Sanctions go, but Iran must wait for economic recovery
Iranian trade will be boosted by a lifting of nuclear-related sanctions but the country needs billions of dollars of investment, and meaningful economic gains are likely to take many months.…
Israel: match in hand
With an arsenal of more than 300 weapons and strong delivery capabilities, Israel has already replaced the UK as the fifth largest nuclear power in the world. Israel’s secret nuclear…
The WMD threat
When former US President George W Bush was asked, “What is the single most serious threat to American national security?”, his answer was the possibility of nuclear weapons falling into…
IAEA at a crossroads
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the principal multilateral organisation seeking to promote the peaceful applications of nuclear technology, has, over the years, grown into a pre-eminent entity of the…
Nuclear hobbits
President Eisenhower in his 1953 ‘Atoms for Peace’ speech called for a ban on production of fissile material – to prevent a ‘nuclear outbreak’. The idea did not gain much…
Our pile of fear
The global non-proliferation regime faces complex and wide-ranging proliferation threats on many fronts, including the most urgent danger posed by high-consequence nuclear terrorism. Many argue that even a single incident…
Iran deal bears Obama’s personal stamp
When push came to shove in the closing hours of marathon negotiations in Geneva on Iran's nuclear program, it was President Barack Obama, back at the White House, who approved…
Iran nuclear deal eases tensions, but risks lie ahead
As senior envoys from Iran and six world powers worked on a nuclear deal this week in Geneva's InterContinental Hotel, the lobby was bustling with scenes that would have been…
A new deal in West Asia?
Swiss radiation experts have confirmed the worst suspicion of independent observers of West Asia – that the death of Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 in France was…
Caught up in the bizarre
As a nation we have lost our ability to think clearly and rationally; perhaps even the ability to think at all. Quite when this process began is hard to define.…
