By Nils Holst, Policy Intern In a bid to have the United States join a global landmine ban, a group of Members of Congress released a letter to President Joe Biden last month calling on him to bar the U.S. military from continuing to use anti-personnel landmines, highlighting more than two decades of foot-dragging by Democratic and Republican administrations to end the […]
Front and Center: July 19, 2021
KEY HOUSE COMMITTEE ELIMINATES FUNDING FOR NEW NUCLEAR WEAPON The House Appropriations Committee rejected $15 million in funding for the Trump-proposed, Biden-requested new nuclear sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) in their fiscal year 2022 spending bills that passed out of committee last week. Read more about the SLCM-N in our new Center factsheet. THE BALL IS […]
Quotes from Trinity Test observers
Today marks the 76th anniversary of the dawn of the nuclear age with the Trinity Test in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The Manhattan Project scientists and others who witnessed the first nuclear test were in awe. Many were silent. Here’s a compilation of their words: We knew the world would not be the same. A […]
Erasing the line between theater and strategic defense systems: Implications for U.S.-Russia relations
By Samuel M. Hickey President Joe Biden has inherited a missile defense architecture that is on the verge of bridging the gap between the long-accepted demarcation of theater systems and those defending the U.S. homeland. The Pentagon has ordered the transfer of 11 SM-3 Block II A interceptors to the Navy for possible deployment in the Pacific […]
House takes important first step in rebalancing war powers
By Nils Holst Congress is considering legislation that would repeal the 2002 law that sent U.S. troops into Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein. While largely a symbolic gesture, if passed the bill would represent the first time in a generation that Congress has moved to restrict the war powers of the president and end America’s “forever wars.” The […]
