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New York Times | Is anybody happy with President Obama’s Berlin speech? The NYT Ed Board wishes he had the nerve to endorse unilateral nuclear arms cuts rather than wait on Russia. Eric Edelman and Robert Joseph, observing that he hasn’t completely ruled it out, predict that Obama will end up going unilateral. Does it surprise you that they can’t stomach the idea, at least with this guy in office?
The Foundry | But that’s nothing. Joshua Holdenried at Heritage seems to think that simply announcing the goal of arms reductions is tantamount to unilateral disarmament.
Washington Times | Kim Holmes, also of Heritage, says “Nuclear weapons are not animated objects in control of their own fate.” Does no one remember Buster and pals?
Foreign Policy | Jeffrey Lewis of ACW, MIIS, and the beach decodes the nuclear warhead numbers. He also points out that force-modernization plans look pretty much unaffordable, regardless of the numbers we say we want.
More after the jump!
U.S. Department of Energy | FY2014 Stockpile Stewardship and Management Plan.
Nukes of Hazard | Keary Iarussi, among others, contends that President-Elect Rohani offers the West a rare opportunity to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program. Iranians also remain hopeful following the election, according to VOA. Nevertheless, it seems that some Iranian officials only ever want more.
Knoxville News Sentinel | The B61 bomb, Usha Sahay and Jacob Bennett argue, is outdated, costly, and irrelevant. So why update it? (Nice local angle, guys.) Some, like Ira Lechner, feel almost the same way about the entire nuclear weapons program.
The Economist | The Economist takes a stab at describing the state of the Iranian nuclear program. The only unsettling part of its analysis is the last three lines.
The Nation (Lahore, Pakistan) | Shams-uz-Zaman defends the good name of nuclear-armed Pakistan… adding that Michael Krepon is right about the wisdom of capping the arsenal.
New York Times | China and South Korea make nice? Shinzo Abe’s worst nightmare! Also Kim Jong-un’s! So you might think. But Bruce Klingner is skeptical about what China will do about North Korea. The Wall Street Journal thinks that Park and Xi diverge on the denuclearization question.
38 North | New tunneling activity at the North Korean nuclear test site. Anonymous might know about it. Or not. Whoops.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of FYRP.