I’ve written a column for Foreign Policy arguing that the United States should act on Syria’s offer to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention. What follows is an initial list of thoughts about the modalities for a United Nations/Organization for…
James Acton has published an excellent new monograph on Conventional Prompt Global Strike, entitled Silver Bullet? Asking the Right Questions About Conventional Prompt Global Strike. You can watch or listen to James present the report. Like everything James writes, it…
I have a post up at 38North with my colleague Amber Lee looking at two sites linked to North Korea’s centrifuge program – the Huichon Ryonha General Machine Factory and the Kanggye General Tractor Plant. These plants have several different…
Update | 10:19 am PST 4 September 2013 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov (aka Anatoly Anin aka Tolya aka Huggy Bear) made a reference to the 1995 Norwegian sounding rocket episode in terms of explaining why Russia is less than…
We now have unclassified fact sheets from the White House and the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the United Kingdom. These guys don’t get it. Let me be clear: I think a Syrian military unit most likely used…
I’ve been meaning to write something on my objections to a proposal by Crispin Rovere and Kalman Robertson to ban low-yield nuclear weapons. Now, I should say that I think developing low-yield nuclear weapons seems like a pretty terrible…
At the moment, the cruise missiles on everyone’s mind are spinning up in the Mediterranean. But a few weeks ago, I wrote a little piece on the new National Air Space Intelligence Center on ballistic and cruise missile threat that…
David Hoffman and Eben Harrell have published an amazing account (“Plutonium Mountain: Inside the 17-year mission to secure a dangerous legacy of Soviet nuclear testing“) of the three operations to secure orphaned plutonium at the Semipalatinsk test site — Operations Groundhog, Matchbox…
I noticed that General David Jones, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1978-1982, passed away at the age of 92. Richard Goldstein has written an obituary for Jones in New York Times that emphasizes the failure of Desert…
Greetings from Hiroshima, Japan — or, as I like to say, within range of a Nodong. As you can see, North Korea appears to have paraded a Hwaseong-13 (KN-08) without the camouflage we saw last time. The Scuds got a…
