This Tuesday, an event took place in Eastern Kazakhstan that did not make the front pages of leading newspapers or the breaking news feeds of international information agencies. Nonetheless, the event’s significance should not be underestimated. On August 29, the International Atomic Energy Agency Low-Enriched Uranium Bank was officially opened at the Ulba Metallurgical Plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk. The date was no accident: on August 29, 1991, the Semipalatinsk Test Site was shut down, and the UN later...
Are Nuclear Weapons Protected against Cyber Attacks?
We are witnessing a general trend towards the militarization of cyberspace, and nuclear weapons are no exception. What will happen to strategic stability should cyber weapons be employed? Are nuclear weapons capable of deterring cyber warfare?
Formalization of the Threat
RIAC and EWI Policy Brief “Suggestions on Russia-U.S. Cooperation in Cybersecurity”
Several events took place in 2016 which allow us to speak about the new status of cyberspace...
How to achieve mutual U.S. – Russia reductions without reducing the margin of superiority over China and others?
Ilya Kramnik
has shown
that the equations of U.S. and Russian nuclear planning and interests not only do not converge on a potential for new reductions agreements, but rather diverge. The pressures are centrifugal not centripetal; they point to new competitive developments and deployments.
This result, while not in itself catastrophic, is distressing. It entails piecemeal mutual escalation...
On February 18, Munich hosted Euro-Atlantic Security Leadership Group meeting within the framework of
53rd Munich Security Conference
. The Group aims to discuss practical steps to reduce the threat of military conflict in Europe. It unites heads of state, foreign ministers and members of parliaments of many European countries and the U.S., as well as international organizations representatives, public figures and experts.
The event covered the renunciation of nuclear weapons, reducing nuclear combat...
Europe, the US, and Russia are confronting a range of significant issues today. The practical near-term steps that we have identified here are the right place to begin. We need to start now.
The chasm between Russia and the West appears to be wider now than at any point since the Cold War. But, despite stark differences, there are areas of existential common interest. As we did during the darkest days of the Cold War, Americans, Europeans, and Russians must work together to avoid catastrophe,...
... Studies (
CENESS
) launched a new joint report on the future of U.S.-Russian nuclear cooperation.
The report includes 51 recommendations for mutually beneficial cooperation across five thematic areas: nuclear science, nuclear energy, nuclear safety, nuclear security, and nuclear environmental remediation. If implemented, these projects could result in safer nuclear reactors, stronger defenses against nuclear and radiological terrorism, and cleaner approaches to nuclear environmental remediation.
...
... International Affairs Council holds a seminar with participation of Associate Professor of International Politics at the University of Leicester Andrew Futter:
«War Games Redux? Cyberthreats, US–Russian Strategic Stability, and New Challenges for Nuclear Security and Arms Control».
Some 30 years since the release of the Hollywood blockbuster
War Games
, the possibility that hackers might break into nuclear command and control facilities, compromise early warning or firing systems, or even ...
Today, global leaders gather for a final Nuclear Security Summit to take action to prevent terrorists from building and detonating a nuclear bomb. This requires securing and reducing nuclear bomb-making materials—plutonium and highly enriched uranium—around the world.
Since the Summits ...
The threat of nuclear war between Russia and the West, long relegated to Cold War history, reappeared last year as the crisis in East-West relations escalated.
Russian strategic bombers now fly long-range patrols near the coast of the US and its NATO allies, while Russian missile tests and military exercises involving simulated use of nuclear weapons raise the specter of nuclear war. The US responds as its defense analysts discuss options for boosting nuclear deterrence in Europe to counter Russian...
... causes was complacency: those in charge of the facility believed that their safety systems were robust, and there was no effective independent oversight.
The disaster in Japan has spurred reforms in the field of nuclear safety. But when it comes to nuclear security, complacency remains a major problem. We must not wait until tragedy strikes to do something about it.
Today, well over 1.5 million kilograms of highly enriched uranium and plutonium – key ingredients for nuclear weapons – ...
