One of the more glaring head-scratchers about U.S. nuclear policy is that we continue to forward deploy roughly 180 tactical B61s in Europe despite the fact that the military mission for which these weapons was originally intended – stopping a Soviet invasion of Western Europe because of inferior US/NATO conventional forces – no longer exists.
Fact Sheet: The Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program
by Justin Bresolin Updated by Brenna Gautam, June 2014 Origin and Purpose The Department of Defense Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program, also known as the Nunn-Lugar Program, was created for the purpose of securing and dismantling weapons of mass destruction and their associated infrastructure in the former states of the Soviet Union. Founded by Senators Sam […]
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 […]
Ukraine and the future of nonproliferation
Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on April 4, 2014. Article summary below; read the full text here. Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine has left many observers fearing that Washington and Moscow are headed towards a new Cold War. It is not surprising, then, that the crisis has spawned plenty of chatter […]
Fact Sheet: The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI)
By Sam Kane and Kingston Reif WHAT IS THE PROLIFERATION SECURITY INITIATIVE (PSI)? • The Proliferation Security Initiative is an international effort that aims to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and their related components and materials. WHO IS INVOLVED WITH PSI? • Initially, PSI’s membership consisted of eleven countries (the […]
