Arms Control Wonk

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CNS/LLNL Safeguards Course

So, my employer — the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) — runs a nifty little safeguards course with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).  I’ve heard really good things about it, so I can heartily recommend it. Also, it’s…

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Guest Post: Droning On

A friend and colleague who for some reason wishes to remain nameless offers some thoughts on the uses and abuses of unmanned aerial vehicles. -Jeffrey If we’ve learned anything from Sen. Rand Paul’s Senate-floor soliloquy, it’s that equal parts bluster…

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Heading for the Wire on US-ROK 123

The Republic of Korea and the United States are running out of time to finish negotiations on a bilateral agreement for nuclear cooperation. The current agreement from 1974 expires next March. The conventional wisdom is that because the U.S. Congress…

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The Well Read Wonk

Mastery of technical detail without an understanding of history is like learning to ride a bicycle without wheels. Ergo, The Evolution of Nuclear Strategy by Lawrence Freedman is must reading for aspiring wonks. The paperback on my bookshelf dates back…

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Drone Strikes in Pakistan

Drones provide essential surveillance, thereby helping to protect US forces and national security interests. Drone strikes are meant to serve the same purposes, but they have become a recruiting tool for militancy. Are drone strikes necessary, and if so, under…

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Ward Wilson Wednesdays Part 4

Yeah, so I missed a couple of Ward Wilson Wednesdays. Suck it. Ward’s final contribution contains an elaborated version of my favorite joke about the epistemology of deterrence.  Like the others, it’s an enjoyable read.  It’s been a pleasure hosting…

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FSA Overruns Al Kibar

Update | 10:24 pm 25 February 2013 Our reader friend sends along a fourth, high resolution video in which the narrator explains that the missiles on stationary launchers were to fired from inside the building, through openings in the roof.…

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The Tortoise and the Hare

Here’s a new development: some in India now worry in public about Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. Indian influentials tend to match up to China and look down on Pakistan. Lately, New Delhi’s strategic calculations have become more complicated. Vice Admiral (ret.)…

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Cluster Bombs

Believe it or not, the gray battleship of the establishment’s fleet, Foreign Affairs, published an article decrying the use of cluster bombs during the Vietnam War. I can believe it because I was the author. How in the world did…

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Making Yield Estimates

Update | James says I misrepesented his method, which I may well have done.  He is going to post a comment that explains his method in better detail than I have apparently done. Apologies that it took so long to…