Fresh Ideas Needed to Prevent WMD Proliferation
By Debra Decker: President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima last week was important for one very stark reason: It forces us to remember how devastating some weapons can be. We may have forgotten, or be too young to recall, the old fears of hiding under cramped school desks to shelter and ‘protect’ ourselves from a nuclear […]
Debra Decker quoted in VOA on Nuclear Security Cooperation
华盛顿— 美国欢迎中国派国家元首出席本届核安全峰会，但是分析人士说，作为一个核大国，中国理应也有机会承担更大的责任推动甚至领导核安全领域的国际合作。 美国总统奥巴马周四和周五一连两天在华盛顿主办他明年卸任前的最后一届核安全高峰会。 Read the full article here.
Upending the Stalemate between India and Pakistan
Trend lines in the subcontinent are poor and will not improve until there is substantive dialogue between India and Pakistan. Hopes that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would pull a “Nixon goes to China” maneuver with Pakistan have been dashed, at least for now. Modi either has no Pakistan policy or has a policy not to […]
Nonproliferation In A Noncompliant World: Rethinking UN Security Council Resolution 1540
In 2004, the U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 1540 calling for all States to take steps to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery. The Security Council requires a comprehensive review in 2016 of the resolution’s implementation. At the workshop, UN Security Council Resolution 1540 specialists shared their views, and workshop participants […]
The Bomb, Escalation, and the Humanitarian Pledge
In 1868, the Imperial Cabinet of Russia convened an International Commission to issue a Declaration on the laws of war. In its Preamble, the St. Petersburg Declaration stated, The only legitimate object which states should endeavor to accomplish during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy. The League of Nations and the […]
Wishful Thinking on Iran
Which camp – pro or con — is most guilty of wishful thinking about the Iran deal? Supporters who argue they have secured verifiable, significant reductions in Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons? Or opponents who argue that a “better deal” can be negotiated after rejecting this one? For opponents to avoid being guilty of […]
A Normal Nuclear Pakistan
The Stimson Center and the Carnegie Endowment published a 20,000-wordessay on Pakistan’s nuclear program and diplomatic ambitions last week. My co-author Toby Dalton and I did not write this assessment to cause harm to Pakistan. We support Pakistan’s quest to be viewed as a normal state that possesses nuclear weapons, and we support Pakistan’s desire to […]
Rumi on the Iran Deal
Reading Jalaladdin Rumi is a diversionary summer-vacation tactic to keep at arm’s length Congressional debate over the Iran deal, where arguments that are demonstrably weak are immune from rebuttal. Rumi knew a thing or two about the human condition – and ways to rise above it. So why not consult this Sufi mystic, born in […]