Panel discussion and launch of the final report detailing a new international nuclear non-proliferation regime.
The possibility of U.S. trade and investment offers a most effective way to enhance Iranian decision-making. Instead of imposing sanctions, which have punished Iranians for 24 years, a better strategy would be to demonstrate the benefits of economic cooperation with the U.S. The simplest first step would be for the U.S. to drop its objection to Iran’s joining the World Trade Organization. Indeed, the greatest resistance to economic reforms sought by Iranian progressives comes from the bazaar, the old-economy conservatives who also back the political-security hardliners. Prospective WTO membership would give progressives a lever to push reforms necessary to satisfy WTO terms and integrate Iran more deeply into the international political economy.
The North Korean Nuclear Challenge: Is There a Way Forward?
Amidst bold declarations among the regimes in North Korea and Iran, last week was a bad one for nuclear nonproliferation.
US officials recently briefed Chinese and South Korean officials on information they maintain proves North Korea shipped uranium hexafluoride to Libya.
To mobilize all of the international actors opposing Iranian nuclear development, the U.S. must recognize that Iranian proliferation, Persian Gulf security, the U.S. role in the Middle East, Israel’s nuclear status, and Palestinian-Israeli relations are all linked and cannot be resolved without a more balanced U.S. stance.
We reproduced below an extended excerpt from Senator Carl Levin's speech to the Senate, January 25, 2005. Senator Levin provides a compelling analysis of Secretary Rice's statements on Iraq's weapons capabilities before the Iraq war began.
"Dr. Rice’s record on Iraq gives me great concern. In her public statements she clearly overstated and exaggerated the intelligence concerning Iraq before the war in order to support the President’s decision to initiate military action against Iraq. Since the Iraq effort has run into great difficulty, she has also attempted to revise history as to why we went into Iraq.
…Dr. Rice is not directly responsible for the intelligence failures prior to the Iraq war. The Intelligence Community’s many failures are catalogued in the 500 page report of the Senate Intelligence Committee. But she is responsible for her own distortions and exaggerations of the intelligence which was provided to her.
Here are a few of those exaggerations and distortions.
The very first question Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar asked Secretary of State-nominee Condoleezza Rice was on his efforts to streamline and improve the Nunn-Lugar nonproliferation and disarmament programs: "Does the administration support this legislation?" Rice responded enthusiastically, "I really can think of nothing more important than being able to proceed with the safe dismantlement of the Soviet arsenal, with nuclear safeguards to make certain that nuclear weapons facilities and the like are well secured."
Rice also agreed to put accelerating the program on the agenda of the next Bush-Putin meeting, and endorsed the early passage of the Law of the Sea Treaty. We provide, below, a full excerpt of the Lugar-Rice exchange at this hearing, held January 18, 2005, and links to the full hearing transcript.
The official end to the U.S. search for weapons in Iraq confirms what most observers had known for over a year and what UN inspections indicated before the war: Iraq did not have any significant amount of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or long-range missiles. Some old weapons produced before the 1991 war may still be found, but it is clear that the main justification for launching the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not true. As a Carnegie study concluded one year ago, administration officials systematically misled the American people as to the nature of the threat and the need for military action. Saddam Hussein, who had ruled the nation in a brutal dictatorship since 1979, had actively pursued such programs and had produced thousands of tons of chemical and biological weapon agents during the 1980s. The programs were ended and the stockpiles destroyed by the 1991 Gulf War and United Nations disarmament activities that followed.
A special multimedia presentation and discussion presented by the Non-Proliferation Project.
It is now two years since North Korea withdrew from the Nonproliferation Treaty and since Pyongyang restarted its plutonium production program. The results of efforts by South Korea, China, Japan and particularly the United States have failed to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear program and are now little but an empty shell of a policy. 2005 will be a difficult year.
Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski has been making a lot of sense all year. A man known for his hard-line views and no nonsense style, he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Christmas weekend that prospects for success in Iraq were dim.
"We have paid a high price in blood, and it's increasing, " he said. "You cannot underestimate the suffering that this has already produced to tens of thousands of American families. We have killed tens of thousands of Iraqis; no one knows precisely how many. We're spending billions of dollars. And we have isolated ourselves internationally. Now, that is simply not worth the price of removing Saddam, because we were containing him."
The new UN report, "A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility," addresses emerging threats of the 21st century. It identifies erosion of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the stagnation of disarmament efforts, illicit nuclear trafficking, and the potential threat of nuclear terrorism major crises of the nonproliferation regime as. The report proposes a multi-layered response to these threats.
Iran's nuclear program is becoming an increasingly large issue in Turkey. Despite abundant publications worldwide about Iran’s alleged efforts to develop nuclear weapons for more than two decades, Turkish security elite have only recently started to express concerns about the subject. To date, their stance vis-à-vis Iran’s nuclear program would be categorized as one of negligence.
It's time for some straight talk about missile defense, including the scientific and technical challenges which it faces and which, if not solved, will prevent the system from being effective, no matter how much money is spent on heavy construction, re-bar and concrete.
One year ago this December 19, Libya announced it was abandoning its nuclear weapon and missile programs after over two decades of trying to build a bomb. Since then, Libya has permitted international officials to inspect 10 previously undisclosed nuclear sites and to remove and destroy all key components of its programs. Libya is a model for how to end a nation’s nuclear weapon program by changing regime behavior rather than by changing the regime.
Discussion on Russian perspective on the relationship between nuclear deterrence and nuclear proliferation.
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