acsss.info -
Joomla gallery by joomlashine.com
ACSSS
King's College London
Alpha is based in the Centre of Science and Security Studies @ King's College London. Click here to visit the Centre's website and here to visit the Alpha page on the website of King's College London.
Sponsorship & Advertising Opportunities
Want to raise awareness of your product or service with trade control practitioners? Contact Alpha about advertising on our site.
Alpha offers competence-based compliance training for firms both large and small.
News and Analysis
On 4-5 June, Dr Matthew Moran hosted a workshop on Iran sanctions and the insurance industry at the Royal Society. The workshop brought together leading experts from the insurance industry with policy representatives from the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, HM Treasury, US Treasury, the UN Panel of Experts and the European External Action Service. The workshop was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), AXA, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, Lloyd's, Marsh & McLennan Companies and Swiss Re. The workshop complements work of Project Alpha to improve the implementation of trade controls in the insurance industry. More information…
Project Alpha is pleased to announce the launch of its new website at: . Our new site will house all of the resources currently found on the existing webpages on the King’s College London site, and it will also provide additional resources, up-to-date news and notifications, forums, and links to the Project’s newly established services, such as e-learning. Through the new website, users will be able to pose questions to, and share experiences with, experts and other practitioners about the practicalities of negotiating export licences; country-specific concerns; and a range of other issues (/alpha/forum/index). The new website also has secure…
The US has charged two men with conspiracy to evade US laws to prevent WMD proliferation. Hsien Tai ‘Alex’ Tsai and his son Yueh-Hsun ‘Gary’ Tsai were arrested on 1 May 2013 in Tallinn, Estonia and Glenville, Illinois respectively. The charges relate to the breach of US legislation, namely economic sanctions imposed on Alex Tsai and his company, Trans Merits, to prevent the proliferation of WMD. According to the US, Alex Tsai and Trans Merits have a history of involvement in the proliferation of sensitive technologies to countries such as North Korea and Myanmar since the 1990s. Exporters need to…
Project Alpha Researcher Daniel Salisbury and David Lowrie, Compliance Officer at Rakon UK, recently published an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists detailing Iran's attempts to acquire military grade oscillators from Rakon UK and the steps the company has taken to mitigate risk. The article is available here.
On the 8th and 9th April 2013, the Project Alpha team was represented at the Carnegie Nuclear Policy Conference by Professor Wyn Bowen, Ian Stewart and Daniel Salisbury. This biennial conference is held in Washington DC and organised by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The conference is the largest event of its kind in the world and attracts attendees from governments, NGOs and the private sector. Sessions at the conference focused on a wide variety of non-proliferation related topics, including the situation on the Korean peninsula, the IAEA’s role in monitoring proliferation, and the peaceful uses of nuclear technology.…
Following publicity in 2002 of hitherto covert aspects of Iran’s nuclear programme, the international community has pressured the Iranian government to be transparent about the programme and its objectives , and to stop sensitive work, particularly that related to uranium enrichment. The IAEA has published a series of reports documenting concerns[1]. Iran in response has consistently denied military intent, arguing that its nuclear ambitions are civil in character and legal under its membership of the NPT. The IAEA Board of Governors referred Iran to the United Nations Security Council in 2005 for non-compliance with its safeguards obligations. Since 2006 four…
Published in: Iran
On the 28th February 2013, Dr. Lucy Jones represented Project Alpha at the Joint Seminar of the European Nuclear Energy Forum and the Dual Use Coordination Group, held at the European Economic and Social Committee buildings in Brussels. The European Nuclear Energy Forum (ENEF) was founded in 2007, following an initiative from the European Commission, which was endorsed by the leaders of the 27 EU Member States during their March 2007 summit. ENEF provides platform for discussion of the opportunities and risks of nuclear energy as well as the associated issues of transparency. The Dual-Use Coordination Group is composed of…
In March 2013 Project Alpha researcher Daniel Salisbury presented on private sector engagement at two conferences organised by the Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI). Daniel’s presentations considered the challenges posed by illicit procurement to the private sector and government and ways that these challenges could be overcome and risks mitigated. The presentations drew on work that Project Alpha has been conducting engaging the private sector since mid-2011. The first conference was held at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, the home of US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) on 19 March. It was organised by US PONI, an initiative of the…
On 20-21 March Project Alpha hosted representatives from the United Nations' (UN) 1540 panel of experts, the UN North Korean panel of experts and several governments for a conference on Antiproliferation. Antiproliferation is the concept of preventing proliferation through engaging the private sector. The event coincided with three other notable developments. First, a grant was secured from the Macarthur Foundation to forward Alpha’s work in highlighting and addressing supply chain proliferation risks, thus bringing Nick Mitchel on to the project’s staff (see below). Second, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office approved Alpha’s grant proposal for the coming financial year, thus allowing…
Antiproliferation: Private Sector's Role In November 2012 Alpha's Ian Stewart published a discussion paper through Harvard's Belfer Centre on how to bring about his concept of "Anti-proliferation". Ian defines Anti-proliferation as the role of the private sector in preventing proliferation. Anti-proliferation has been defined separately from counter-proliferation and non-proliferation. Whereas non-proliferation tends to be state-led initiatives and counter-proliferation tends to be enforcement activities, anti-proliferation is resilience against proliferation in the private sector. Anti-proliferation is operationalised through Project Alpha's approach generally and through the Partners Initiative specifically.
On 14th February Project Alpha's Ian Stewart presented to the Top Level Group of Parliamentarians for Non-proliferation and Disarmament on the Antiproliferation concept. During the presentation, Ian highlighted the Partner's Initiative, the guidance materials for business Alpha has made available, and the possible future business model of Alpha, which may include the establishment of an Institute of Trade Controls-like organisation.
In November 2012 Project Alpha organised and participated in a successful non-proliferation and export compliance outreach workshop in Dalian, China. Over 30 attendees from Chinese industry participated to share best practices and experiences. The Project Alpha team, Centre for Science and Security Studies (CSSS) academic staff and industry experts organised and participated in a successful non-proliferation and export compliance outreach workshop in Dalian, China. The workshop took place on 29 & 30 November 2012 and sought to raise awareness of the importance of compliance with UN sanctions resolutions in the Chinese carbon fibre and alloys sectors. Carbon fibre and alloys…
Upcoming Events
◄◄
◄
►►
►
July 2013
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
|
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
|
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
|
22 |
23 |
24 |
25
No Image In this virtual conference Dave Lowrie of Rakon UK will share his experiences of detecting illicit [...]
Date : 25 07 2013
|
26 |
27 |
28 |
|
29 |
30 |
31 | ||||
Country Profiles
