Years · 2016

November 2016

10 posts

Article

Presidential Command and Control in the Age of Trump

The outcome of the U.S. presidential election has filled many Americans, and people around the world, with bewilderment and dread. How did we get here? Where are we going? How seriously should we take President-elect Trump’s promises? Let’s remember! At various points during the…

Article

Trump and the Bomb

Note to readers: A somewhat different version of this essay appeared at foreignaffairs.com on November 20th. Donald Trump becomes President when the global nuclear order is wobbly and arms-control agreements are unraveling. Nuclear dangers are growing along three axes – North…

Episode46 min

2 Donald 2 Nuclear

The election is over and Donald Trump is our president elect. The president elect and the nuclear did make regular appearances on the podcast, but things are different now. This week, Jeffrey and Aaron discuss the election, the Donald, and…

Article

Fred Iklé on the Second Nuclear Age

Fred Charles Iklé has not gotten the credit he deserves as a strategic thinker, perhaps because of the density of his prose. Here he is twenty years ago, in “The Second Coming of the Nuclear Age” in Foreign Affairs: “Now…

Episode52 min

Egypt’s Missile Programs

Did you know Egypt has a robust ballistic missile program?  And has had, since the 1960s?  Or that Egypt worked with Argentina and Iraq to design missiles?  Or that Egypt was the source of the missiles that are the basis of…

Article

Cry, the Beloved Country

The United States is so divided that the election of a new President has become a cause of mourning for half the population. To me, Donald Trump’s election feels like Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush over…

Episode46 min

China’s HQ-19 Hit-to-Kill Interceptor

Scott Lafoy sits in for Aaron as Scott and Jeffrey discuss China’s hit-to-kill program being tested out of Korla in China’s western desert. China released video of some the tests! Is the HQ-19 designed to defend against missiles or shoot-down…

Article

Bombs, Bans, and Norms

Early drafts of the Nuclear Ban Treaty green-lighted by the UN First Committee seek to prohibit the development, production, testing, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, deployment, threat of use and use of nuclear weapons. This would be the most ambitious treaty negotiated…

Episode57 min

START UP

Donald Trump made a bunch of crazy claims about the 2010 New START treaty, misnaming it the START UP treaty.  And, on top of that, State published the semi-annual aggregate data causing raising a few eyebrows and signing a couple of others…

Article

Learning About Nuclear South Asia

Two new sections are now ready for consumption of the Stimson Center’s free, open, online course, Nuclear South Asia: A Guide to India, Pakistan, and the Bomb. These sections cover India and Pakistan’s nuclear doctrines and postures, as well as their place in…