Press Call: Experts Preview U.S./Russia Nuclear Talks, Discuss North Korea’s Nuclear Ambitions
Read the transcript of the press call (pdf)
Listen to the press call:
Washington D.C. – Next week, President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev meet in Moscow to restart critical nuclear arms control talks. They will discuss a replacement for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a process spearheaded by President Reagan and officially signed by President George H.W. Bush, but virtually neglected under President George W. Bush. Looming over these talks are North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, with the regime, in the wake of May’s purported nuclear test, threatening to launch a missile towards Hawaii over the July 4 weekend.
Tomorrow, July 1 at 2:30 PM, the National Security Network and the Center for American Progress Action Fund will hold a press conference call to examine these issues, featuring Paul Carroll, Program Director at the Ploughshares Fund who recently traveled to North Korea where he held various meetings with officials from the regime, Samuel Charap, fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Andrew Grotto, Senior National Security Analyst at the Center for American Progress.
WHO: Paul Carroll
, Program Director at the Ploughshares Fund
Samuel Charap, Fellow at the Center for American Progress
Andrew Grotto, Senior National Security Analyst at the Center for American Progress
WHAT: Press Call on U.S./Russia Nuclear Talks, North Korea Nuclear Ambitions
WHEN: Wednesday, July 1, 2:30 PM
Paul Carroll is the Program Director at the Ploughshares Fund in San Francisco, California. Ploughshares is a public foundation that supports the efforts of organizations and individuals to prevent the spread and use of nuclear weapons and work toward their elimination. Ploughshares also funds efforts to prevent conflicts, especially in regions that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons. As part of his work, Carroll focuses on the North Korean nuclear challenge. Ploughshares has supported numerous civil society efforts aimed at engaging with North Korea and influencing U.S. policy toward North Korea to produce successful, non-military solutions to eliminate the DPRK’s nuclear programs and weapons.
Prior to his work at Ploughshares, Carroll worked as an independent consultant to several foundations that make grants in the security arena. Before that, Carroll held positions in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9 office in San Francisco, was a Program Analyst at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in Washington, DC, and was a Research Analyst at the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (OTA). At DOE and OTA Carroll worked on issues related to the nuclear weapons complex, disposition of nuclear materials from warheads that have been dismantled, and public participation in federal nuclear weapons policy making.
Samuel Charap is a fellow at American Progress. His research interests include Russian and Ukrainian domestic politics and foreign policy; U.S. policy in the post-Soviet region; and U.S. economic relations with the former Soviet states. Charap has had articles published in Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, the Washington Quarterly, and Problems of Post-Communism. In addition, his op-eds have appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Moscow Times, and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline. He has consulted on political risks in Russia and Eurasia for Medley Global Advisors, the Eurasia Group, Oxford Analytica, and Renaissance Capital. He served as a program assistant in the NATO Liaison Office in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2004.
Andrew J. Grotto is a Senior National Security Analyst at American Progress, where he specializes in U.S. nuclear weapons policy, nuclear nonproliferation policy (including Iran, North Korea, and other regional proliferation cases), and nuclear energy. Grotto’s work has appeared in a variety of scholarly and popular publications, and he is a regular contributor to the leading national security policy blog ArmsControlWonk.com. In addition, he has published opinion pieces in The Washington Post, The Financial Times, The UK Guardian, and The Baltimore Sun. Recent studies published by CAP include "Orienting the 2009 Nuclear Posture Review: A Roadmap" (2008), "Sea-Based Missile Defense: Expanding the Options" (2008), and "Contain and Engage: A New Strategy for Resolving the Nuclear Crisis with Iran" (2007). In addition to his writings on nonproliferation and defense policies, Grotto has also published scholarly works on international trade and intellectual property.
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