TOP NEWS North Korea Keeps Stockpiling Materials to Make Nuclear Weapons, Report Finds Wall Street Journal Munich Security Report 2019: “The Great Puzzle: Who Will Pick Up the Pieces?” Munich Security Conference The Real Purpose of Russia’s 100 Megaton Underwater Nuclear Doomsday Device Business Insider East Asia North Korea Keeps Stockpiling Materials to Make Nuclear Weapons, Report Finds Wall Street Journal2/12/2019 North Korea has kept producing raw materials needed to make nuclear weapons, though the threat has subsided since 2017 as the country’s suspension of missile tests has halted its progress on delivery systems capable of hitting the U.S. mainland, according to a new report. North Korea May Have Made More Nuclear Bombs, But Threat Reduced: Study Reuters2/12/2019 North Korea has continued to produce bomb fuel while in denuclearization talks with the United States and may have produced enough in the past year to add as many as seven nuclear weapons to its arsenal, according to a study released just weeks before a planned second summit between the North Korean leader and U.S. President Donald Trump. The Second Trump-Kim Summit Will Boost North Korea. Could It Gain Even More From Vietnam? South China Morning Post2/12/2019 Hanoi is moving to position itself as a partner of choice should Pyongyang play a bigger role in the international community. The two communist-ruled states were firm allies in the past, and a visit from Vietnam’s foreign minister is seen as a renewal to that commitment. Russia/FSU/Europe The Real Purpose of Russia’s 100 Megaton Underwater Nuclear Doomsday Device Business Insider2/11/2019 Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute told Business Insider that the Poseidon would give Russia a “coercive power” to discourage a NATO response to a Russian first strike. Essentially, Russia could use the Poseidon as an insurance policy while it picks apart NATO. U.S. Nuclear Policy Elizabeth Warren Wants to Ban The US From Using Nuclear Weapons First Vox2/11/2019 Two weeks ago, a major national security bill was introduced in both houses of Congress — and hardly anyone noticed. That bill, introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren and House Armed Services Committee Chair Adam Smith, was the No First Use Act, and it aims to transform US nuclear weapons policy. The No First Use Act On Nuclear Weapons Is One Sentence Long — But Its Impact Could Be Huge Bustle2/11/2019 On Jan. 30, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Adam Smith introduced a bill that was just one sentence long — but its importance shouldn’t be underestimated. Despite its length, the No First Use Act on nuclear weapons has big aims: to define, in blunt terms, the United States’ relationship to nuclear weaponry for the coming years. Opinion and Analysis Europe And the New Nuclear Arms Race Japan Times – Sigmar Gabriel2/12/2019 Gabriel contends that without a contractual nuclear-arms framework between Russia and the U.S., the international Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons cannot survive. Special Interest Managing Risk: Nuclear Weapons in the New Era of New Geopolitics Brookings Institution2/11/2019 Interviews with nuclear experts and Brookings scholars and affiliates—Madelyn Creedon, Robert Einhorn, Bonnie Jenkins, Suzanne Maloney, Michael O’Hanlon, Jung Pak, Frank Rose, and Strobe Talbott—are compiled in a report by Brookings Vice President and Director of Foreign Policy Bruce Jones. The report addresses experts’ assessments of the new nuclear world order; the current state of arms control with Russia and China; the impacts of emerging technologies; the status of the non-proliferation regime, including a look at North Korea and Iran; and U.S. nuclear policy moving forward. Munich Security Report 2019: “The Great Puzzle: Who Will Pick Up the Pieces?” Munich Security Conference2/11/2019 Ahead of the Munich Security Conference February 15-17 , the Chairman of the Munich Security Conference released the 2019 Security Report, which compiles key insights and analyses, illuminating major developments in and critical challenges to international security. North Korea in 2018: A Q&A with Siegfried Hecker Stanford Center for International Security Cooperation (CISAC)2/11/2019 In May 2018, Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) scholars Siegfried Hecker, Robert Carlin, and Elliot Serbin released an in-depth report analyzing the nuclear history of North Korea between 1992 and 2017 alongside a historical research-based “roadmap” for denuclearization. They updated this report ahead of the Summit in February 2019.