The Flood
The clearest thinking and writing I’ve ever done was under the influence of chemo drips. The prospect of death can be life affirming… or not. The Soviet Union was on a chemo drip for the decade before it died, but…
Michael Krepon
Writing on ACW 2009–2022 · 676 posts · On the podcast: 1 episode
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Working at the Margins
My alter ego, Chauncey Gardiner, joins me (again) for this post, which is prompted, no doubt, by an August spent pulling weeds in the bog garden and thinking/writing about U.S.-Pakistan nuclear relations.
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Armageddon
Has anyone written a great book that covers the complex relationship between religion and the Bomb? Please help me out here. I can’t think of one. The subject is so rich for so many reasons, that whoever writes brilliantly about…
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The Least Abhorrent Choice
The military cemetery at Nuttuno, thirty miles south of Rome, is serene and immaculately kept. Almost as many GIs are buried there – 7,861 – as at Normandy, painful testimony of how botched the Italian campaign was. I’m named after…
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Nuclear Optimism
No country has been more optimistic about the atom than India. Most Indians believe in nuclear energy and in the ability of their nuclear establishment to deliver it efficiently and cheaply. Indian strategic analysts tend to be extremely confident, which…
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Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons
Readers may recall an earlier post about Vasili Alexandrovich Arkipov and the Cuban missile crisis. Arkipov was one of three officers on board the Soviet diesel sub B-59 who voted on whether to fire their nuclear-tipped torpedo while being depth…
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The Stakes for New START
Conventional wisdom has it that New START matters only at the margins, fitting comfortably within projected U.S. and Russian strategic plans, foreclosing nothing of substance and costing the usual ransom to assuage skeptics. I’m not buying this line of argument.
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Nitze’s Strategic Concept
In 1985, obstructionists and nuclear deal makers in Ronald Reagan’s administration fought pitched battles over the President’s divided mind. Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger and his allies appealed at every turn to President Reagan’s strong attachment to the Strategic Defense…
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Indian Strategic Culture
The fabric of any country is woven from many threads, and no country has a greater thread count than India. Some strands are more apparent than others, and a discerning eye can find patterns that evoke the key elements of…
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Limited Nuclear Options
The first impulse of states that acquire nuclear weapons is “simple” deterrence, and the simplest form of deterrence is massive retaliation to existential threats. (India and Pakistan, for example, now embrace declaratory policies of simple deterrence.) The second impulse, made…