Russian President Vladimir Putin recently revealed that Russia has begun to acquire its own version of the US military’s “Conventional Prompt Global Strike” (CPGS) capability. If true, it would appear that Mr. Putin has willfully disregarded his own criticism of such capabilities.
Eleven Questions about the U.S.-Russia Framework to Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons
On September 14th, 2013, the U.S. and Russian foreign ministers announced an agreement to rid Syria of its chemical weapons. Later that day, Syria submitted its articles of accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Convention prohibits Member States from producing, stockpiling, stockpiling or using chemical weapons and sets out a 10-year time line for stockpile destruction. The U.S.-Russian framework seeks to disarm Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile by early or mid 2014.
The U.S. has begun to talk about the timeline in the framework as goals rather than hard-and-fast deadlines. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons must approve this framework agreement and the UN Security Council needs to pass a resolution requiring that Syria comply with the plan and establish an enforcement mechanism.
The U.S. and Russia have set forth an ambitious timeline to declare, verify, inspect, secure, manage and destroy Syria’s estimated 1,000 metric ton chemical weapons arsenal during an ongoing civil war.
This framework raises several questions, which he address in a detailed analysis over at the Center website here.
Questions on U.S.-Russian Framework to Remove Syria’s Chemical Weapons
Eleven questions and answers designed to examine the effectiveness and potential success of the U.S.-Russian framework to rid Syria of its chemical weapons.
CCTV Discusses U.S.-Russian Relations and Syria with Phil Coyle
Senior Science Fellow, Phil Coyle joins CCTV to discuss U.S.-Russian relations as they relate to Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.
Don’t blame Moscow
Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on August 5, 2013. Article summary below; read the full text here. On July 12, the US State Department released a major annual report on arms control compliance that has riled up nuclear weapons hawks. In its annual “Report on Adherence to and Compliance With Arms Control, […]
