Events

The United States stationed thousands of nuclear weapons in Europe during the Cold War in order to support the common defense of NATO members in Europe. While the environment in which the NATO nuclear mission finds its purpose has changed since the Cold War and the number of U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Europe has been scaled back significantly, concerns about Russian tactical nuclear forces, the Iranian nuclear program, and the political importance of nuclear weapons to NATO solidarity raise important questions about how NATO should proceed as it outlines its nuclear mission in the 2010 Strategic Concept.

USIP held an informative discussion with Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state for verification, compliance, and implementation, on the verification provisions of the New START agreement.  Her remarks were followed by an expert panel discussion on the implications of verification for the START ratification process and a lively Q & A session with the audience.

On July 27, 2009, a panel of experts reviewed the destructive potential of a nuclear weapon, and discussed the role of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) as keystone agreements to halt the spread of nuclear weapons technology.