2012-10-11 by Richard Weitz The Russian speakers at the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference strongly backed universal ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), and chastised the U.S. Senate for failing to ratify it. But Russia’s position regarding the CTBT is more complex than commonly presumed. The Russian Federation signed the…
2012-10-08 By Richard Weitz At the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference, most attention on bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force focused on how to secure U.S. ratification of the treaty. The participants from other countries found it convenient to blame Washington’s stubbornness for the CTBT’s failure to enter…
2012-09-24 By Richard Weitz A major subject of discussion at the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference was the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Whether to ratify the treaty will also be an issue for the next U.S. presidential administration. The CTBT prohibits all nuclear explosions, whether for military or other purposes, in…
6/12/12: The pride of the Israeli navy is rocking gently in the swells of the Mediterranean, with the silhouette of the Carmel mountain range reflected on the water's surface. To reach the Tekumah, you have to walk across a wooden jetty at the pier in the port of Haifa, and then…
By Richard Weitz Russia’s current Prime Minister and future President, Vladimir Putin, makes evident that the Russian government will not soon follow the Obama Administration towards nuclear disarmament. For example, on February 24, 2012, he told the media that Russia will not make any further unilateral or even bilateral cuts…
By Lieutenant General (Retired) Michael Dunn, President, Air Force Association I have been seeing “trial balloons” in the press about the Administration's desire to go to lower numbers of nuclear warheads … beyond those listed in New START. Some of the numbers are as low as 300 warheads. (For example…
By Richard Weitz North Korea’s ballistic missile program has complicated the negotiations seeking to de-nuclearize the Korean Peninsula and achieve a comprehensive peace treaty for the Peninsula. Despite the recent failure, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is slowly improving the number, range, and capabilities of its missiles. Its…
by Richard Weitz In their latest annual assessment of Russia’s nuclear forces, Hans Kristensen and Robert Norris estimate that the Russian Federation has more than 4,400 nuclear warheads. Of these, they calculate that some 2,430 warheads are assigned to various strategic delivery vehicles (1,490 on 434 ICBMs, and 950 are…
