New FRUS Volume Declassified After Four Year Review
The latest volume of the State Department’s Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series documents U.S. Mideast policy before, during and immediately after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. It was published this month following a four year declassification review that lasted from 2006 to 2010.
Among numerous topics of historic and current interest, the 1200 page volume (pdf) touches glancingly on the issue of Israel’s nuclear weapons program.
“Do Egypt and Israel have the capability to make nuclear weapons?” asked Sen. Mike Mansfield at a November 27, 1973 White House meeting (page 993). “Israel has the capability to make small numbers,” answered Henry Kissinger. “Not Egypt.” (This exchange was also noted by Amir Oren in Ha’aretz on July 22).
The late Admiral Noel A. Gayler, the former NSA director and advocate of nuclear disarmament who died July 14, is included on the list of “Persons” in the new FRUS volume though his name does not appear elsewhere in the text.
In recent months, we’ve seen much of these decades’ worth of progress erased. Contracts for evaluations of government programs were canceled, FFRDCs have been forced to lay off staff, and federal advisory committees have been disbanded.
This report outlines a framework relying on “Cooperative Technical Means” for effective arms control verification based on remote sensing, avoiding on-site inspections but maintaining a level of transparency that allows for immediate detection of changes in nuclear posture or a significant build-up above agreed limits.
At a recent workshop, we explored the nature of trust in specific government functions, the risk and implications of breaking trust in those systems, and how we’d known we were getting close to specific trust breaking points.
tudents in the 21st century need strong critical thinking skills like reasoning, questioning, and problem-solving, before they can meaningfully engage with more advanced domains like digital, data, or AI literacy.