When experts discuss the prospects of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), they naturally focus on impending events. Will nonaligned nations tie their continued adherence to reaching a comprehensive test ban? Will North Korea, Algeria, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, and Iran live up to their NPT obligations? Will some follow through on their threats to withdraw from the treaty? Is China, which is building more nuclear weapons and refused to agree to limit them, in violation of the treaty’s demand that nuclear weapons states limit their nuclear arms? Will the NPT’s inspectorate, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), strengthen its inspection procedures? Can certain nuclear materials and activities ever be reliably inspected to detect and prevent their military diversion? The answers to these questions will determine not only the future of the NPT but the prospects for nuclear restraint.
Last week, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised a number of nuclear nonproliferation concerns about the U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperative agreement and stated that Congress had an obligation to review the pact carefully. As I note below, in the op-ed “The […]
August 7, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski discusses the stalled nuclear cooperative agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, noting that the lack of enrichment restrictions has left the deal in limbo. He explains that a new condominium between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and […]
Two weeks ago, President Trump was about to send the Hill a U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperative agreement. After a torrent of criticism from Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, though, he changed his mind and insisted that the United States would […]
July 31, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski looks at the dangers of giving Iran a pathway to make nuclear bomb fuels, how a key Senate backer of Trump is now objecting to the deal, and what is next. John Batchelor–NPEC weekly review looks […]
Critics of the recently announced U.S. nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia let out a sigh of relief last Thursday when President Trump posted on Truth Social that the deal wouldn’t go ahead until Saudi Arabia recognizes Israel and insisted that the agreement permits “no enrichment […]
July 24, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski reviews the bidding on the Trump administrations’s stumble out of the gate trying to explain the requirements of U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation agreement and what can go wrong. John Batchelor-NPEC weekly review looks at the bidding […]
July 22, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski explores what could go wrong with the U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear deal. John Batchelor-NPEC weekly review explores what could go wrong with the U.S.-Saudi civilian nuclear deal. Listen below: Part I. Part II.
Last April, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists published a piece I wrote, “Missing from US-Iran talks: plutonium for more than 200 nuclear bombs.” Not long after, it published a critique by Sasan Karimi, a professor teaching at the Iranian-government and managed University of Tehran. His […]
July 17, 2026 John Batchelor interview with Henry Sokolski asks how targeting civil infrastructure and military bases without nuclear weapons is the future face of warfare, and what the Golden Dome’s primary mission is—to protect America’s civilian infrastructure, it’s ability to blunt a first nuclear […]
In the midst of the war on Iran, American and Iranian diplomats met this weekend to determine how best to keep Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. As I note in the attached piece, “U.S.-Iranian Nuclear Talks: Three Headaches,” that RealClearDefense posted over the weekend, […]
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