Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Research Articles

Historical lessons of the Orion and NERVA projects: Managing public opinion and political uncertainty in space programs

This publication examines the history of Project Orion and NERVA nuclear engine program within the Integrated Program Plan, the technical reasons for their study, their progress, and the political reasons for their cancellation. Whether pulsed or thermal, nuclear propulsion offers the best compromise in efficiency and thrust for the propulsion of future manned missions. Project Orion was born in the mind of Stanislaw Ulam, an atomic physicist who had worked on the Manhattan project. Despite theoretical performances superior to anything conceivable even with current technologies, and despite the mobilisation of some of the most brilliant physicists of the time (Freeman Dyson), the project was killed by the Treaty banning nuclear weapon tests in the atmosphere, in outer space and under water (Moscow, 5 August 1963). The Integrated Program Plan was Wernher von Braun's proposal to the Space Task Group (STG), chaired by Vice President Spiro Agnew, for the continuation of the Apollo program. This plan envisaged a lunar base in the 1970s, and a first manned mission to Mars in the early 1980s. All of this would have been powered by nuclear-powered orbital shuttles, using NERVA, a nuclear engine tested and operational since 1968. Here again, even though it performed better than anything else in the world, even today, the project failed politically. This retrospective publication therefore aims to answer the following question: How can nuclear space programs of today and tomorrow be protected from the uncertainties of this influence?The study of propulsion systems is very often left to engineers, and political and public relations issues to politicians. However, every technology is the result of a political system, and has a strategic impact, which is a subject for social and political sciences. That's why this paper adopts an original approach crossing social sciences through the historical study of decision-making dynamics, and engineering through the study of the technical characteristics of the projects involved. This publication is based on declassified technical reports, testimonies of the personalities of the time, and a document from the archives of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. History can be the academic bridge between political and technical studies. In a context of resurgence of nuclear propulsion projects throughout the world, such an approach is now necessary both at the historical level and in terms of political decisions making. Indeed, space programs involving nuclear energy are, by nature, at the crossroads of public relations issues very specific to both space and atomic subjects.

Norms for the Earth: Changing the Climate on “Climate Change”

AbstractClimate change poses a grave security threat to national borders, habitats, and vulnerable people. Plagued by asymmetries in both states' vulnerability to climate impacts and their capacity to mitigate them, climate change presents states with a “wicked” problem that poses significant obstacles to interest-based solutions. Yet, most global climate change policy involves rationales and mechanisms grounded in an interest-based logic of consequences: information-sharing, reciprocity, and exchange. We argue that strategies that promote ethics-based discourse and policies offer considerable promise for hastening stronger global climate governance. We argue that successes in human security norm-building, including bans on land mines, cluster munitions, and nuclear weapons, provide climate scholars and practitioners with alternative governance models that rely on activating a logic of appropriateness and spearhead faster, more effective climate action. We identify five strategies that previous scholars have shown fostered efforts to promote a logic of appropriateness in human rights, humanitarian law, and disarmament. We examine the empirical experience of those strategies and particularly highlight the recent success of efforts to negotiate a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Given the success of these strategies in other issue areas, we argue scholars of climate change could fruitfully focus greater attention on political efforts that promote strong global ethical norms for climate action.

Ban the bomb by… banning the bomb?

KEYWORDS: Budapest memorandumCrimeaDonbasNATONuclear Non-Proliferation Treatynuclear weapon ban treatynuclear weaponsRussiaUkraineUnited States

Changing the discourse on nuclear weapons: The humanitarian initiative

AbstractThis article examines the progress of the humanitarian initiative to reframe the nuclear weapons discourse internationally. The initiative seeks to shift debate away from theories of strategic stability and towards a focus on the impact of nuclear weapons themselves. This effort has now gathered significant support at an international level, and its implications are increasingly recognized by both nuclear-armed and non-nuclear-armed States. The initiative has been underpinned by the deliberate logic of humanitarian disarmament. A treaty banning nuclear weapons, around which momentum is gathering, would be an achievable, legally coherent and logical next step developing from the initiative.

Ban the bomb?

Decades after several nuclear weapon states committed themselves to pursuing disarmament “in good faith” and “at an early date,” frustration over the pace of disarmament is growing more conspicuous. For example, calls are emerging to establish a treaty banning nuclear weapons, essentially making outlaws of nuclear-armed nations. Authors from three countries—Richard Lennane of Australia (2014), Bharat Karnad of India (2014), and Héctor Guerra of Mexico—address this question: How would prospects for disarmament be affected if non-nuclear nations established a treaty that banned nuclear weapons outright—and how might such a ban be enforced?

Ban the bomb?

Decades after several nuclear weapon states committed themselves to pursuing disarmament “in good faith” and “at an early date,” frustration over the pace of disarmament is growing more conspicuous. For example, calls are emerging to establish a treaty banning nuclear weapons, essentially making outlaws of nuclear-armed nations. Authors from three countries—Richard Lennane of Australia, Bharat Karnad of India (2014), and Héctor Guerra of Mexico (2014)—address this question: How would prospects for disarmament be affected if non-nuclear nations established a treaty that banned nuclear weapons outright—and how might such a ban be enforced?

Ban the bomb?

Decades after several nuclear weapon states committed themselves to pursuing disarmament “in good faith” and “at an early date,” frustration over the pace of disarmament is growing more conspicuous. For example, calls are emerging to establish a treaty banning nuclear weapons, essentially making outlaws of nuclear-armed nations. Authors from three countries—Richard Lennane of Australia (2014), Bharat Karnad of India, and Héctor Guerra of Mexico (2014)—address this question: How would prospects for disarmament be affected if non-nuclear nations established a treaty that banned nuclear weapons outright—and how might such a ban be enforced?

Modernization of nuclear weapons: Aspiring to “indefinite retention”?

Currently, all nations with nuclear weapons are modernizing their arsenals, delivery systems, and related infrastructure. These programs have serious implications for nuclear disarmament. By investing in the extension, upgrading, and reinforcement of their arsenals and capacities, the author writes, these governments are investing in the future of nuclear weapons, not in the future of disarmament. Other non-nuclear states have expressed concern with these programs and are using international venues, including the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review conferences, to call on the nuclear-armed states to cease these programs, which undermine the objectives of the treaty in terms of both non-proliferation and disarmament. Ending upgrades and investment in nuclear weapons would help establish the necessary conditions for disarmament. The author writes that non-nuclear weapon states should further advance the conditions for disarmament by negotiating a treaty banning nuclear weapons, highlighting that the world’s governments, themselves, do not need to possess nuclear weapons in order to prohibit them.

A Verifiable Limited Test Ban for Anti-satellite Weapons

The growing number of actors pursuing sophisticated outer space programs gives rise to one of the more novel challenges of the global commons. Once the privileged domain of the United States and th...

Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in The Atmosphere in Outer Space and Under Water (Limited/Partial Test Ban Treaty)

Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in The Atmosphere in Outer Space and Under Water (Limited/Partial Test Ban Treaty)

Books Received

Books Received Blair P. Turner Compiler Virginia Military Institue General American Coastal Defenses 1885–1950. By T. McGovern and B. Smith. New York: Osprey Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-84176-922-3. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Glossary. Index. Pp. 64. Paper. $16.95. No. 44 in the Fortress Series offers an introduction to the development of "modern era" coastal defense fortifications in the U.S. Biological Weapons: From the Invention of State-Sponsored Programs to Contemporary Bioterrorism. By Jeanne Guillemin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-231-12943-2. Notes. Index. Pp. xii, 258. Paper. $18.95. The author examines the development of extensive biological weapons programs in the twentieth century in the U.S., Great Britain, Japan, and the U.S.S.R. and the consequences for the contemporary post–Cold War world, concluding with a call for increased U.S. action to increase security against bioterrorism. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty: An Insider's Perspective. By Keith A. Hansen. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8047-5303-2. Tables. Appendixes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xix, 232. $24.95. "The fascinating story of the multilateral negotiations that produced the treaty banning nuclear weapons tests, as told by a participant" and which the U.S. has yet to ratify. Europe and Iran: Perspectives on Non-Proliferation. Edited by Shannon N. Kile. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and the Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-929088-1. Notes. Appendixes. Index. Pp. ix, 152. Paper. SIRI Report No. 21 outlines the efforts of the European Union to combat the spread of WMD, focusing on its negotiations with Iran. A History of Modern Germany, 1800–2000. By Martin Kitchen. Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-4051-0041-9. Maps. Photographs. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xi, 455. Paper. This text offers a comprehensive history of Germany from its origins as a "ramshackle empire" in 1800, through the tempestuous 19th and 20th centuries to its current status as a reunified state. The Impact of Quarantine on Military Operations. By Robert I. Miller. Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.: Air University Press, 2005. Notes. Pp. 47. Paper. The author of USAF Counterproliferation Paper No. 31 discusses the public-health strategy of quarantine and its potential impact on USAF operations. Military Cartridge Headstamps: Collector's Guide: Code Book. Compiled by Charles Conklin. Westminster, Md.: Heritage Books, 2006. ISBN 0-7884-4117-5. Illustrations. Tables. Index. Pp. 149. Paper. $35.00. An identification guide for collectors and analysts of international small arms ammunition. Osama's Wake: The Second Generation of Al Qaeda. By Blake Ward. Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.: Air University Press, 2005. Figure. Notes. Pp. 44. Paper. The author of this examination of the terrorist organization's replenishment efforts states that "ample Al Qaeda allies and sympathizers [End Page 1196] exist beyond the first generation to sustain a threat to U.S. interests:" USAF Counterproliferation Paper No. 32. Reposturing the Force: U.S. Overseas Presence in the Twenty-first Century. Edited by Carnes Lord. Newport, R.I.: Naval War College Press, 2006. Maps. Notes. Pp. 192. Paper. In Naval War College Newport Paper No. 26, six authorities offer an assessment of "the ongoing reconfiguration of America's military 'footprint' abroad." SECDEF: The Nearly Impossible Job of Secretary of Defense. By Charles A. Stevenson. Washington: Potomac Books, 2006. ISBN 1-57488-794-7. Photographs. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xii, 248. $24.95. The author has served in advisory capacities in the U.S. Senate and observed numerous Secretaries of Defense; his analysis of the position and its incumbents aims to discover why only half served more than eighteen months in the most difficult job in Washington. The US Military Profession in the Twenty-First Century: War, Peace and Politics. Second Edition. By Sam C. Sarkesian and Robert E. Connor, Jr. New York: Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0-415-35851-5. Tables. Notes. Select bibliography. Index. Pp. 238. Originally published in 1999, this analysis of civil-military relations and military policy has...

Tactical Advantages of Opening Positioning Strategies

This study assesses Soviet and American positioning strategy dunng the negotiation of the 1971 treaty banning nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction from the seabed. It finds the superpowers employed both maximalist and equitable postures in the initial draft treaties they submitted. Evidence suggests that the negotiation would have been concluded more expeditiously, the outcome being the same, had the United States and the Soviet Union at the outset adopted equitable positioning strategies on the three focal points of the negotiation-the comprehensiveness of the prohibition, its geography, and verificanon-rather than opting for preferences commonly recognized as anathema to the other.

Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water

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