Nuclear Abolition & the Next Arms Race

In a blog posting for the National Review Online, NPEC's executive director asserts that critics of the New START treaty need to get on with the business of identifying the key amendments, reservations, understandings, and declarations, if any, they think the Senate should consider while its supporters need to stop pushing for instant ratification and allow access to information that both sides need to understand the treaty's full implications. In a follow up piece, "New START: Don't Shake the Tree If the Fruit Ain't Ripe," he compares previous arms control treaty ratification efforts with New START and concludes that even with ratification as late as February, it would be relatively quick. In addition, he reiterates that in order to get overwhelming Senate support, the treaty's negotiating record should be released in classified form. This last point was also highlighted in a recent article published by The Christian Science Monitor.

In a blog posting for the National Review Online, NPEC's executive director argues that critics of the New START treaty need to get on with the business of identifying the key amendments, reservations, understandings, and declarations, if any, they think the Senate should consider while its supporters need to stop pushing for instant ratification and allow access to information that both sides need to understand the treaty's full implications.

NPEC's executive director explains why rushing to ratify the New START Treaty would forgo a critical opportunity to draw the administration out on what America's arms control agenda and strategic weapons policies are and to advise the White House on what they ought to be. The video of this Heritage-hosted lecture can be viewed here. Global Security Newswire (click here) covered the event and focused on the obstacles that the U.S. faces in reaching more arms control agreements with Russia.

NPEC's executive director reviews the final book by the late British statesman and nuclear weapons theorist Sir Michael Quinlan, Thinking about Nuclear Weapons: Principles, Problems, Prospects, for the U.S. Naval War College Review.