Latest in treaties
In trying to develop a long-term solution to ending Russia’s attacks on the Ukrainian nuclear power plant and preventing catastrophe in the future, nations should take lessons from Africa’s Treaty of Pelindaba.
The treaty is one of the keystones of nuclear trust and confidence-building, and there is no clear explanation for why the Trump administration believes withdrawal serves U.S. interests.
Previously unreported data about 61international agreements raise questions about the use of secrecy in U.S. foreign relations.
This piece is cross-posted at Just Security.
President Trump has submitted only one treaty to the Senate so far in his presidency. That is a historic low, and it is the latest sign that the Article II treaty process may be dying.
On October 17, 2018, President Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the Universal Postal Union (UPU), an intergovernmental organization that sets the rules and rates for international mail delivery.
President Trump announced on Oct. 20 that the United States would pull out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a 1987 bilateral agreement prohibiting the United States and Russia from possessing, producing or test-flying ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers and their launchers.
On Thursday night, the Senate approved two treaties by unanimous consent: an extradition treaty with Chile and an extradition treaty with the Dominican Republic. This brings to six the number of treaties approved by the Senate in the Obama Administration’s second term. (In 2014, the Senate approved four fisheries treaties.) The Senate approved nine treaties in the Obama Administration’s first term, bringing to 15 the number of treaties approved by the Senate during the Obama Administration.
Reading through the news coverage of the Microsoft Ireland warrant case, one thing stands out: nearly everyone agrees that the existing system for managing cross-border law enforcement requests for data is deeply flawed.