The United States Institute of Peace held a conference Wednesday, June 27, 2012 in Washington, D.C., to present a series of commissioned papers on the changing and static elements of Iranian politics. The papers focused on topics such as the effects of welfare on Iranian society, the presence or lack of the rule of law, and how the Supreme Leader should be read as an institution rather than a personality. One of the editors, Dan Brumberg, Senior Advisor to Center for the Conflict Analysis and Prevention, explained that reformists and liberals face hardliners who reject all reform as the first step on the slippery slope to oblivion.
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Photo courtesy of Shutterstock This Monday, June 25, the Brookings Institution hosted John Everard, the former British ambassador to North Korea who spent two and a half years of his life in the country, from 2005 to 2008. The panel featured David Straub and Jonathan Pollack, with Richard Bush moderating. Everard gave a presentation on his experience in North Korea, entitled “Beyond Official North Korea: A British Diplomat’s Observations of Daily Life,” which consisted of observations that were the basis for his book on the topic. Everard described life in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as poverty-striken and desperate, but he put a human face on the citizens of the country.
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On Tuesday, June 19, 2012, I spoke on a panel at the United States Nuclear Infrastructure Council’s summit on new nuclear energy outlook and opportunities in Washington, DC. I spoke…
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On Tuesday, June 12, the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities investigated the determining metrics for nonproliferation programs. The meeting, which was led by Senators Kay Hagan of North Carolina and Rob Portman of Ohio, featured testimonies from Madelyn Creedon, the assistant secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs, Anne Harrington, the deputy administrator for the Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation with the National Nuclear Security Administration at the Department of Energy, and Kenneth Myers, the director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency and of the U.S. Strategic Command Center for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction.
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Anthrax. Smallpox. Plague. We are familiar with these potential weapons of mass destruction, but how do they differ from other WMDs? In a new edition of the FAS podcast series, "A Conversation with an Expert," Ms. Kelsey Gregg, Manager of the Biosecurity Program and Virtual Biosecurity Center discusses biological weapons and how they differ from other types of weapons.
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注意:联合会发布的新报告f American Scientists and Washington and Lee University, The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States, is available online here. Nuclear power is all over the news today, yet there remains many unanswered questions regarding this power source. A new article written by Dr. Frank Settle and Dr. Charles D. Ferguson, (editors of the recently published report, The Future of Nuclear Power in the United States), examines questions such as how nuclear power differs from other sources of electricity and future expansion of the nuclear power industry in the United States.
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FAS摘要:2012年1月16日集团的影响ssination of Iranian nuclear scientist for Tehran's nuclear program, musings about EMP, nuclear pursuits in 2012 and much more. From the Blogs Radiation and Pregnancy: Can we expect to see legions of children born with birth defects in the aftermath of a radiological attack? True – radiation can cause birth defects and it has been shown to induce mutations in animals. But the amount of radiation required to cause birth defects in humans is substantial. After the Pulse-Musings About EMP: Recently, there has been a flurry of commentary regarding the potential of an EMP attack against the United States by a terrorist group or rogue nuclear nation. Dr. Y gives a brief overview of EMP and discusses the plausibility of this scenario on the ScienceWonk blog. The End of the World (as we know it?): The world is still here. It didn’t end on May 21 as predicted by Harold Camping and it also didn’t end on the date of his revised prophecy – October 21. No matter how convincingly the argument is made, it seems that the world is determined to end at some unpredictable time in the future. The predicted reasons for the end of the world tend to fall into three categories: divine reasons, "scientific" reasons, and human reasons. Back to Basics-Radiation Units: Dr. Y analyzes what radiation safety units really mean and gives a feel for levels that are considered normal, interesting, or alarming on the ScienceWonk blog.
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I am excited to tell you that I will appear on PBS’s Frontline on Tuesday, January 17, 2012. In “Nuclear Aftershocks,” Miles O’Brien examines the hazards and…
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FAS Roundup: November 14, 2011 Dispute over nuclear weapons program costs, IAEA Iran report analysis, new documentary on anthrax, terrorist threat to Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and more. From the Blogs New Air Force policy directive on "Directive Energy Weapons" and letter from Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) to President Obama asking to expedite the declassification of U.S. intelligence documents pertaining to Argentina’s so-called “dirty war” during the military dictatorship that lasted from 1976 to the mid-1980s. Dispute over Cost of Nuclear Weapons Program: Steven Aftergood investigates the radically different estimates of cost of the U.S. nuclear program presented by members of Congress in the past few weeks. The disparate estimates, which vary by hundreds of billions of dollars, reflect a lack of consensus about how to properly assess the cost of nuclear weapons.
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On October 27, 2011, FAS has joined the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) and other arms control groups to send a letter to the Obama administration asking for stronger action to support its budget goals for nuclear nonproliferation programs. Please find the letter below. 2011 November 1: Foreign Policy, "Arms Control Groups Appeal to Obama for Help With Congress"
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