Last week’s U.S. raid into Pakistan is fueling one of the country’s most enduring -- and potentially dangerous -- conspiracy theories: that the U.S. has designs on Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and is prepared to send highly trained commandos into the country to seize control of the weapons.

Seymour Hersh reports that the U.S. has been increasing the pressure on Pakistan to secure its nuclear arsenal but Pakistani officials are chafing at the suggestion that they do not have control. He warns that U.S. pressure (as well as U.S. efforts to draw Pakistan into the conflict against the Taliban) could backfire by further radicalizing the Pakistani military.

Walter Pincus notes that a proposal in the recent U.S.-Russian strategic arms control agreement to setup a global center to monitor missile launches is similar to a long-since stalled U.S.-Russia program to establish a "Joint Data Exchange Center".

Eric Hundman surveys the history of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative and finds that while progress has been slower than expected, the program has "has focused attention worldwide on nuclear security and conversion programs."

A panel of experts has urged Russia and the United States to expand their cooperation on biological security issues.

A U.S. program to secure and catalog biological agents at former Soviet laboratories has moved forward quickly in recent years, with increased cooperation from five former Soviet republics speeding progress.

An overview of the successful cooperative threat reduction programs to reduce the threat of Russian 'loose nukes', including the successful Megatons-to-Megawatts program.

While the United States struggles to rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions, a more frightening nightmare is simmering right now in Pakistan, where a weak but nuclear-armed government is being buffeted by radical Islamic influences, terrorism and several bloody insurgencies.

The author proposes expanding U.S. cooperative threat reduction programs to address the threat from the Soviet Union's system to defeat bubonic plagure.

The United States should use programs it has used to contain the former Soviet Union’s WMD arsenal in efforts to end the standoff over North Korea’s nuclear program, according to a group of experts.