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North Korea and the Clock

When the Bulletin last moved the hand of the Clock closer to midnight in January 2007, we noted our worries about what North Korea's nuclear arsenal might portend for future arms races in Northeast Asia and for further unraveling of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
peace symbol march 1958

What the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots can learn from the antinuclear weapons movement

What today's campaigners against the battlefield use of A.I.-powered autonomous robots can learn from the successful antinuclear movements of yesteryear.

The future of GNEP: Next steps

With the global expansion of nuclear energy and the weakening of international rules governing nuclear trade, there's a risk that sensitive fuel-cycle knowledge may spread, allowing more countries to acquire the capabilities to build nuclear weapons. The Bush administration claims that its Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) will minimize this risk. Unfortunately, in reality, GNEP has encouraged the spread of the know-how that ultimately could allow many more countries to possess nuclear weapons.

Brussels steps up as a leader in nuclear and radiological security

With a cutting-edge project in Southeast Asia, the EU asserts a trailblazing role in fighting global CBRN threats

Time to limit all those other weapons, too

Following the Iran nuclear deal, there’s never been a better moment to move towards general and complete disarmament.
Mike Pompeo and Mohammed bin Salman

Toward an honest Middle East nonproliferation policy

Rather than push nuclear energy in the Middle East and then try to control proliferation, a simpler US policy would be to stop promoting the exports in the first place.
People walking in Shiraz, Iran

Coronavirus in the Middle East: A rare opportunity for diplomacy?

In the Middle East, countries will have to cooperate like never before if they want to survive the pandemic.

Rethinking a WMD-free Middle East: Start with chemical weapons

Thanks to recent developments in Syria and Iran, there has never been a better opportunity to eliminate chemical weapons from the Middle East.
President Biden with Middle East leaders

Why a WMD-free zone in the Middle East is more needed than ever

A growing interest in nuclear technology in the Middle East—combined with ambiguity over nuclear activities in Iran and Israel—raises concerns about potential proliferation in the region.

Why nuclear dominoes won’t fall in the Middle East

A close analysis of probable scenarios suggests that a final Iranian nuclear agreement is unlikely to trigger a Middle East nuclear weapons cascade 

A third way toward a WMD-free Middle East

An incremental approach could move the region beyond weapons-of-mass-destruction gridlock.
An MQ-9 Reaper flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. (Photo credit: US Air Force / Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt)

The Abraham Accords effect: more armed drones in the Middle East

Hailed as a harbinger of peace in the Middle East, the Abraham Accords are likely to increase the proliferation of armed drones in the region.

Unconventional wisdom

As negotiations with Iran over the future of its nuclear program inch toward a possible deal, another intractable Middle East problem with a nuclear dimension is likely to start getting more serious attention. It is the question of whether there is any chance that Israel, Iran, and their Arab neighbors will agree to discuss establishing a regional zone free of all nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and their delivery systems.
Carrying whatever possessions they can, women arrive in a steady trickle at a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) established next to a base of the African Union Mission for Somalia (AMISOM) near Jowhar. Heavy rains in Somalia, coupled with recent clashes between clans, has resulted in over four thousand IDPs seeking shelter at the base.

“Harrowing” intelligence report still downplays threat of climate change to national security

A first-of-its-kind report by 18 US intelligence agencies explains how the climate crisis could increase geopolitical tensions around the globe—but will government heed the warning?

There should be no Saudi uranium enrichment

The United States say no to Saudi uranium enrichment demands, which could provide one path to an atomic bomb, and rethink the notion of supplying nuclear power reactors to Saudi Arabia. Such reactors, coupled with a reprocessing facility to extract plutonium from used fuel, would provide another path to a bomb—a plutonium bomb.

NATO joins the Pentagon in deeming climate change a threat multiplier

A new NATO special report concludes that climate change will make things worse in the world's most unstable regions.

The Black Sea: Center of the nuclear black market

The Black Sea region is one of the world's critical crossroads, a strategic intersection of east -- west and north -- south corridors that enable the free flow of people, ideas, and goods from Asia to Europe and from former Soviet territory to the Middle East and Africa. It is also the center of the world's nuclear black market.

Israel ponders a nuclear Iran

Of all the international nuclear-related challenges facing Israel, the most urgent and important is the possibility of a nuclear Iran.1 Israel's intense response to Iran tells us much about Israel's own existential predicament. The consensus in Israel is that the advent of a nuclear Iran, albeit depending on what this would mean exactly, would pose an unprecedented threat to Israel. For the first time, Israel would confront a hostile state in the region that possesses nuclear weapons.
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Hiroshima and the Iran agreement

The Hiroshima anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on lessons learned (or not learned) from nuclear war and seven decades of trying to prevent its recurrence, and to apply that knowledge to the current situation in the Middle East
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WHO’s Maurizio Barbeschi talks about MERS and mass events

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and the risks posed by massive gatherings of people, such as the Hajj