by Alicia Godsberg Yesterday FAS premiered our documentary Paths To Zero at the NPT RevCon. The screening was a great success and there was a very engaging conversation afterward between the audience and Ivan Oelrich, who was there to promote the film. As a result of some suggestions, we are hoping to translate the narration […]
Ever since the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was eliminated in 1995 by the resurgent Republican majority, some members of Congress, science policy advocates, and others having been searching for a way to replace the depth of expertise and and the often trenchant policy analysis that it once provided to Congress and the public. Now […]
Each year, Congress inserts language in the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act prohibiting the Congressional Research Service from “pay[ing] any salary or expense in connection with any publication” that has not been specifically approved by the House Administration Committee or the Senate Rules and Administration Committee. The intent of the language is to prevent CRS from […]
By Matthew Buongiorno Scoville Fellow Shortly after the United States invaded Iraq and disbanded its army, the Bush Administration concluded that a key to stabilizing the country was the creation of a self-sufficient and effective Iraqi Security Force (ISF). To this end, the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund (IRRF) – later succeeded by the Iraq […]
A Russian brochure misrepresents the size of the Russian arsenal. Click image to download copy of full procure . By Hans M. Kristensen A brochure handed out by the Russian government at the ongoing nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York appears to misrepresent the size of the Russian nuclear arsenal. The brochure Practical […]
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference is Underway in New York By Hans M. Kristensen I gave two talks at the review conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, both on non-strategic nuclear weapons. The first was an FAS/BASIC panel on May 10 on Prospects for a shift in NATO’s nuclear posture. The second was a panel organized […]
Last week, prosecutors in the case of Thomas A. Drake, the former NSA official who is charged with unlawfully retaining classified information that he allegedly disclosed to a reporter, asked the court to hold a pre-trial conference on the use of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) in that case. CIPA was passed by Congress […]
New reports on nuclear policy prepared by the Congressional Research Service that have not been made readily available to the public include the following (all pdf). “The New START Treaty: Central Limits and Key Provisions,” May 3, 2010. “2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference: Key Issues and Implications,” May 3, 2010. “Securing Nuclear Materials: The […]
Officials of the Environmental Protection Agency intentionally stopped keeping records concerning potentially hazardous landfills in New Mexico in order to circumvent the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. They also marked unclassified records as “confidential” in order to restrict their dissemination, a report (pdf) from the EPA Inspector General found. One EPA official […]
The latest volume of the official “Foreign Relations of the United States” (FRUS) series was published by the State Department yesterday on the topic of Korea, 1969-1972. It covers U.S. relations with the Republic of Korea as well as disputes with North Korea during the Nixon Administration. Remarkably, declassification of the 489-page FRUS volume (pdf) […]
Leaders of more than a dozen public interest organizations and professional societies wrote to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to applaud two recent achievements in nuclear weapons transparency: the publication of the Nuclear Posture Review Report for the first time in unclassified format and the disclosure of the size of the U.S. nuclear stockpile. “We […]
The Obama administration has declassified the history and size of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, a long-held national secret. Click image to get the fact sheet. By Hans M. Kristensen The Obama administration has formally disclosed the size of the Defense Department’s stockpile of nuclear weapons: 5,113 warheads as of September 30, 2009. For a […]