US-Russian Nuclear Arms Control Negotiations
Rose Gottemoeller | Foreign Service Journal
In my line of work, you have to have a long memory. Periods of success in negotiations are followed by droughts, because of politics, military upheaval, arms buildups—yes, sometimes the weapons have to be built before they can be reduced—or a sense of complacency: “We have arms control treaties in place; let’s just focus on implementing them.” In those cases, new thinking and new negotiations may slow or even stop. Yet, the national security interest of the United States continues to drive the necessity for nuclear arms control. So all of us need to think about the long arc of nuclear arms control—what it has accomplished, where it has failed and what it can do for our future security. In looking at the history, this article pulls the different strands from one period into the next, but does not delve into the details of any particular agreement.
US Envoy Threatens to Trigger Return of UN Sanctions on Iran
Michelle Nichols and Humeyra Pamuk | Reuters
The United States publicly threatened on Wednesday to trigger a return of all United Nations sanctions on Iran if the U.N. Security Council does not extend an arms embargo on Tehran that is due to expire in October under the Iran nuclear deal. U.S. special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, confirmed the strategy two weeks after a U.S. official, speaking on condition anonymity, said the United States had told Britain, France and Germany of its plan. Hook wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “one way or another” Washington would ensure the arms embargo remains.
Three British Nuclear Programs are $1.67 Billion Over Budget
Andrew Chuter | Defense News
Critical programs aimed at updating Britain’s nuclear weapons infrastructure have been hit by long delays and huge cost increases, according to the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee. Poor management on three nuclear projects involving warhead assembly, core reactor production and submarine building have resulted in combined cost increases of £1.35 billion (U.S. $1.67 billion) as well as delays of between 1.7 and 6.3 years, the committee revealed in a report scheduled for release May 12. The cost overruns were caused in large part by avoidable mistakes, such as beginning construction work without mature designs, said the committee.
US Ambassador Accuses Germany of ‘Undermining’ NATO on Nuclear
Deutsche Welle
A day after a new report found that the US spent $35.4 billion (€32.6 billion) on operating and developing nuclear weapons last year, President Trump's Ambassador to Germany and newly-minted spy chief, Richard Grenell, has accused the German government of not doing its part for NATO's policy of nuclear deterrence. In an op-ed for German daily Die Welt published on Thursday, Grenell specifically criticized the Social Democrats (SPD), the junior coalition partners of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), for their support of nuclear disarmament. Grenell said that the US, including President Trump, support nuclear disarmament but see the possession of atomic weapons as a necessary deterrent to Russia and North Korea.
US-China Nuclear Arms Deal Could Be Possible Despite Coronavirus War of Words
James Walker | Newsweek
A nuclear arms control treaty between the U.S. and China could still be possible in the near future despite the countries ongoing “war of words” over the coronavirus pandemic, former arms control officials have said. President Donald Trump's former Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Andrea L. Thompson told Newsweek that Washington and Beijing still had “an opportunity” to work out a future arms control deal, regardless of mounting tensions about COVID-19's origins. She also warned that diplomatic talks between the U.S. and China “need to happen,” and cautioned Beijing officials against standing behind a “closed door” on the world stage.
Bulging Deficits May Threaten Prized Pentagon Arms Projects
Robert Burns | AP
The government’s $3 trillion effort to rescue the economy from the coronavirus crisis is stirring worry at the Pentagon. Bulging federal deficits may force a reversal of years of big defense spending gains and threaten prized projects like the rebuilding of the nation’s arsenal of nuclear weapons. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the sudden burst of deficit spending to prop up a damaged economy is bringing the Pentagon closer to a point where it will have to shed older weapons faster and tighten its belt. “It has accelerated this day of reckoning,” Esper said in an Associated Press interview. One prominent example is the Trump administration’s plan — inherited from the Obama administration — to pour hundreds of billions of dollars into replacing every major element of the nuclear weapons complex, from some of the warheads designed and built by the Energy Department to the bombers, submarines and land-based missiles that would deliver the warheads in combat.