Years

2022

53 posts

Episode31 min

Rules for Testing a Nuke

Why isn’t North Korea testing nukes? What are the signals and signs that precede a test?  Jeffrey and Aaron talk testing indicators, the logistics of detonating a nuclear device in North Korea, and the proper use of the Chatham House…

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Make the IAEA Mission to ZNPP Happen

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international governmental organization of which both Russia and Ukraine are members, and so it is profoundly challenged by nuclear safety and nuclear security threats unfolding at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP).…

Episode32 min

The Last Days of the JCPOA

As the President visited various states in the Middle East, Jeffrey and Aaron sat down to eulogize the JCPOA renegotiation attempts as they slowly slide farther off the rails. Iran’s programs continue and it looks like the U.S. is preparing…

Episode42 min

The Wizards of Armageddon

Jeffrey and Aaron walk through a piece of foundational field canon, The Wizards of Armageddon by Fred Kaplan, discussing its coverage of institutional and personal decisionmaking, picking apart the concepts of deterrence and compellence, and discussing the seemingly crystalized debate on…

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A Personal Note

Verse of the week: “Poets to come! orators, singers, musicians to come!/ Not to-day is to justify me and answer what I am for/ But you, a new brood, native, athletic, continental, greater than before known/ Arouse! For you must…

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James Baker’s Politics of Diplomacy

Quote of the week: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” – Leon Trotsky In the world of high-wire, high stakes diplomacy, you have to be good to succeed. It’s better to be good and…

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It Can’t Happen Here

Verse of the week: “Everyone knows the great energies running amok cast/ terrible shadows, and each of the so-called/ senseless acts has its thread looping/ back through the world and into the human heart. – Mary Oliver, “Shadows” Sinclair Lewis’s…

Episode23 min

Waiting for the Boom

After a brief hiatus due to Jeffrey’s house catching on a lil’ bit of fire, the Arms Control Wonk team is back to take a look at North Korea’s triple missile launch and looming possible nuclear test.  Jeffrey and Aaron…

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Death Cult Drones, Maybe

Did you know that, in the 1990s, the Aum Shinrikyo death-cult acquired two remote-controlled helicopters and considered using them to deliver chemical weapons? It’s a wild story, write Brian Scheu and Philipp Bleek — although one that raises more questions,…