Conventional Trident & Al Qaeda
As you may know, I have long argued that Conventional Trident is mildly pointless —I gave a talk to the National Academies of Science panel on global strike to that effect, based in part on a detailed case study of…
2007
344 posts
We're Back
Sorry about the long pause, folks. We are now, more or less, back to normal after an extended 4th of July weekend on the Cape. So much has happened over the past week that I need to cover: Hans Kristensen…
Gone Fishin'
In the last few days, Presidents Bush and Putin were meeting, talking about their wives, fishing and playing with dogs. Oh, but there is more: As a gift, Bush gave Putin a Segway transporter, and he reportedly gave it a…
NORK Solid Fuel SRBMS?
Today, I came across this declassified document with what must be the worst illustration in the history of intelligence community products (above). Yikes. The recent stuff by NASIC is much better, though not exactly Bonestell Anyway, I came across this…
UNMOVIC Passes Into the Night
Friend of wonk Jackie Shire sends along this lament about the passing of the much maligned UNMOVIC: With a whimper … Jacqueline Shire I should be in a good mood—it’s Friday and I have family coming this weekend for several…
Gabala Radar: Instead of vs. in Addition to
I want to follow up on a few issues on President Putin’s Gabala radar proposal. First, U.S. and Russia are currently talking about rather different conceptions of the plan, and second, both high level Russian officials and the press are…
A Conversation with Mark Hibbs
I’ve kept up an e-mail conversation with Mark Hibbs on-and-off for that past couple of years. So, I was really psyched to meet him in person at this year’s Carnegie Conference. Apparently, I am not the only one. With a…
Detecting & Thwarting Proliferation Networks
Good morning. This is a Calutron used to enrich uranium in the Iraqi nuclear weapons program. After the 1991 Gulf War, IAEA inspectors found that the Iraqi’s had set up Calutrons, using dual-use products like oil diffusion pumps (right). Many…
Future of US & Russian Nukes
Wow, so I met Howard Morland today. That was pretty awesome. James Nagelberg wanted me to blog the panel on What the Future Holds for U.S. and Russian Nuclear Weapons. As I have no rational basis on which to make…
Greetings from The Carnegie Conference
Well, I just settled into the balcony, plunked down 12 bucks for internet access and now George is handing out grades based on the Universal Compliance report: Obligation One: Make Nonproliferation Irreversible. D Obligation Two: Devalue the Political and Military…