Nuclear Sesame Street
I’ve been reading “Caging the Dragon” on the flight to London and it reminded me of a little song from Sesame Street that goes: One of these things is not like the others One of these things is just not…
June 2009
31 posts
K. Sundarji and India's Bomb
Very few military men figure prominently in the story of India’s Bomb. This is partly due to civilians who jealously guard their prerogative to make national security policy, and partly due to New Delhi’s practice of relying on seniority to…
Sagan on No First Use
Scott Sagan argues very convincingly in the pages of Survival that the United States should adopt a declaratory policy of “no first use” of nuclear weapons (Scott D. Sagan, “The Case for No First Use,” Survival 51:3, June–July 2009, pp.…
Practicalities of Interdicting WMD—Part 3
Click on the image for a larger version In a typical one hour period, five US low earth orbit satellites pass over the Port of Rajin Yesterday, I pointed out that the only way for the West to tell the…
Practicalities of Interdicting WMD—Part 2
The Ports of North Korea Yesterday, we started to get some ballpark numbers relevant to interdicting WMD shipments. Today, we are going to continue to try to get a feel for the problem of determining whether or not there is…
Did North Korea Test a Nuke?
I’d bet on it. But a recent statement by the ODNI is raising all sorts of eyebrows: The U.S. Intelligence Community assesses that North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear explosion in the vicinity of P’unggye on May 25, 2009.…
DPRK: Practicalities of Interdicting WMD
UNSC Resolution 1874: 12. Calls upon all Member States to inspect vessels, with the consent of the flag State, on the high seas, if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo of such vessels contains…
IC Surprised at NORK Test?
… well, that’s what anonymous senior intelligence official told FOX news: North Korea’s decision to detonate a nuclear device underground Monday caught the United States by surprise, officials said. “They didn’t give us any warning whatsoever,” one senior U.S. intelligence…
The Gilpatric Committee Report
What’s the most important U.S. government report on nuclear and arms control matters that has gotten little notice and even less respect? My vote goes to the Gilpatric Committee report. presented to LBJ in January 1965. So let’s open the…
SS-21 Debris In Georgia, Revisited
Hey, remember how much fun (more) we had trying to determine which Russian missiles were fired into Georgia from pictures of debris, such as this rocket body laying on an unfortunate sedan? Well, the new NASIC slickee (aka Ballistic and…