Lyric of the week: And so there’s a rhyme That says life will soon be fine Love is just what you make it So keep on lovin, you’ll soon discover A mighty love — The Spinners, “Mighty Love” Note to readers: Zack Davis relays the following: Lisa Owens Davis died on February 26 at home …
Archives for February 2020
Visualizations and Verification
by | February 26, 2020 | No Comments
James Palmer of the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment joins the ACW trio to talk about the importance of 3D modelling and data visualization, including recreations of North Korea’s Punggye-ri nuclear test site and virtual reality training simulations. Links of Note, Courtesy of James Palmer: Enhanced briefings for a CTBTO On-site Inspection SnT2017 (Palmer and Stevanović). …
Space Diplomacy
by | February 25, 2020 | 3 Comments
Quote of the week: “And to meet the emerging threats in space, the newest war-fighting domain, the president has called for the creation of the U.S. Space Force.” – Vice President Mike Pence, “America needs a Space Force” Washington Post, March 3, 2019 Note to readers: Here is the talk I gave at an outstanding …
Iran’s Space Launchers and Solid Missiles
by | February 19, 2020 | No Comments
Iran tested a satellite launch vehicle, and it failed. But this isn’t a reason to cheer. Iran showed off a lot of goodies this month, pointing to an active solid-propellant missile program and has no said a future satellite launch is going to use a solid-propellant space launch vehicle. This is bad news. Aaron and …
Stephen Ledogar: Unsung Hero of Arms Control
by | February 16, 2020 | 3 Comments
Multiple Choice Quiz of the Week: Which two of the following films reflect the temper of the times for the 2020 Oscars? A. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington B. Parasite C. It’s A Wonderful Life D. Joker E. Singin’ in the Rain No U.S. diplomat accomplished more than Stephen Ledogar in the hard slog of …
Iran’s solid-propellant SLV program is alive and kicking
by | February 14, 2020 | No Comments
If you are a friend of the blog, you might have heard of Iran’s program to develop a solid propellant space launcher, the relationship of the space launch program to Iran’s missile ambitions and the 2011 explosion that wiped out most of the personnel associated with it. To make a long story short, at some …
Where Are We? And Where Do We go from Here?
by | February 9, 2020 | 7 Comments
Lyric of the Week: “There’ll be no healing from the art of double dealing. Armageddon’s back in town again” — Patterson Hood, Drive-By Truckers, The Unraveling album Note to Readers: Here’s what I had to say to the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters on January 30th: We’re not doing well, obviously. But …
Possible ICBM Modernization Underway at Sundian
by | February 5, 2020 | No Comments
This article was co-authored with Decker Eveleth. Decker Eveleth is a junior at Reed College studying International Comparative Policy Studies. He sometimes moonlights as the disembodied head of an Iranian weapons designer. China may be modernizing some very old ICBM sites. An interesting development has taken place at Sundian, historically a PLARF ICBM launch area, …
NATO Expansion and the Great Unraveling of Arms Control
by | February 3, 2020 | 2 Comments
Quotes of the week: “An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it.” — Walter Lippmann, Today and Tomorrow column, August 5, 1952 “An alliance is effective only to the extent that it reflects a common purpose and that it represents an accretion of strength to its members.” — Henry …
