Analysis / Commentary, Next Gen CommunityThe Road to Nuclear Arms is Paved with Good Intentions: The INF Treaty Preservation Act of 2017ByMaggie Arno and CSIS PONIPublished Apr 19, 2017Modernization and expansion of the INF treaty would not only address Russia’s perceived threats, but also provide security assurances to U.S. allies, preserve an important signaling mechanism, and strengthen the nonproliferation regime.
Analysis / Commentary, Next Gen CommunityFrom New York to DC – The Civil Society Divide on the Nuclear BanByAlicia Sanders-Zakre and CSIS PONIPublished Apr 5, 2017I’m sharing excerpts from an interview with Toshiki Fujimori, a Hiroshima bomb survivor and assistant secretary general of HIDANKYO (Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations), who sits squarely in the humanitarian camp.
Analysis / ReportAn Evolving Narrative: A Report on the Role and Value of U.S. Nuclear Weapons, 1989-TodayByRebecca HersmanPublished Oct 15, 2016This study aims to create a dialogue with the nation’s nuclear personnel about the rationales for the U.S. nuclear arsenal that already exist—some of which have been stated at the highest levels of leadership—to ask what the nuclear forces actually hear, what works and what does not, and what motivates them on a daily basis.
Analysis / Commentary, Next Gen CommunityWaiting for Washington: U.S. clarity and guidance are vital to the JCPOAByMinsu Crowder-Han and CSIS PONIPublished Jun 14, 2016While it is often difficult to parse reasonable criticisms from Iran’s standard litany of anti-U.S. rhetoric, complaints that the United States is not upholding its end of the deal are not entirely unfounded. It has long been understood that the bulk of the new trade and investment that Iran could expect under the JCPOA would not come from the United States, given the extensive web of U.S. sanctions that would remain in place, but from Europe, Russia, and China.
Analysis / CommentaryNorth Korea’s Nuclear ProvocationByRebecca HersmanPublished Jan 6, 2016Today North Korea claimed to have successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb. Though experts have not verified this claim, it corresponds to a 5.1 magnitude seismic event recorded on Tuesday. The purported test, which would signify a significant increase in North Korea’s nuclear capability, has been widely condemned by world leaders.
Analysis / CommentaryNuclear Deterrence in a Disordered WorldByRebecca HersmanPublished Nov 16, 2015Whoever takes office in January 2017 is likely to inherit a nuclear landscape of greater risk, complexity, and challenge than any time since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.
Analysis / Commentary, Next Gen CommunityNext Stop for Nuclear Negotiations: North Korea?ByLiz Whitfield and CSIS PONIPublished Jun 16, 2015Right now, the world’s attention is focused firmly on the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. But there is another country that deserves at least as much attention, if not more: North Korea. The hermit kingdom’s nuclear weapons program is looking more and more dangerous these days.
Analysis / Commentary, Next Gen CommunityWhat is behind South African President Jacob Zuma’s refusal to relinquish nuclear weapons material?ByJessica Gottesman and CSIS PONIPublished May 8, 2015In a recent piece of nuclear news easily overshadowed by the Iran deal, teh Center for Public Integrity (CPI) highlighted new information about South Africa’s refusal to give up six bombs worth of weapons-grade uranium. In 2011 and agian in 2013, President Obama wrote letters to South African President Jacob Zuma asking him to relinquish the country’s highly-enriched uranium, to blend it down to low-enriched uranium (LEU), or to transfer it to the United States in exchang for $5 million worth of LEU. President Zuma refused.
Analysis / Commentary, Next Gen CommunityThe Continued Unlikelihood of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone in the Middle EastByAaron Richards and CSIS PONIPublished Nov 19, 2014There are currently five NWFZs, which have been bound by international treaties signed by all states in those respective regions. The idea of a Middle East NWFZ has been around for nearly forty years, when Iran first proposed it in 1974.