144 posts
So the well-intended states and civil society groups in New York have produced a second draft of the nuclear weapons ban convention. The draft shows real work, and drafters deserve credit for some notable improvements. However, aside from questionable nature…
Norm enforcement: You test a missile, you get a pod. You test a missile in a shipping container, you get a pod and a reference to Russian techno music. In today’s episode, Jeffrey, Aaron, and Scott talk Israel’s LORA, the…
Pssssst! Want to see South Korea’s missile test site?
Iran fired a number of ballistic missiles, including the new solid Zolfaqar missiles, from bases in Kermanshah and Kurdistan against at least two ISIS targets in Mayadin in eastern Syria. Aaron and Jeffrey discuss using open source information to identify the…
Quote of the week: “I heard the president [Reagan] ask Zia how he would handle the fact that they would be violating their agreement [to ‘prevent within its territory the training, equipping, financing and recruiting of mercenaries from whatever origin…
The UAE is a missile power. Who knew? In today’s episode, Jeffrey and Aaron discuss the UAE’s 1989 purchase of the Scud B (or Hwasong 5) from North Korea, a second purchase of the Scud C in 1999, and the…
Moon Jae-in, the newly-elected President of the Republic of Korea, has vowed to wind down Korea’s nuclear power program. Because Korea steadily built up its nuclear industry for four decades, has 25 power reactors generating nearly a third of its…
The US conducted a successful test, FTG-15, of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system designed to protect the United States against a ballistic missile launched from North Korea. The Missile Defense Agency takes a victory lap after its first intercept…
Quote of the week: “How can we suppose that something so monstrously powerful would not, after forty years, compose our identity? The great golem we have made against our enemies is our culture, our bomb culture—its logic, its faith, its…
A group of countries is negotiating a convention to ban the use and possession of nuclear weapons. The chair has released a draft treaty in advance of the second round of negotiations to be held this month. Andrea Berger…
