Archive by Author

Responding to Senator Bond on New START

Ivan Oelrich, Strategic Security Blog

Senator Kit Bond, Republican of Missouri, gave a speech in the Senate on the New START treaty.  Eli Lake’s summary is in the Washington Times.  He made accusations of serious shortcomings in the treaty.  I address these points because they appear to be substantive and earnest, unlike some of the hysteria and outright silliness coming [...]

The post Responding to Senator Bond on New START appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

START in a Lame Duck

Ivan Oelrich, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, Strategic Security Blog, United States

The Senate should vote on the New START during the “lame duck” session. The New START arms control treaty, negotiated between the United States and Russia and signed by the presidents of both countries last April, is awaiting ratification by the United States Senate.   Objections to the treaty rest primarily upon misunderstandings or misrepresentation.  In [...]

The post START in a Lame Duck appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

Mystery Missile: this question can be answered.

Strategic Security Blog

Like many techie sorts interested in military matters, I was caught up in the great California missile plume mystery.  I first heard about it when a reported called with questions and she sent a link to a video.  A traffic helicopter, an often underappreciated source of strategic intelligence, working for a local news station, KCAL, [...]

The post Mystery Missile: this question can be answered. appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

Moving Goalposts

Iran Fuel Negotiations: Moving Muddled Goalposts

Iran, Ivan Oelrich, Ivanka Barzashka, Strategic Security Blog

by Ivanka Barzashka and Ivan Oelrich A year ago, France, Russia and the U.S.—called the Vienna Group—proposed a deal in which Iran would ship out some of its worrying low-enriched uranium (LEU) in exchange for fuel for its medical isotope reactor, called the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR). These narrow technical discussions about the TRR were [...]

The post Iran Fuel Negotiations: Moving Muddled Goalposts appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

Nonsense about New START and ICBMs

Arms Control, Ivan Oelrich, Nuclear Weapons, Strategic Security Blog

Because of what appears to have been a computer glitch, a group of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) was temporarily off-line last week and not ready to launch on a moment’s notice. According to an article in The Atlantic, some Republicans have suggested that this means that New START, the nuclear arms control treaty awaiting Senate ratification, [...]

The post Nonsense about New START and ICBMs appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

New START and Missile Defense

Arms Control, Ivan Oelrich, Nuclear Weapons, Strategic Security Blog

I have not written here on the New START treaty, in part because everything that can be said has been said, well, almost everything…see below.  The treaty is in no way revolutionary.  I don’t think Reagan would bat an eyelash at it.  Yet, while there is widespread bipartisan support for the treaty, including almost all [...]

The post New START and Missile Defense appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

Iran Beat Us to It.

Iran, Ivan Oelrich, Ivanka Barzashka, Nuclear Proliferation, Strategic Security Blog

Ivan Oelrich and Ivanka Barzashka Back in October, when Iran put in a request to the IAEA for a new load of fuel for its medical isotope reactor in Tehran, the United States proposed that Iran ship out an equivalent amount of its low enriched uranium (LEU) in exchange. It turns out, purely coincidentally, that [...]

The post Iran Beat Us to It. appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

FAS video, Paths to Zero, released.

Strategic Security Blog

As Alicia already mentioned in the previous post, in conjunction with the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, FAS yesterday held the “big screen” premiere of its new video, Paths to Zero at the United Nations in New York.  The video will be the core of a new interactive feature on the website.  As topics are mentioned [...]

The post FAS video, Paths to Zero, released. appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

What’s Wrong with What’s Wrong with the Nuclear Posture Review

Strategic Security Blog

On Tuesday, the Secretary of Defense released the new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR).  I was quite disappointed in the document, thinking it is timid and gradualist.   So you can imagine how distracting it is when I am part way through writing a blog trashing the new doctrine for not going far enough that I see [...]

The post What’s Wrong with What’s Wrong with the Nuclear Posture Review appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.

Hardly a Jump START

Arms Control, Ivan Oelrich, Nuclear Weapons, Strategic Security Blog, United States

Four months past a “deadline” imposed by the expiration of the old START treaty and amid much fanfare, President Obama announced that he and Russian President Medvedev had agreed on a new arms control treaty.  I am not as excited as most are about the treaty and much of the following might be interpreted as [...]

The post Hardly a Jump START appears on the FAS Strategic Security Blog.