Status of Iran
A summary of recent developments in Iran-European 3 (Britain, France, Germany) negotiations—covering the EU3 proposal, Iranian counterproposal, developments in Iranian politics and US policy.
Arms Control Wonk
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Qian on Bush
Former Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen has issued a scathing critique of the Bush Administration in the China Daily. Almost amusing was State Department flack Adam Ereli fumbling questions about the article: QUESTION: Adam, a former senior Chinese official, former…
Safire is a total hack
William Safire is a hack: Bin Laden was the second outsider to try to influence our election in an ‘October surprise.’ I suspect the first was Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief U.N. arms inspector, said to be miffed at the Bush…
Paris Negotiations Update 4:Terms of the Iranian Enrichment Bill Still Unclear
Confusion continues to reign over whether or not a bill recently passed by the Iranian parliament actually requires the resumption of uranium enrichment. The New York Times has a dreadful story, based on an Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) story,…
Sanguine About a Nuclear Armed Iran
One of the research assistants over at CATO is suggesting that a nuclear armed Iran might be a good thing for US foreign policy. I don’t know anyone who thinks “lots of people are considering [this], but are unable to…
Paris Negotiations Update 3: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
In an earlier post, I noted that the Iranian parliament passed a bill requiring the government to continue the peaceful nuclear program, but that “the bill does not direct the government to resume uranium enrichment or end U.N. inspections.” Reuters…
CounterCom Update
Reuters has a story on the CounterCom system—about two weeks after Space News. The story has some good reporting, based on e-mails with AFSPC personnel. It commits one significant factual error: The device appears to have been put into service…
Paris Negotiations Update 2: Iran Stalling Until After the Election
Reuters is reporting talks between Iran and Europe will resume on November 5, with hints that Iran will agree to an interim suspension of uranium enrichment by November 10 in order to avoid referral to the Security Council. Tehran is stalling to see if the upcoming presidential election produces a coherent US policy.
Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat (NAIC, 2000)
For some reason, MDA has made the 2000 edition of Ballistic and Cruise Missile Threat insanely difficult to find. Here it is.
Garwin on Missile Defense
Dick Garwin has an article on missile defense in Scientific American. Garwin concludes that “despite the more than $80 billion spent by the U.S. on missile defense since 1985, this system will not provide significant protection for many years, if ever.”