Years · 2016

July 2016

8 posts

Article

Not Just Yet for No First Use

The United States is not going to use nuclear weapons first in a conflict. Allies who believe otherwise are attached to a fiction and a psychological crutch. But these allies have been badly spooked, first by Vladimir Putin and now by…

Article

No, China Isn’t Punishing North Korea

A few weeks ago, some colleagues new to satellite imagery analysis claimed that China had drastically reduced trade with North Korea to punish Pyongyang for its most recent nuclear test. They made this judgment on the basis of a small number…

Article

Learning About Nuclear South Asia

The Stimson Center has been hard at work creating a free, open, online course on “Nuclear South Asia.” We’ve designed the course for students, teachers, strategic analysts and interested onlookers. The material is accessible, and it’s offered with the help…

Article

Congressional Hearings as Inquisitions

During the 1950s, Senator Joe McCarthy convened hearings to discover Soviet moles in Hollywood, the State Department and the U.S. Army. The Army-McCarthy Hearings led to his downfall. Abusive practices by Committee and Subcommittee chairmen (no women) were reined in.…

Article

3D Modeling as an Analytic Tool

For a few years now, we here at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies and our benevolent overlords at the Nuclear Threat Initiative have been using 3D modeling as a way to create flashy visuals to engage the public.…

Article

MH17 Anniversary

A joint post by Catherine Dill, Jeffrey Lewis, Melissa Hanham and David Schmerler Two years ago, on 17 July 2014, someone shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight Number 17 (MH17) over an area of Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists, killing all…

Article

Kashmir on the Boil

Kashmir is on the boil again. Unrest has been on the rise for months now. The involvement of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence can be safely assumed, but less than in previous flare-ups, if clashes along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir…

Article

Alliances and No First Use

The Bill Clinton Administration made a questionable call to expand NATO after the Cold War ended. The George W. Bush Administration made matters far worse by expanding NATO up to Russia’s border in the Baltics and pushing club membership further…