New START Community Call Summary
May 20, 2010
On May 13th, Council for a Livable World members participated in a conference call with Council Executive Director John Isaacs, and chairman of the Council’s sister organization, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, Jr.
Isaacs is one of the leaders of the nation’s arms control community and has long been an expert on the workings of Congress. He has represented the Council on Capitol Hill since 1978. Gard’s current work focuses on nuclear non-proliferation, missile defense, Afghanistan, Iran, and other national security issues. Among other accomplishments, during his 31-year military career, Gen. Gard saw combat in both the Korean and Vietnam wars, and also served as Executive Assistant to two secretaries of defense.
The conversation with Gard and Isaacs covered this year’s “Nuclear Spring” and what is to come for New START in Congress.
Click here for a summary of the call or to listen to the full audio.
John Isaacs vs. Baker Spring on Nuke Reductions
Feb 17, 2010
Check out highlights of yesterday's debate in our summary online, or listen to the audio at the Project on Nuclear Issues at CSIS.
Isaacs and Heritage's Spring debate,“Further reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal are in the national security interest of the United States.”
In DC? Debate TONIGHT: John Isaacs vs. Baker Spring on Nuke Reductions
Feb 16, 2010
If you're in DC, join us TONIGHT for a debate between John Isaacs and the Heritage Foundation's Baker Spring. Details, including RSVP info below:
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PONI Debates the Issues: Nuclear Reductions
Resolved: further reductions in the nuclear arsenal are in the national security interest of the United States.
Date: Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 | 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Location: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1800 K Street, NW, Washington DC, 20006 CSIS B1 Conference Center
The CSIS Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI) will host the sixth event in a series of live debates that bring together top nuclear experts to debate key nuclear topics.
The debate will feature John Isaacs, Executive Director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Baker Spring, F.M. Kirby Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
To RSVP, contact Chris Jones via e-mail <mailto:cjones@csis.org> or by phone at (202) 775-3234
John Isaacs Returns to Russia TV
Feb 02, 2010
As Kingston says over at Nukes of Hazard, maybe John should take out a second office over at Russia Today. Yesterday John was returned to the program to discuss some of the issues delaying a new START agreement and President Obama's commitment to maintaining a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile. Check out the video here.
Meanwhile, it appears that the U.S. and Russia have resolved their remaining differences and reached a consensus in principle on a new START agreement.
Watch Executive Director John Isaacs on START
Jan 29, 2010
Last night, John was interviewed on Russia Today t.v. on START.
Watch the video to hear about what's at stake in the negotiations, the expected timeline for signing and ratifying the treaty, what the negotiations mean for the international community, and whether anything could derail it.
John Isaacs and Tom Schelling on Nuke Reductions
Jan 07, 2010
Yesterday afternoon, Council Executive Director John Isaacs appeared on Seattle NPR alongside Los Angeles Times reporter Paul Richter and Nobel Prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling to discuss nuclear reductions and the idea of a nuclear weapons free world.
Click here for the audio. Listen to the nuclear weapons segment beginning at 14:10, and John at 26:18.
Isaacs spoke about the need for nuclear reductions and the longer-term goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, and Schelling’s talk echoed arguments in his piece, "A World Without Nuclear Weapons?" from 2009 in Daedalus, which was featured in the New York Times' blog on Tuesday.
Click here to read the two-part commentary on Schelling’s article from Nukes of Hazard, the blog of our sister organization and research center, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.
Congress and President Obama's national security agenda
Mar 19, 2009
Everybody knows that Democrats had great success in the 2008 Congressional elections, but how difficult can Republican opposition make Obama’s attempts to institute a progressive agenda? Council ED John Isaacs just published a fantastic article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists on exactly this.
After proposing that an early Republican strategy of “Just Say No” to many Obama initiatives – from bills on health care for children to home foreclosures – is indicative of what’s to come, John breaks down foreign policy issues into those he believes Congress could make for Obama “merely ‘tough problems’” (negotiations with Iran and missile defense), “nothing more than a grumble” (troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan), and “extremely challenging issues” (the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty [CTBT] and the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty [START]).
Those “extremely challenging issues” unfortunately include two of the arms control movement’s primary goals for the coming years, but we’re up for the fight, and John thinks there’s reason for optimism:
Despite facing a determined, but small, GOP opposition, President Obama has moved--and will continue to move--full-speed ahead with a number of dramatic changes in U.S. policy. In the process he already has kicked over the Republican hornet's nest. The question in the months ahead will be whether Republicans will merely buzz around angrily in opposition or in some cases actually block decisions.
CLW sends letter to Obama Administration on cluster munitions
Feb 11, 2009
On February 10, Council for a Livable World's executive director, John Isaacs, along with leaders of 66 other national organizations, sent a letter to the Obama Administration requesting a review of U.S. policy on landmines and cluster bombs. The U.S. has so far refused to sign international treaties banning cluster munitions and landmines.
Key segments below, or click here to read the full letter.
In early December, as half of the world’s governments signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions in Oslo, a spokeswoman for your Transition Team said that you would “carefully review the new treaty and work closely [with] our friends and allies to ensure that the United States is doing everything feasible to promote protection of civilians.”
We welcomed this statement. We write now to urge you to launch a thorough review within the next six months of past U.S. policy decisions to stand outside the treaty banning cluster munitions, as well as the treaty banning anti-personnel landmines.
…Reconsidering these two treaties - and eliminating the threat that U.S. forces might use weapons that most of the world has condemned - would greatly aid efforts to reassert our nation’s moral leadership.
Council sends letter to Secretary Chu, Urging No New Nukes
Jan 30, 2009
Steven Chu was sworn in as the new Secretary of Energy on January 21, 2009.
John Isaacs, along with leaders of 12 other peace and security groups, sent a letter today to Obama's Energy Secretary Steven Chu, congratulating him on his appointment, and urging him to prevent the development of new nuclear weapons.
Click here to read the letter.
John and the other leaders identified in the letter than President Obama has repeatedly affirmed his support for nuclear weapons control, discussing the need to "lessen the nuclear threat" in his Inauguration speech and stating his support for the goal of a "world free of nuclear weapons" during his campaign. They recognized that,
In this historic administration, you and your department will have a unique opportunity to put into place policies that move the United States toward President Obama’s goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
Council for a Livable World and its coalition partners with the Campaign for a Nuclear Weapons Free World are working tirelessly to pursue this agenda in 2009.
