Another edition of ACW’s best regular column!
24 GOP Senators – rubio.senate.gov | The Berlin speech / unilateral nuclear cuts debate continues. We missed it at the time, but back in June, a couple dozen Republican senators weighed in, saying “It is our view that any further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal should only be conducted through a treaty subject to the advice and consent of the Senate.” In support of this stance, they cited a 2002 letter by then-Sens. Joe Biden and Jesse Helms.
Jon Wolfsthal – Atomic Jon | Former Biden staffer Jon Wolfsthal now weighs in, objecting to the use of the letter: “the authors were writing about preserving the Senate’s role in approving Treaties and rejecting the possible use of Executive Agreements, not whether President Bush might pursue reductions independent of a formal agreement.”
Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter – defense.gov | The bottom line, according to Ash Carter, is getting to Russian nuclear arms reductions. “And you miss that opportunity if you just do it yourself, because as I said, we’re not going to attack ourselves.” If you say so!
Jeffrey Lewis – ForeignPolicy.com | But as Jeffrey pointed out, also back in June, anyone who wants to avoid unilateral nuclear arms reductions is sooner or later going to have to come up with some cash.
Hans M. Kristensen – FAS Strategic Security Blog | Case in point. The U.S. Navy is making its case against a smaller future SSBN fleet. The surface fleet is also at a crossroads.
Andrea Shalal-Esa – Reuters.com | And now there’s talk of eliminating the F-35 fighter-bomber and the replacement strategic bomber program. We await the QDR.
Andrew Detsch – The Diplomat | Finally, an informative article on Rohani’s past! No more of this “he is a moderate, he isn’t a moderate” back and forth! Although we are still debating if the time is now for further negotiation. The Economist, for now, has landed solidly in the “play nice” camp. As expected, Israel and Iran won’t be nicey-nicey, regardless of the result of negotiations (and despite the clarification on Rohani’s Israel remarks). Of course, it could just not matter.
Melissa Hanham – 38North.org | If you haven’t been keeping up with the North Korean ship seized in Panama en route from Cuba, here’s your one-stop shop for developments as of last week. More to follow, doubtless.
Sam Marsden – The Telegraph | Well, that would have been a problem. A British officer going rogue and starting World War III. Thankfully, it was brought to light, much like another… issue in New York.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of FYRP.
