Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
North Korea recently test-fired two short-range ballistic missiles. Described by state media as “new-type tactical guided projectiles,” the missiles in question appeared to be the same, unidentified short-range ballistic missile system that North Korea showed off at its Jan. 2021 military parade.
Almost every U.S. nuclear delivery system, missile, and warhead will require some kind of modernization over the next ten to twenty years. Key elements of the nuclear command-and-control system and nuclear warhead infrastructure will too.
Making any kind of gains with North Korea has been a difficult task for U.S. administrations.
President Biden said that when he took office, he would make an effort to have the United States re-join the Iran Nuclear Agreement. But so far those efforts are proving to be more difficult to accomplish...with the head of the U.N. nuclear
It remains to be seen whether the Biden administration will change tack on North Korea policy and finally jettison “maximum pressure” approach in favor of a more practical attempt to work simultaneously toward peace and denuclearization.
As was the case in 2006 and 2010, perceptions of Iranian intransigence in the face of constructive Western overtures—which may well be forthcoming under the Biden administration—could lead to a hardening of Russia’s stance, which is ultimately underpinned by concerns of nonproliferation and the integrity of the P5+1 process.
The Europeans need to ditch their passive attitude toward trying to restart talks between the United States and Iran. Time is of the essence: Tehran may be just four months away from amassing enough fissile material for an atomic bomb.
A return to transatlantic cooperation on the Iran nuclear deal will require trust, a thorough understanding of the shifting power dynamics in the Middle East, and Europe's desire and capacity to drive diplomacy forward.
One of the first foreign policy signals to come from the Biden administration has been Washington’s expressed willingness to extend the New START Treaty with Russia for another five years. Moscow, for its part, has long been ready for such an extension, without any conditions.
The Islamic revolution upended these ties almost overnight. Thereafter, and for the past forty years the two have found themselves in an ever-worsening conflict, occasionally even in indirect military confrontations.