How the Law of the Sea Convention Benefits the United States

By Ben Friedman
November 2004

Beyond media scrutiny, a small group of extremists is blocking ratification of a treaty the United States spent 40 years perfecting. The Law of the Sea Convention, the product of negotiations begun under President Richard Nixon, governs the conduct of states on the world's oceans.

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Policy Brief: Bio-Terrorism

By Barry Kellman
August 2004

The security of America is threatened by terrorists using a biological weapon. The anthrax attacks of 2001 proved that even a small release can cause mass panic. Terrorists could be capable of a far more devastating catastrophe. What would have been the implications had the perpetrators of the Madrid subway attack used a pathogen instead of explosives? Would people who have such little regard for human life have
any compunctions against using disease? If terrorists get smallpox, the death toll and ensuing social chaos exceed calculation.

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Policy Brief: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)

By David Koplow
August 2004

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), signed on September 24, 1996, is the most important arms control agreement now pending. It would create a permanent, global, legally-binding prohibition on all nuclear explosions.

The CTBT cannot enter into force until the United States and 43 other specified countries ratify it. To date, 41 of those countries (excluding India, Pakistan, and North Korea) have signed the treaty; 32 of them (including Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and all the other members of NATO) have ratified. The United States (along with China, Israel, and Iran) has not ratified.

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Policy Brief: Weaponization of Space

By Amb. Robert Grey, Jr.
March 2004

Current policies toward weaponization of outer space are fatally flawed. They rest on the assumption that the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars in advanced weapons systems will give us complete dominance of outer space by military means and make our nation invulnerable to attack by weapons of mass destruction launched in the future by some other nation or by some group of terrorists. This policy is based upon the
illusion that the United States, acting on its own, can create a political and military environment which can make this nation and the world more secure.

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"Legitimacy" in International Affairs: A Response to
John Bolton

By Ben Friedman
March 2004

A Response to "'Legitimacy' in International Affairs: The American Perspective in Theory and Operation," Speech Given by Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, John Bolton, November 13, 2003.

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The Proliferation Security Initiative: The Legal Challenge

By Ben Friedman
September 2003

The Proliferation Security Initiative is an 11-nation plan to interdict ships on the high seas and territorial waters in an effort to prevent the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction components by states unfriendly to the United States and its allies. The plan raises serious legal questions, which are address in this brief.

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Status of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Interim Report

June 2003

"We Americans have a unique opportunity in the years ahead to continue to build an international order in which cooperation, the rule of law, and decreased reliance on nuclear weapons become the norm. Our past leadership in successive administrations got us this far. It would be folly to abandon these efforts now."--Amb. Robert T. Grey, Jr.

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The Moscow Treaty: Room for Improvement

By Amb. Thomas Graham, Jr. and Dr. Urs Cipolat
September 11, 2002

The Moscow Treaty should be changed to address 5 key areas: (1) compliance with NPT obligations, (2) irreversibility, (3) transparency, (4) de-alerting and reducing arsenals, and (5) tactical nuclear weapons.

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