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CNS News & Views:
September 2016
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North Korea launching the satellite Kwangmyongsong-4 in early February. Pyongyang stated on Tuesday a new satellite rocket engine was tested as Kim provided guidance on the site. File Photo by KCNA |
With its fifth and most powerful nuclear explosive test, followed just days by its reportedly most powerful rocket engine test to date, North Korea has once again made headlines. In order to make sense of the newest tests, their details, and their implications, journalists once again turn to CNS experts for our authoritative insight into the Hermit Kingdom.
This month, our team of North Korea experts have been quoted extensively in outlets as wide-ranging as the New York Times, Reuters, CNN, Yonhap, Voice of America, Wired, Salon, Al Jazeera, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Business Insider, Japan Times, Popular Mechanics, the Diplomat, NK News, and more.
New Analysis
- "
Why is North Korea's Fifth Nuclear Test Different from its Other Tests?" Jeffrey Lewis in
The Atlantic
- "
The Range of North Korean ICBMs," Joshua Pollack at ArmsControlWonk.com
- "
Another North Korean Nuclear Test," Jeffrey Lewis at ArmsControlWonk.com
Media Resources
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Undersecretary Rose Gottemoeller and
NPR Editor Joshua Pollack
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WMD Elimination: New NPR and launch event
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Jayantha Dhanapala. Image courtesy of the CTBTO |
Who is Afraid of Consensus at the NPT Review Conference?
In response to the
April 2016 CNS Issue Brief by Robert Einhorn, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala wrote a new CNS Issue Brief in defense of consensus as an indispensable goal of the review process of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Rather than "circumscribe the review process"--particularly the decision-making process agreed upon at the 1995 Review and Extension Conference-- Ambassador Dhanapala, who serves on the CNS International Advisory Council-- argues that the treaty can be strengthened by focusing on three developments: the withering of Article VI (disarmament) commitments, the lack of "serious" efforts in the Middle East, and the "disastrous" consequences of "opportunistic" nuclear-weapon state behavior on the norm of nonproliferation.
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Swiss Ambassador Rolf Stalder at the launch event with the co-authors and host
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Improving the Security of All Nuclear Materials
On September 20, 2016, the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (
VCDNP) hosted the presentation of a report titled "Improving the Security of
All Nuclear Materials: Legal, political, and institutional options to advance international oversight," co-produced by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (
IISS), CNS, and VCDNP.
Over 80 percent of the nuclear materials in the world are in non-civilian programs. Yet coordinated global efforts to enhance the security of nuclear materials have been almost exclusively concentrated on the remaining percentage of nuclear materials used in the civilian sector. The report argues that strengthening the security of all weapons-usable nuclear materials is of international concern, and suggests ways in which this can be achieved.
The report was introduced by Project Co-Directors Mark Fitzpatrick, IISS-Americas executive director, and Elena Sokova, CNS deputy director. The report was commissioned by the Government of Switzerland.
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Dr. Chen Kane makes an intervention during the BWC workshop
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Toward the 8th Biological Weapons Convention Review Conference
CNS and the US Department of State co-sponsored a workshop on the challenges and opportunities presented by the Eighth Review Conference of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC). The workshop, held at the CNS Washington office, examined what is at stake at the Review Conference that will take place from November 7-25, 2016, in Geneva.
The workshop engaged fifty government officials and nongovernmental experts to discuss what state parties need to accomplish, what is possible given the political circumstances, and the consequences of failing to meet those aims.
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The Next Generation of Middle East Experts
The Middle East Next Generation of Arms Control Specialists Network (MENACS) met in August in Prague, Czech Republic, for its annual meeting.
The objective of the Network, a CNS project established in 2010 by Middle East Program Director Chen Kane, is to develop and nurture indigenous arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament processes and expertise in the Middle East through capacity building, training, regional dialogue, knowledge dissemination, and teaching-by-example.
The August meeting reviewed work related to:
- A report that identified the building blocks required to negotiate and implement a Middle East free of WMD.
- Strengthening the participation of Middle Eastern delegations in the BWC review process.
- The challenges related to the ongoing use of chemical weapons by non-state actors in the region.
The group also convened in September in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at Sandia National Laboratories for a training on nuclear verification concepts and technologies, including missile dismantlement verification.
Read more.
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