Arms Control Wonk

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Russian Early Warning

  Update | 10:19 am PST 4 September 2013 Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov (aka Anatoly Anin aka Tolya aka Huggy Bear) made a reference to the 1995 Norwegian sounding rocket episode in terms of explaining why Russia is less than…

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Eyes Away from the Prize

The juxtaposition of images of the 1963 March on Washington and the carnage in Syria has prompted melancholy thoughts. The heyday of the civil rights movement came with sustained focus, great leaders, and an abundance of nonviolent foot soldiers. The…

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Disappointing Syria Documents

We now have unclassified fact sheets from the White House and the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the United Kingdom. These guys don’t get it. Let me be clear: I think a Syrian military unit most likely used…

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Size Doesn’t Matter

  I’ve been meaning to write something on my objections to a proposal by Crispin Rovere and Kalman Robertson to ban low-yield nuclear weapons. Now, I should say that I think developing low-yield nuclear weapons seems like a pretty terrible…

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Cruise Missile Proliferation

At the moment, the cruise missiles on everyone’s mind are spinning up in the Mediterranean.  But a few weeks ago, I wrote a little piece on the new National Air Space Intelligence Center on ballistic and cruise missile threat that…

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FYRP: Jumpin’ Jack Flash

As promised, it has arrived! Scott Shane – New York Times | Wait, I seem to remember discussing Syrian use of chemical weapons.  In April.  (Does FYRP – Fuzzy Red Lines ring any bells?)  We really knew about this back…

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Iran and Secondary Uranium Sources

Near the end of what seemed a super-busy and seamless six-month transition from spring to fall without the respite of a summer silly season, a lighter tabloid moment arrived last week. The government of Zimbabwe proclaimed that a revelation in…

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The Absence of Ambition

As President Obama looks beyond the water’s edge in search of achievement and for relief from Republican hyper-partisanship, he sees a barren and smoldering landscape, with problems from hell in Syria, Egypt and elsewhere, a Putinized Russia, and a China…

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Plutonium Mountain

David Hoffman and Eben Harrell have published an amazing account (“Plutonium Mountain: Inside the 17-year mission to secure a dangerous legacy of Soviet nuclear testing“) of the three operations to secure orphaned plutonium at the Semipalatinsk test site — Operations Groundhog, Matchbox…

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Isodarco Conference

I promise a FYRP soon!  In the meantime, a public service announcement: Università di Padova  –  Università di Roma “Tor Vergata”  –  Università di Trento Carnegie Corporation of New York Centro di Ricerca Politica Internazionale e Risoluzione dei Conflitti (CERPIC – FBK – Trento) Fondazione…