ABSTRACT The current nuclear deadlock with North Korea remains unresolved as the initially promising 2018–2019 three-way diplomacy between the DPRK, US and ROK stalls. More widely in Northeast Asia, nuclear confrontation between China and the US is mounting, with increased deployment of nuclear-weapon-capable forces in and around the region, including land and sea-based missiles, missile defence systems

ABSTRACT When compared to the bombast of nuclear tests, nuclear submarines come with the relatively quiet fantasy of victory-to-come against neighbouring nuclear adversaries. Such political expressions are making their mark in Indian popular culture that hitherto had little commentary to offer on submarines. Outlets such as film and digital media on submarines rest on an aporia that resonates across

ABSTRACT The achievements in nuclear reductions during the Obama Administration were modest, in part because of waning public pressure. But the nuclear deal with Iran was important. Thanks in part to a former senior Iranian diplomat, Hossein Mousavian, joining Princeton’s Program on Science and Global Security in 2010, the Program was able to make two significant technical contributions to that deal

ABSTRACT The Fukushima accident of 2011 pulled von Hippel back into the reactor-safety world. He was invited to join a Congressionally-mandated four-year study of the lessons that could be learned from the Fukushima accident to improve the safety of US nuclear plants. During that study he learned more about both a much worse accident that almost happened at Fukushima, and about how the US Nuclear Regulatory

ABSTRACT In this part, von Hippel discusses how his focus shifted in the first decade of the 21st century to a set of new concerns evoked by the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and the G.W. Bush administration’s retrograde policies with regard to nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. During this period, he co-founded the International Panel on Fissile Materials so that policy activists

ABSTRACT Von Hippel describes his introduction to the ways of the government bureaucracy as an assistant director in the White House Office of Science and Technology (OSTP). He describes providing White House support to the lab-to-lab program through which the US helped Russia strengthen the security of its nuclear materials and his visits to the Kurchatov Institute and Russia’s first plutonium city

ABSTRACT In this interview carried out by two staff writers of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun, former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev recalls how he engaged in dialogues with the United States in the final years of the Cold War. But the “peace dividend” brought by the initiatives of Gorbachev and his US counterpart has been largely eclipsed by renewed arms race between the United States

ABSTRACT Horizontal nuclear proliferation presents what is sometimes referred to as the “Nth country problem,” or identifying which state could be next to acquire nuclear weapons. Nuclear fuel cycle technologies can contribute to both nuclear power generation and weapons development. Consequently, observers often view civilian nuclear programs with suspicion even as research on nuclear latency and

ABSTRACT Great care was taken during the negotiations of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) to secure its full compatibility with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). This goal has been accomplished. The TPNW strengthens and supports the NPT which has always anticipated further legal norms to achieve its purposes. Like in the other pillars of the NPT, reaching

ABSTRACT The DPRK is unique in that it has voluntarily suggested to work on the denuclearization even though still disputing the exact meaning of denuclearization. Since the political regime of the DPRK will remain stable, the entire denuclearization processes are different from those after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Even though the denuclearization of the DPRK is a difficult issue, it is the

ABSTRACT If nuclear war occurs, non-belligerents want the conductors to take responsibility for providing assistance to deal with harm imposed on them. This harm could take the form of radioactive fallout, climatic change that causes global food shortages and refugee crises. But states and experts preoccupied with winning (or at least not losing) wars that could go nuclear have largely ignored questions

ABSTRACT On June 1 and 2, 2019, Joint ROK-Japan Workshop “From Peace on Korean Peninsula to North East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone” was held in Seongnam, South Korea. In this article, an executive summary of the policy proposal made as an outcome of the workshop is given.

ABSTRACT On 24 May 2018, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres launched his new “disarmament agenda” in an address at the University of Geneva. The UN’s Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) simultaneously released a 73-page “non-paper” that elaborated this new agenda. In October 2018, UNODA issued the agenda’s implementation plan. This article will describe the key themes and specific

ABSTRACT Despite long-standing debate about the challenges of establishing command and control of India’s nuclear weapons, few details about the structure and organization of such a system exist in the public domain. Objectives for effective command and control have been laid out in India’s Draft Nuclear Doctrine of 1999, which was followed by the more official statement from 2003 that described some

ABSTRACT For the European Union, nuclear weapons are a taboo. But the more the EU takes steps towards defense integration, the closer the moment comes that the role of the French nuclear weapons has to be discussed. This article hopes to clarify that debate. The first part of this article outlines the debate between those who regard nuclear weapons as powerful and legitimate defense instruments and

ABSTRACT Arms control treaties have served admirably to control and limit nuclear weapons for several decades. The provisions and limits, however, have proven to be inflexible, often limited in scope to specific systems and countries, and difficult and time-consuming to negotiate. It is time for the nuclear weapons states to consider a new paradigm to incentivize reductions while building security

ABSTRACT In this part, von Hippel starts by briefly describing his family background, his education and his pursuit of a career in theoretical physics. He then describes the beginning of his engagement with policy issues as a result of the student protests and activism while he was an assistant professor at Stanford University and a fellow at the University of California Berkeley during 1966-70. This

ABSTRACT This section covers von Hippel’s first engagement with nuclear-weapons issues, starting with a review of a US Secretary of Defense’s claim that a Soviet nuclear first strike on US nuclear weapons would kill only 15,000–25,000 people, through his efforts to revive the proposal for a treaty to ban the production of more plutonium and highly-enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, and ending with

ABSTRACT Von Hippel describes his collaboration with a group advising Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, as they devised strategies, including “glasnost” (openness and transparency) to end the nuclear arms race with the United States as part of a larger effort to reform the Soviet Union and integrate it into the global economy.

ABSTRACT Seventy-four years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately 210,000 victims died, and another 210,000 people survived. The damage to their health has continued, consisting of three phases of late effects: the appearance of leukemia, the first malignant disease, in 1949; an intermediate phase entailing the development of many types of cancer; and a final

ABSTRACT After the golden age of arms control, Russia and the United States are no longer engaged in arms control negotiations. The landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty was officially terminated on 2 August 2019, and the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) expires in February 2021. The continued political alienation between Russia and the West, combined with new military-technological

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons requires nuclear-armed states that join the treaty while still possessing “nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices” to “destroy them as soon as possible but not later than a deadline to be determined by the first meeting of States Parties.” This article examines technical issues that can inform this deadline decision. It outlines

ABSTRACT The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons requires States Parties to designate a “competent international authority or authorities” for negotiating and verifying the irreversible elimination of nuclear-weapons programs. Ensuring that such an authority or authorities is able to be fit for purpose when required to meet these tasks will be crucial for both the future implementation and

AbstractThis paper summarizes the history of what is known about uranium mining in the DPRK; describes the major uncertainties regarding DPRK uranium production; notes some of the key techniques, a...

ABSTRACT Thomas Countryman was a member of the US Foreign Service for 35 years, retiring in January 2017. He took office as assistant secretary of state for international security and nonproliferation in September 2011 and held that position until January 2017. From October 2016, he simultaneously served as acting undersecretary of state. He was one of the key figures in formulating the Obama administration’s

ABSTRACT Adopted by 122 non-nuclear-weapon states in July 2017, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was promoted by a transnational network of government agencies, international organizations, and civil society actors. Now, as the agreement creeps towards entry into force, a debate about the history of the TPNW has begun. While supporters of the TPNW argue that the adoption of the

ABSTRACT In the expert and diplomatic communities, it is generally considered that disarmament verification should be undertaken as far as possible on a multilateral basis. Partly this reflects experience with the International Atomic Energy Agency’s safeguards system, and partly it reflects the view of non-nuclear-weapon states that international participation is required to ensure transparency and

ABSTRACT The world is at the start of a new nuclear arms race, with the demise of important arms control agreements and increasingly robust nuclear weapons modernization and expansion plans by multiple countries. As such, the international community is searching for ideas that could change this trajectory and reinvigorate arms control. This article explores one of these ideas: to limit and eliminate

ABSTRACT The South Asian nuclear race is moving to sea, with India’s government announcing that it has successfully put nuclear weapons at sea, and evidence suggesting that Pakistan is preparing to do so. This article traces India’s decision to deploy nuclear-powered submarines, some armed with nuclear weapons, and the debate in Pakistan on the utility of nuclear-armed submarines and the possible acquisition

ABSTRACT Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a US citizen who was born in Japan, has taught in both countries. Applying his specialized knowledge of Russian history to an analysis of the US decision to drop atomic bombs on Japan, he challenges the prevailing American view that the US decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was justified. The prevailing view is based on two premises: first, the use

ABSTRACT This article maps the papal peace witness’ support for a world free from nuclear weapons. Although the last concentration of scholarly work in this area dates back to the early and mid-1980s, now is a cogent time to update that scholarship by revisiting and critically assessing papal teachings and diplomatic actions that move towards banning nuclear weapons on Earth. Contemporary events motivating

ABSTRACT The renewed conflict between Russia and NATO has brought back security concerns over nuclear and conventional deterrence and defence in Europe. Since the days of the Cold War those two elements are closely intertwined, with direct ramifications on arms control policies. This article recalls the post-Cold War history of conventional arms control in Europe. It focuses on the underexplored impact

ABSTRACT The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is the cornerstone of the global non-proliferation regime. However, the question is the NPT still relevant? may suggest that the importance of NPT has been forgotten. Indeed, lack of progress in nuclear disarmament has led some critics to question the value of the NPT. While frustration at the failure of the nuclear-weapon states to meet their NPT disarmament

ABSTRACT East Asia is home to some of the most dynamic economies on earth, but also a locus of current and historical national and international conflicts. Some of the largest economies lack domestic energy resources, and nuclear power has been adopted as a perceived key to energy security. Lacking, however, is a concerted strategy for managing nuclear spent fuel at the regional or even, for the most

ABSTRACT In the United States, the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are often considered necessary to have ended its war against Japan. On the other hand, there are also American people who commemorate the victims of the atomic bombings. This article examines how and why people in the United States commemorate the A-bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After explaining the official US

ABSTRACT The nuclear genie is out of the bottle, manifesting as nuclear proliferation. Efforts to contain it have generated another genie whose agenda is to establish a verifiable nuclear disarmament regime. Despite several achievements and remarkable stability, the limits of the nuclear arms control and non-proliferation regime have become evident. In the mid-1990s, therefore, civil society, in cooperation

ABSTRACT The media in India did not critically examine India’s decision in 1998 to openly go nuclear. Its coverage reflected the general celebratory mood in society at the time. It has not changed its approach in the decades since 1998; the changes in the media since then and the growth of an aggressive nationalism in Indian politics in the intervening decades have put a value on nuclear weapons which

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the important issue of nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula. It reviews alternate solutions: an essentially bilateral solution with the United States as an associated party, and a multilateral regime establishing a nuclear weapon free zone in a designated part of Northeast Asia which would include the militarily significant states in the region along with the NPT nuclear

ABSTRACT Shigeaki Mori was an eight-year-old child living in Hiroshima when the United States attacked the city with an atomic bomb on 6 August 1945. In this interview, Mori recalls his experience of the bombing. One of the most memorable scenes for him is the cremation of victims in the playground of an elementary school. Thirty years after the bombing, he decided to begin research on the number of

ABSTRACT On the way to a new world order we do not yet know, disorder is the new normal. The world is in a state of flux. Six features are particularly noteworthy. (1) Sovereign states are reemphasized and reconfirmed as the basic building blocks of international affairs. (2) Trade and technology wars and economic sanctions have moved to the top of the international agenda. (3) International norms

ABSTRACT Geography alone will continue to ensure that, as long as the United States and Russia place nuclear deterrence at the centre of their security strategies, both offensive and defensive systems will be deployed in the Arctic. As changing climate conditions also bring more immediate regional security concerns to the fore, and even as east-west relations deteriorate, the Arctic still continues

ABSTRACTBrazil is building a nuclear-powered attack submarine, South Korea has in the past asserted its need for nuclear-powered attack submarines to deal with the threat of North Korean nuclear-ar...

ABSTRACT Twenty years after India formally staked claims to nuclear weapons power status its nuclear trajectory evokes surprise. The first element of surprise concerns the nature of India’s arsenal, which is operational in the field and not recessed or hidden in the basement. The surprise’s second element concerns the arsenal’s ambitious scope, which is shaping into a triad with an extraregional strike

ABSTRACT This paper will examine four crises that took place between India and Pakistan, in the period in which they were declared nuclear powers. It shows that by combining threats and reassurance, Indian leaders sought to avert nuclear use, while deriving strategic and diplomatic gains from the presence of nuclear weapons. While scholars differ as to whether India-Pakistan crises should be termed

ABSTRACT Since the beginning of 2018, the nuclear dynamics surrounding the Korean Peninsula have started to change rapidly and dramatically. The world is now watching a series of historic negotiations in which the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula is to be discussed. Meanwhile, South Korea’s current nuclear policies look paradoxical, mainly in two ways. First, although the Moon Jae-in administration

ABSTRACT Although offenses against international law have been proscribed at a certain level of generality, nobody hitherto has examined closely the scientific and ecological damages that would be imposed by nuclear strikes in relation to resulting possible law-of-war violations. To correct that information deficit and institutional shortfall, the first Part of this Article constructs a hortatory proposal

ABSTRACT Multilateralism and preventive diplomacy are essential in productively addressing common interests and challenges, including issues related to nuclear security. Although the world knows about the successful negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal and the fate of the six-party talks to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, not much is known about the interaction of nuclear-weapon and non-nuclear-weapon

ABSTRACT Jon Wolfsthal is renowned for his policy achievements and his well-informed articles on nuclear arms control and nonproliferation issues. He served as special assistant to former US President Barack Obama and as senior director for arms control and nonproliferation at the National Security Council from 2014 to 2017. He was special adviser to Vice President Joe Biden for nuclear security and

ABSTRACT East Asia is home to some of the most dynamic economies on earth, but also a locus of current and historical national and international conflicts. Some of the largest economies lack domestic energy resources, and nuclear power has been adopted as a perceived key to energy security. Lacking, however, is a concerted strategy for managing nuclear spent fuel at the regional or even, for the most

ABSTRACT Katsuya Okada served as the Japanese Foreign Minister between 2009 and 2010 when the erstwhile Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) formed the administration for the first time in its history. During his term, Okada worked on several initiatives that have not since been executed. One of these projects was an investigation into the so-called “secret deal” effected between Japan and the United States

ABSTRACT Shigeru Ishiba is a heavyweight in Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and served as Defence Minister from 2007 to 2008. In this interview, he shares his views on the role of nuclear weapons in US–Japan alliance and Japan’s security policy. Especially, he put emphasis on the need to ensure that extended deterrence by US nuclear weapons is always credible, while he acknowledges the miseries of

ABSTRACT As of the end of 2017, Japan had a stockpile of 48 tons of separated plutonium. It will take more than a decade for Japan to convert most of that plutonium into “mixed-oxide” (MOX) fuel and load it into power reactors licensed to use such fuel. This is a very costly program. Including the cost of reprocessing, MOX fuel costs about ten times more than the low-enriched-uranium fuel that otherwise

ABSTRACT Ms Laura Holgate has been a major force in enhancing nuclear security since the end of Cold War, starting her career in the US Clinton Administration and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), and devoting herself to the Obama Administration. In this interview, she spoke very frankly about her personal history and her experiences working with both administrations, particularly with the Obama

ABSTRACT In May 2018, the Liu Institute for Global Issues, part of the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, together with Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security ran a workshop on the twenty years since the May 1998 nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan. The workshop addressed three broad themes central to understanding nuclear

ABSTRACT Russia’s strategic modernization program suggests that it is determined to continue its reliance on nuclear weapons as a key element of its national security strategy. The US is now also committed to the large-scale modernization of its strategic forces. Combined with uncertainty about the future of US-Russian arms control, these developments have given rise to concerns about a potential new

ABSTRACT The July 2017 UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will come into force when 50 UN Member States ratify it. The new treaty has been condemned by nuclear weapon states on the grounds of its claimed adverse impacts on Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and for not taking account of progress through step-by-step incremental measures. Supporters of the new treaty, including 122

ABSTRACT Nuclear weapons are the ultimate power capacity of states. They make it possible to exterminate whole states, cities and peoples almost instantaneously. Because they are militarily unusable in almost any conceivable context, their main (but not only) use today is to deter other nuclear-armed states from using them first, by threatening nuclear retaliation. American nuclear hegemony combined

ABSTRACT The article analyzes the Brazilian and Argentine experience in nuclear nonproliferation since the 1991 establishment of a regional binational safeguards agency, known as the Brazilian–Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC). After these two countries signed their Bilateral Agreement, considerable positive change occurred in their nuclear-related activities

ABSTRACT The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017. ICAN is a global coalition of non-governmental organizations in over 100 countries and was honored for its efforts to advance the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Beatrice Fihn has been the Executive Director of ICAN, since 2014. During her Nobel Peace Prize speech, she said