus to Steer U.S. Toward Talks With N. Korea: Policy Adviser
Byun Duk-kun | Yonhap News Agency
South Korea may be considering joining a U.S.-led regional forum that it had previously shunned, in an effort to influence U.S. policy toward North Korea, a member of South Korea's presidential policy advisory group said. Hwang Ji-hwan, a member of the president's commission on policy planning, said the Seoul government, just like the U.S. government, does not aim for a sudden or complete removal of sanctions on North Korea but to do so gradually through a process of diplomacy and negotiations toward denuclearization.
There’s No Chance China Will Out-Nuke the United States
David Axe | Forbes
China has way fewer nuclear warheads than the United States does. And there’s no realistic prospect that Beijing will expand its atomic arsenal in a way that threatens America’s ability to deter a nuclear attack by China. But tell that to Tom Cotton, a Republican U.S. senator from Arkansas. At a Tuesday hearing with U.S. Navy Admiral Philip Davidson, commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Cotton tried to portray China as a rising nuclear power whose atomic stockpile threatens to surpass America’s own stockpile. China “could possibly have nuclear over-match against the United States before the end of this decade, is that correct?” Cotton asked Davidson.