Next year will be crucial for global nuclear non-proliferation efforts and all eyes will be on the United States and Russia to see if the two top atomic powers can reach a deal to reduce their arsenals.

With a key arms control treaty (the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START) set to expire soon, the Obama administration is searching for ways to keep inspectors in Russia or else it risks losing American eyes on the world’s second most formidable nuclear weapons arsenal for the first time in decades.

Delegates meeting on the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty struck their first agreement on the anti-nuclear arms pact in a decade on Wednesday, which diplomats said was largely due to U.S. President Barack Obama.

Five Central Asian nations have agreed to a treaty declaring their region a nuclear weapons-free zone in a move toward stemming arms proliferation and distancing themselves from Russia.

Defense Minister Sergei B. Ivanov of Russia warned today that the American proposal in arms reduction talks to "warehouse" excess warheads instead of destroying them would not only encourage nuclear proliferation, but could even set off a new kind of arms race.

David Albright demonstrates the utility of commercial high-resolution satellite imagery for detecting clandestine nuclear proliferation by focusing on the test case of Algeria.

Politicians from 78 countries are attending a conference to help produce international guidelines aimed at curbing the proliferation of ballistic missiles. The guidelines would look to make it difficult for countries to buy missiles from exporting nations and to improve weapons monitoring systems.

The approved draft proposal of an international ballistic missile code of conduct will do little to stop missile proliferation, arms control experts told Global Security Newswire this week, although some said the code is a progressive step towards more transparency in arms control.

Russia and the United States are to set up three working groups on military cooperation focusing on strategic disarmament.

The Bush administration has announced that bombs and intercontinental missiles involved in the president's promised two-thirds reduction of deployed strategic nuclear forces over the next 10 years would be kept in reserve under its new strategic policy according to congressional sources.