News & Views: April 2016
Gov. Brown joins high-level US-Russia workshop
CNS Director Dr. William Potter, US Under Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller,
Governor Jerry Brown

CNS hosts high-level dialogue on nuclear issues


On April 8-9, the  James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS) hosted a high-level US-Russian Dialogue on Nuclear Issues in Monterey on April 8-9, 2016. Featured participants included California Governor Jerry Brown, Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, US Under Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller, and former US Secretary of Defense Bill Perry.

CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo delivers keynote address
The workshop was co-organized by CNS and its Russian partner, the Center for Energy and Security Studies. The meeting focused specifically on "Security and Nuclear Challenges on the Korean Peninsula."


Nuclear Security Summit 2016 
The NSS process achieved much but left important unfinished business

Photo credit: www.nss2016.org
The fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit, held in Washington March 30-31, made important progress in developing a genuine international regime to prevent nuclear terrorism. In particular, the announcement of the entry-into-force of the amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material, and the US announcement that it would seek to eliminate highly enriched uranium from naval reactors are just a few.

However, the failure of the summit to fully, or in some cases partly, tackle some issues looms larger, given the end of the summit process.

CNS had several experts on the ground, providing commentary, analysis, and resources to news makers and decision makers, prior to and during the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit. Some of the summit's achievements had been put forward by CNS experts-- such as George Moore's proposal for "Replacing HEU in Naval Reactors" or Miles Pomper and Andrew Bieniawski's "Roadmap to Minimize and Eliminate HEU". 

The CTBT at 20: Re-Energizing the Global Debate

VCDNP hosts esteemed panel discussion

Lassina Zerbo, center, is flanked by VCDNP Senior Fellow Angela Kane and VCDNP Executive Director Laura Rockwood
On March 24, Lassina Zerbo, Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), gave an address to the  Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (VCDNP) at the Permanent Mission of Japan. The event was being held in conjunction with the VCDNP's short intensive course on non-proliferation and disarmament for young diplomats.
 
Zerbo was joined by an esteemed panel including the co-chairs of the  2015 Article XIV Conference Mitsuru Kitano, Permanent Representative of Japan to the CTBTO, and Kairat Sarybay, Permanent Representative of Kazakhstan to the CTBTO. Kitano and Sarybay both provided their insights into how the Article XIV Conference, designed to promote the entry into force of the Treaty, contributed to galvanizing support for the CTBT.

The panel suggested confidence building measures to overcome existing hurdles to facilitate progress toward the entry into force of the Treaty. In addition, the representatives of  Annex 2 States on the panel, Israel and the United States, shared their views on why their respective states had not yet ratified the Treaty.


Nonproliferation Review double issue published

Over 250 pages of cutting-edge analysis on a range of nonproliferation issues

Featuring Guest Editor Miles A. Pomper, the final two issues of volume 22 of the Nonproliferation Review were published this month and feature:
  • Egle Murauskaite's examination of the largest nuclear smuggling operation in open-source literature;
  • William Morgan Alley and Jessica L. Jones's study of chemical weapon attacks by non-state actors;
  • Neil Narang's questioning of "WMD" as a single analytical unit;
  • Nancy W. Gallagher's challenge to the dominant conception of arms control as a technical process; 
  • Jarrod Hayes's posit on the "habit" of nuclear weapons;
  • Moritz Kutt and Jens Steffek's investigation of whether nuclear abolition is emerging as a norm; 
  • Reid B.C. Pauly's McElvany-winning look at how Paul Nitze and McGeorge Bundy wrestled with the idea of non-use; 
  • Daniel Khalessi's examination into how NPT negotiators handled NATO nuclear-sharing; 
  • Sungyeol Choi and Il Soon Hwang's analysis of how competition for a state's nuclear market can shape the outcome; 
  • Henry David Sokolski's caution to the Australian government against expanding their nuclear export business too quickly; 
  • Lauren Sukin downlplays fears about Middle East proliferation through increased civil nuclear programs; and
  • Dinshaw Mistry's detailed accounting of missile developments in South Asia. 


New op/eds and analysis
CNS analysis on nuclear security, terrorism, the NPT, and the G7 in Hiroshima

Photo courtesy of Flickr
In a new CNS Issue Brief, Robert Einhorn's proposal for NPT member states to abandon the goal of achieving a consensus document and focus on "the record of NPT implementation" could reinvigorate what he calls is a "frustrating" activity has been widely picked up on social media. 

Similarly popular on Twitter, Masako Toki's op/ed in the Asia Times, written on the eve of the Critical Issues Forum held in Hiroshima, calls for President Obama to visit the first city to experience atomic bombs in war as a way to fulfill the spirit of his Prague agenda. CNS has will hold the next course in its series designed for government practitioners in the field of nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. US government officials, as well as officials from a number of foreign embassies, are invited to apply by March 28, 2016. The course is free of charge to qualified applicants. 
 
In Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Lewis argues that Washington's traditional nuclear strategy isn't keeping Europe safe-- it's putting everyone at risk of "apocalyptic terrorism."

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