On the radar: Missileer malaise worsening; Profile of Iran’s new foreign minister; the Latest on Syria; IAEA report forthcoming; Khamenei’s world view; and Planning to re-fight the Cold War.

August 27, 2013 | Edited by Benjamin Loehrke

Change of command - “The Air Force has removed the commander of a nuclear weapons unit at a Montana base following a failed safety and security inspection that marked the second major misstep this year for one of the military’s most sensitive missions,” reports The Military Times. http://bit.ly/19WGzjh [1]

Neglected, outmoded, dangerous - “In 2008, a Pentagon review found “a dramatic and unacceptable decline” in the way the Air Force was handling its nuclear mission. Senior officials were cashiered. Their replacements were ordered to fix the problems. They have failed to do so. What should be the most rigorously disciplined element in the US military is repeatedly found unworthy of its awesome responsibility,” writes James Carroll for The Boston Globe.

--Carroll argues that President Obama does not need negotiations to “to deal with the outmoded, redundant, and dangerous Minuteman III missile force,” urging the president to independently reshape the nuclear force. Full article here. http://b.globe.com/1fgAUSp [2]

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Why do we have ICBMs anyway? - Deep read on “The Growth and Evolution of the U.S. Nuclear Stockpile” by Stan Norris of the Federation of American Scientists. http://bit.ly/15tw3f9 [7]

Plans - “Flight Plan for the Air Force Nuclear Enterprise” by Headquarters U.S. Air Force. June 26, 2013.

--Summary: “This document from the Nuclear Oversight Board (NOB) guides long-term, continuous efforts to strengthen the Air Force nuclear enterprise (NE). It provides a strategic-level, Air Force-wide, perspective for all elements of the NE. It is designed to advance and monitor the overall health of the NE and its supporting infrastructure and processes.” Full report here. (pdf) http://1.usa.gov/17hc57W [8]

Staffing - Iran’s new president recently appointed a new foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif. “If Iran’s leadership has decided to pursue a new policy of easing tensions with the West, and that still remains to be seen, Mr. Zarif would seem the ideal person to carry it out,” writes Thomas Erdbrink.

--Providing background on the new foreign minister, Erdbrink notes that Zarif studied in the U.S., helped draft the Iran-Iraq cease fire, served as Iran’s representative to the UN under reformist President Mohammad Khatami and was part of the negotiating team in 2003 when Iran struck a deal with the west to suspend uranium enrichment. Full article in The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/13WphjE [9]

On the ground in Syria, behind the scenes in DC - “Blasts in the Night, a Smell, and a Flood of Syrian Victims” by Ben Hubbard, Mark Mazzetti and Mark Landler for The New York Times. http://nyti.ms/1dLJL0j [10]

Speech - “President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people. Nothing today is more serious, and nothing is receiving more serious scrutiny,” said Secretary of State John Kerry in a speech on the administration’s response to the chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Full transcript here. http://nyti.ms/12HGA5i [11]

Background - “Arms Control and Proliferation Profile: Syria” from the Arms Control Association. http://bit.ly/17bGkz0 [12]

Tweet - @BulletinAtomic [13]: The Chemical Weapons of Syria http://bit.ly/1dmFEdy [14]

IAEA preview - A new IAEA report on Iran is expected to show that, over the previous several months, Iran increased the number of installed uranium enrichment centrifuges while maintaining limits on its stockpile of sensitive 20% enriched uranium. Fredrik Dahl at Reuters previews the IAEA report. http://reut.rs/1dk8iuE [15]

Deep read - Who Is Ali Khamenei: The Worldview of Iran’s Supreme Leader” by Akbar Ganji in Foreign Affairs. http://fam.ag/181EwVt [16]

Arguments against reductions - “Minimum Deterrence: Examining the Evidence,” new report from the National Institute for Public Policy.

--Study Director Keith Payne. Review Chairman Sec. James Schlesinger. Participants include Gen. Kevin Chilton, Amb. Eric Edelman, Amb. Robert Joseph, Adm. Rihard Mies, Sen. Charles Robb, Frank Miller, Gen. Larry Welch and James Woolsey. Full report here. (pdf) http://bit.ly/145Q1ZU [17]

Mismatched budget priorities - “No one seriously expects a nuclear war among the major powers, but we prepare for it anyway, and we pay the price in our budget, our strategic thought, and our diplomacy. While we wring our hands about whether we can handle Syria—which is remarkable given how much time we spend contemplating a far larger war in the Pacific with a near-peer like China—we continue to pour money and deep thinking into preparing for the coming nuclear war, the conflict we escaped during the Cold War but still plan for as if all of our tomorrows are yesterday,” writes Tom Nichols in The National Interest. http://bit.ly/1dLQZ4B [18]

Events:

--”Guarding Against a Nuclear-Armed Iran: Proliferation Risks and Diplomatic Options.” Discussion with Amb. Thomas Pickering, David Albright, George Perkovich and Daryl Kimball. September 5th from 9:00am-10:30am at the Carnegie Endowment. Details and RSVP here. http://ceip.org/1dweZbK [19]

--”The Path to Zero: The role of the United Nations in Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation.” September 5, 10:00 AM. Webcast here. http://webtv.un.org/ [20]

--President Obama attends the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg. September 5-6.