Kwangmyonsong Debris
Last week, a piece of debris from North Korea’s Kwangmyongsong rocket washed up in Japan. Images of the debris show it is the smaller half of the fairing that covers the satellite during launch. The larger half was recovered in…
2016
113 posts
Diplomatic Posturing
Diplomatic posturing on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty, and new strategic arms reductions waxes as prospects for progress wane. Progress requires lubrication for friction between Russia and the United States, China and the United States,…
The Cruel Politics of Arms Limitation
Arms limitation is ridiculously hard to explain and even harder to accomplish. Arms limitation is useful when dealing with bad actors that possess fearsome weapons. If success requires self-limitation as well, the results are often met with derision, since bad…
The Clothes Geolocate the Man
Or, geolocating Kim Jong Un by his (somewhat questionable) fashion choices. A joint post with Dave Schmerler. Surely, you remember this image, notable because it shows a mock-up of a compact nuclear warhead and Kim Jong Un in a ridiculous…
MIRVs!
“MIRV” stands for Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicles, the ability to put lots of very accurate nuclear warheads on a single missile. Michael Krepon watched the US-Soviet arms race dangerously accelerate as both sides deployed large numbers of MIRVed missiles in…
The Humanitarian Pledge, Nuclear Weapons, and the Laws of War
Dear Readers of ACW: I have posted the perspectives of others in this space on whether the explosive use of nuclear weapons can be reconciled with the laws of war. This discussion is useful, in my view, because it clarifies…
Python Library for Nuclear Weapons Effects
Edward Geist has created a Python library of nuclear weapons effects, including Soviet models. If there was ever a reason for this blog to exist, announcing something like this is pretty much it. Introducing GLASSTONE—a Python library for modeling nuclear…
Evaluating the Visit to Hiroshima
What are we to make of President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima? To my ear, President Obama’s speech was oddly unequal to the occasion – and not just because he signaled no new efforts to move in the direction of his…
Announcing Geo4Nonpro!
There’s a lot of hype about the use of both commercial satellite imagery and crowdsourcing for verification activities. Well, I decided to put those two hands together and build a website with Jeffrey and Catherine (it’s why you haven’t heard…
Admitting Non-NPT Members: Questions for the NSG
The Nuclear Suppliers Group in coming weeks may consider an application for membership from India, and perhaps also from Pakistan. Both states possess nuclear weapons and are outside the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Hence, they are states whose nuclear weapon…
