I woke today to media reports that 15 American soldiers had been killed this June marking the highest monthly fatality totals since June 2008, when there were a total of 23 fatalities. The tone of the reports was one of surprise and an underlying view that this was a new development and our efforts in […]
We’re on a slippery slope, which we first stepped onto in April 1986 when President Reagan ordered a fighter raid on Colonel Gaddafi’s Tripoli compound, in retaliation for a Libyan-inspired terrorist attack on a nightclub in Berlin. Though Gaddafi survived, one of his children died– which rather stuck in the craw, even as one cheered […]
When I last mentioned the idea of utilizing rape as a weapon amongst what I admitted, privately, were generally naive people during a recent wargame I participated on ‘irregular threats’, people became uneasy. Our group’s moderator had asked us to think of divergent ways that we would foment unrest in a malevolent manner, and this […]
That’s what I call Joe Cirincione, Ploughshares President – behind his back, of course. He is the closest thing the arms control community has to a celeb – always camera-ready, always posed and always well-informed. And hey, he’s friends with Michael Douglas. But, in all seriousness, Joe has worked tirelessly for nuclear disarmament over the […]
Over at the CSIS Proliferation Prevention Program, program staff have helpfully culled useful articles and such on things nuclear that they are reading. They have separated the wheat from the nuclear chaff. Good stuff. The main page is here. The archives are found at Delicious.
By chance, I recently participated in the “Evolved Irregular Threat Project”, a series of wargames led by David Kilcullen and sponsored by the Rapid Reaction Technology Office within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The process was interesting, bringing together experience from a multitude of areas: Department of Defense (DoD) scientists, military officers, physicists, […]
Another interview, this one from the guy who continues to shirk responsibility for establishing the most destructive proliferation network in history and helping to arm Syria, North Korea and Iran, to name a few: Abdul Qadeer Khan. In his latest sit down, this one with Der Spiegel via e-mail, Khan actually makes the following, laughable […]
Former Director General of the IAEA and former UNSCOM head Hans Blix sat down with The Economist online in a segment they call “Tea with The Economist”. In it, Blix talks about the Global Zero campaign, how practical nuclear disarmament really is and how we should deal with ne’er do well countries like North Korea. […]
In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, little-noticed radioactive nuggets which are used for everything from examining welds to providing medical therapies were suddenly the rage. The rage, that is, to account for, gather up, and secure. Sources like Strontium-90, Cobalt-60, Iridium-192 and Americium-241 all became household words – or the closest […]
Preeminent international relations scholar G. John Ikenberry’s article ‘A World of Our Making‘ is his latest piece defending and promoting the extension of the liberal world order. Ikenberry is a strong believer in international norms and institutions that have been building since the end of World War II and supports the United States leading this […]
I wrote in a previous post that the IAEA Board of Governors was preparing to finally make a decision regarding referral of Syria to the UN Security Council for continuing to stonewall the IAEA and preventing safeguards inspectors from having a look at Dair Alzour. You will recall that this was the site of an […]
A senior Palestinian official told the Associate Press today that the Palestinian leadership is ready to drop demands for Israel to completely halt all settlement building in the Occupied Territories. So if negotiations are restarted, a full settlement freeze would no longer be part of the Palestinian preconditions. I wonder if they’ll stick to that […]
Global Zero, the international movement pressing for the phased and verifiable elimination of all nuclear weapons, has issued a report estimating that the 8.5 nuclear weapons states–North Korea is rated halfway there–will spend about $1 trillion dollars in this decade upgrading, expanding and maintaining their atomic arsenals. The study, which has received some notice in […]
Apologies for the lack of blogging. Other projects are taking up my time and energy, so radio silence is likely to continue for an indefinite period of time. In the meantime, there is plenty else going on in the FPA-o-sphere to keep you entertained and informed. So for the time being, I refer you to […]
I just watched President Obama’s talk on Afghanistan and thought I’d share my first thoughts. At this point it might be useful to review the President’s goals and objectives for Afghanistan as outlined in his December 2009 speech at West Point. “ Our overarching goal remains the same: to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda […]