Years

2008

317 posts

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Medvedev's Welcome to Obama

A shortish post—partly because I’m shattered from last night but mostly because you have lots of great new material to read from Andreas, Anya and Bob. As has been hinted at before, BBC news is now reporting that Russia is…

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Nuclear Weapons that Went to War

No Wonk’s virtual bookshelf would be complete without an electronic copy of the following historical study of nuclear weapons in Third World-conflicts and crises (23 megabyte PDF): William Yengst, Stephen Lukasik and Mark Jensen, Nuclear Weapons that Went to War…

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McElvany Nonproliferation Essay Event

While Bob and Andreas are minding the store, I just wanted to drop in and plug an event to honor the winners of the 2008 Doreen and Jim McElvany Nonproliferation Challenge Essay Contest. The event will feature a keynote by…

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Will Khan be back?

Do not worry, Captain Kirk. It’s not that Khan. Islamabad’s parks, houses, hotels and palaces are poured into the lowland between the Margala Hills. It’s a remarkably organized place with straight avenues, green and leafy side streets, bustling shops and…

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Will Russia Blend Down More HEU?

Greetings, Readers of the Wonk. My name is Robert Zarate, and I’m a research fellow at the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center in Washington, D.C. I’ll be guest-blogging this week, but before getting started, I wanted first to thank Jeffrey Lewis…

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Boltonesque Sanctions on Rosoboronexport

A week ago, the State Department announced the imposition of sanctions for alleged supply of WMD and missile-related technology or destabilizing conventional weapons systems in accordance with the provisions of the Iran, North Korea and Syria Nonproliferation Act (P.L. 109-353).…

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We Don't Need No Water, Let the Mother …

A fire broke out in a Minuteman III silo in Wyoming and burned undetected for five days. Tom Roeder from the Colorado Springs Gazette has the story. The use of duct tape is my favorite detail: The fire was May…

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Gen. Chilton on a Space Weapons Treaty

Yesterday morning I attended a breakfast featuring General Chilton, STRATCOM commander. The one-time astronaut offered this colorful illustration for why definitional issues would make it impossible, in his judgment, to negotiate a workable treaty banning space weapons: Let’s say you…

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Sarko on Obama

A diligent reader spotted an article in Haaretz reporting that, in private, Sarkozy has been very critical of Obama’s Iran policy, calling it (or perhaps him) “utterly immature”. French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack…

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Mining and the BOE

I apologize deeply for posting without a picture, but it may not arrive for some weeks to come, and this article would then be too old. I’m Andreas Persbo, and I’ve been asked to write a couple of posts once…