Authors

Michael Krepon

Writing on ACW 2009–2022 · 676 posts · On the podcast: 1 episode

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Elections, Fear of the Bomb, and the Great Unraveling

Thankfully, a dispiriting election season in the United States is almost over. France and Germany await their ordeals. Democracies have been battered by the Great Recession, triggered by the greed of financial institutions and abetted by weak governmental regulations. Fears…

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Pakistan’s Compulsion is Not a Choice

Note to readers: My recent essay, “Pakistan’s Choice,” met with mixed reviews, at best, from colleagues in Pakistan. I wrote about the growing distance between Pakistani security narratives and narratives that outsiders hold about Pakistan. Patching up relations won’t happen…

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Pakistan’s Choice

Since testing nuclear weapons in 1998, Pakistan has lost while India has gained regional and international standing. Pakistan has also become less confident of its national security as the United States has gravitated toward India and as Pakistan’s own ties with…

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The Well-Read Wonk on Democracy & the Bomb

Almost every contemporary issue having to do with nuclear weapons has been considered in earlier debates. Indeed, the earlier the better, since it’s easier for strategic analysts to be prescient when starting from scratch. Hence, my periodic encouragement to new…

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Indian Strategic Restraint, Revised

After the attack on an Indian military post at Uri, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a speech about strategic restraint, which I applauded in this space. But I also wrote, “This isn’t over – far from it.” I got…

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Modi Chooses Strategic Restraint

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like his two predecessors, has opted for restraint in the face of provocations by violent extremist groups that have found safe havens within Pakistan. Modi publicly announced – at a political conclave, no less — that…

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The Waiting Game on the Subcontinent

The attack on an Indian military encampment at Uri, most probably from well-armed, well-trained cadres of a “proscribed” group based on the Pakistan side of the Kashmir divide, is the costliest since the 2008 Mumbai attacks. This attack was preceded…

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Senator Rubio and Kim Jong Un Weigh In on the CTBT

In rapid succession, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee convened its first Hearing on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in seventeen years, and Senator Marco Rubio and 32 Republican colleagues made public a letter to President Barack Obama opposing the administration’s UN…

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The Enduring Value of the CTBT

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is turning its attention to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for the first time since 1999, when it held the briefest of hearings on the Treaty before fast-forwarding it to the Senate, which rebuked President…

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The Demise of the Republican National Security Establishment

The skirmish between Senator Bob Corker and the Obama Administration over the UN Security Council resolution on the CTBT is yet another reflection of the demise of the internationalist wing of the Republican Party. Donald Trump’s nomination and his musings…