Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

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As Another North Korean Nuclear Test Looms, What’s Washington’s Response?

This week, OtherWords published a piece I wrote alongside Lt. General (USA, Ret) Robert Gard on the Obama administration’s “strategic patience” policy toward North Korea. Here is an excerpt:

It’s time to put North Korea back on the foreign policy agenda and re-engage it in serious and responsible negotiations.

Given Chinese support for North Korea, heavy sanctions won’t compel Kim Jong Un to comply with American preferences or engage in negotiations on dictated terms. However much the United States may detest the authoritarian North Korean regime, it’s in America’s interest to engage in a dialogue to protect its national security and that of its Asian allies.

Refusing to negotiate with the North Koreans unless they make concessions dictated by Washington is counterproductive. Watchful waiting simply results in further advances in the North Korean nuclear weapons program, making America and its allies less secure. Kim Jong Un is willing to talk, and it’s in America’s interest to pick up the phone and call him.

Read the full piece here.

Fact Sheet: Global Nuclear Weapons Inventories in 2014

Prepared by Lesley McNiesh Updated by Justin Bresolin, Sam Kane, and Andrew Szarejko CHART: Global Nuclear Weapons Inventories, 2014 Nuclear weapons programs are generally shrouded in secrecy and all of the totals listed above should be considered estimates. The numbers in the chart above are based on the most recent available estimates from the Bulletin […]

Christian Science Monitor Story on Joint U.S.-South Korea Military Exercises Quotes Duyeon Kim

US-South Korea joint military exercises – three things you need to know By Steven Borowiec Later this month, the US and South Korea will stage annual military exercises around the Korean peninsula. Last year’s war games led to months of high tensions as North Korea vociferously objected to joint drills being held near its territory. […]

A Case for the Zero Option in Afghanistan

“After 2014, we will support a unified Afghanistan as it takes responsibility for its own future. If the Afghan government signs a security agreement that we have negotiated, a small force of Americans could remain in Afghanistan with NATO allies to carry out two narrow missions: training and assisting Afghan forces, and counter-terrorism operations to pursue any remnants of al Qaeda. For while our relationship with Afghanistan will change, one thing will not: our resolve that terrorists do not launch attacks against our country.” –President Barack Obama, January 28, 2014

The Global Impact of a Limited Nuclear War in South Asia: Famine, Disease and War

Earlier this week, the nuclear watchdog group Physicians for Social Responsibility, published their report authored by Ira Helfand “Nuclear Famine: Two Billion People at Risk?” The report summarizes, synthesizes and expands upon a number of findings made in previous scientific studies by independent sources on the likely consequences of a ‘limited’, regional nuclear war between India and Pakistan on global food supplies.