Events on the subcontinent are moving quickly, with uncertain outcomes. In short order, Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a resounding mandate. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif attended his oath-taking, a savvy symbolic gesture of potential import. One faction of the Pakistani Taliban carried out a brazen attack on Karachi’s international airport, after which Pakistan’s armed forces …
Nuclear Weapons Transparency
by | 2014-06-10 | 11 Comments
Greetings from Wilton Park. I am sitting here next to the Big Swede himself, very occasional contributor Andreas Persbo. He says tjenare. Did you know the UK nearly let the Soviets see inside a Blue Danube nuclear warhead in 1961? Talk about transparency! The context was test ban negotiations between the United States, United KIngdom and Soviet …
The T-Word & Iran Negotiations
by | 2014-06-09 | 4 Comments
Transparency is an elusive commodity in international nuclear affairs. Routinely cited as a universal virtue and not without a certain sanctimoniousness, this aspiration is sacrificed time and time again on the altar of political expediency. Transparency doesn’t factor into the IAEA’s routine work in Iran, which is mostly about monitoring and verifying the accounting of declared …
Danger Signs
by | 2014-06-09 | 14 Comments
The Republican Party in the United States has adopted positions on social issues and the environment that are at odds with those of the majority of the voting public. Their signature opposition to “Obamacare” is losing ground. Both parties gerrymander and receive large sums from major donors, but Republican legislators benefit more from laws reaffirmed …
