Years

2005

456 posts

Article

Zhao Ziyang, 1921-2005

Zhao announced China would no longer support proliferation during a toast. Xinhua confirms. The obituaries will focus on Zhao’s support for domestic political reform in China as Premier (1980-1987) and General Secretary of the CCP (1987-1989). As premier, Zhao also…

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NIC Exaggerates Future Chinese Defense Expenditures

The National Intelligence Council has released a new report, Mapping the Global Future: Report of the National Intelligence Council’s 2020 Project, that leads with this doozy: China will overtake Russia and others as the second largest defense spender after the…

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EU-Iran Complete Round of Negotiations

After a 13 December 2004 meeting of the EU3-Iran “Steering Group” (right) that Javiar Solana called “more symbolic than substantive,” Iran-EU working groups began to deal substantively with three issue baskets: economic-technical, political-security and nuclear cooperation. (Paul summarized the working…

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Remember Russia?

One approach to existential threats. A conversation I had yesterday with an esteemed arms control expert, as well as this article by my colleague Wade Boese, reminded me to write about a subject I’ve been thinking about recently. While it…

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Missile Defense Software

This doesn’t usually happen. Honest. MDA Director Henry “Trey” Obering (right) attributes the failure of IFT-13C to a “very minor computer software glitch.” Noah Shachtman, however, has posted a fantastic analysis from former DOD Director of Operational Test and Evaluation…

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Amended Administrivia

Dammit. Shachtman over at DefenseTech.org suggests my efforts to entice my readership to join us for a drink or eight at the Fox & Hounds pub— Washington DC, next Tuesday, the 18th, starting around 8pm—weren’t exactly rousing. So let me…

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State to Merge Arms Control and Nonproliferation Bureaus

Taking arms control with him? The Washington Times reports that SECSTATE has approved a plan to merge the State Department’s arms control and nonproliferation bureaus “having concluded that much of their work oveps and resources are being wasted.” The State…

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US to Miss CWC Deadline

USA Today has obtained a set of documents, dated 21 December 2004, stating that construction on CW disposal facilities in CO and KY won’t begin until 2011 — five years after originally planned and too late to meet US obligations…