I spent yesterday at the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee on International Security and Arms Control summer symposium: Post-Cold War U.S. Nuclear Strategy: A Search for Technical and Policy Common Ground.
There wasn’t a lot of common ground on either technical or policy matters.
Representative David Hobson (R-OH), chairman of the House Energy and Water appropriations subcommittee, gave an unscripted, frank account of his efforts to slash the National Nuclear Security Administration’s $6.6 B budget request for nuclear weapons activities. A fine summary is available from Global Security Newswire’s David Ruppe. (Another article appeared in a trio of Ohio newspapers, including the Zanesville Times Recorder.)
Unfortunately, a couple of comments by John Harvey, Director of the Policy Planning Staff at the National Nuclear Security Administration, didn’t make either of the articles. For example, describing a debate about whether US nuclear weapons policy affects the decisions of aspirirng nuclear states like North Korea, Harvey said: “Representative Hobson came down on both sides of that one.” He also disputed Representative Hobson’s account of initial NNSA plans for a Modern Pit Facility. Meow.
This is called biting the hand that appropriates. Amazon.com still has copies of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People for under $10. Look into it, John.