Obama Arrives at the UN

UN Security Council Sets Final Nuclear Resolution Draft – Global Security Newswire [link]

• The final version is six pages in length and highlights the importance of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. It calls for increased membership in that pact and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and backs the creation of nuclear weapon-free zones.
• During the meeting, Obama intends to "emphasize the importance of strengthening the international nuclear nonproliferation regime" and to assert that the Security Council has a key role in ensuring that nations meet their commitments under the regime, said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

AQ Khan Nails Pakistan’s Nuke Lies – The Times of India [link]

• An angry, humiliated, and wounded A.Q.Khan has finally made public and official what has long been suspected: his nuclear proliferation activities that included exchanging and passing blue-prints and equipment to China, Iran, North Korea, and Libya was done at the behest of the Pakistani government and military, and he was forced to take the rap for it.

Nuclear Test Ban Back on the Table – Scientific American [link]

• The combination of a strong commitment from US President Barack Obama, along with new data on nuclear materials and the successful completion of a global nuclear-monitoring network, means that momentum is once again swinging in favour of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) that would ban all nuclear explosions for military or civilian purposes.
• The United States is seen as a linchpin in the process, according to Meier; if it ratifies the CTBT, then other nations such as China, India and Pakistan may feel more pressure to do so.

Details Emerge of Cold War Nuclear Threat by Cuba – New York Times [link]

• In the early 1980s, according to newly released documents, Fidel Castro was suggesting a Soviet nuclear strike against the United States, until Moscow dissuaded him by patiently explaining how the radioactive cloud resulting from such a strike would also devastate Cuba.
• Moscow’s effort to enlighten Mr. Castro to the innate messiness of nuclear warfare is among a number of disclosures in the Pentagon study. Other findings in the study include how the Soviets strove for nuclear superiority but “understood the devastating consequences of nuclear war” and believed that the use of nuclear weapons had to be avoided “at all costs.”
• Click here to read excerpts from the declassified interviews with former Soviet officials.

A View from the Dark Side

Erring on the Side of Incaution – John Bolton in The Washington Times [link]

• President Obama's decision not to deploy anti-ballistic missile defense assets in Poland and the Czech Republic is unambiguously wrong. It reflects an unrequited concession to Russian belligerence, an embarrassing abandonment of two of America's strongest European allies, and an appalling lack of understanding of the present and future risks posed by Iran. Worse, this unforced retreat of American hard power clearly signals what may well be a long American recessional globally.
• Mr. Obama's rationale for abandoning the Eastern European sites ignores the important reasons they were created, underestimates the Iranian threat, and bends the knee unnecessarily to Russia.