Arms Control Wonk

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IAEA Hacking

A group presenting itself as Iranian — the call themselves Parastoo, which is apparently Farsi for “swallow” — somehow acquired an old IAEA server.  The machine was not wiped clean of data. Parastoo has now posted some of the data online,…

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Myanmar Rare Earths Stuff

One of my favorite novels is Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana.  If you are not familiar with the basic plot, a British expatriate living in Havana, desperate for a little extra cash, passes off sketches of vacuum cleaner parts…

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SALT’s Rise and Fall

Opposition to the SALT process was firmly rooted in negotiations over the Interim Agreement and the ABM Treaty. Never have two arms control agreements been approved by such overwhelming margins (two votes against, in both cases) despite such deep reservations…

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Deterrence and the Unitary, Rational Actor

The theory and practice of deterrence between the United States and the Soviet Union were predicated on the unitary, rational-actor model. Life-or-death decisions in deep crises would be made by leaders driven by rational calculations of national interest and executed…

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Rare Earths

I am working on it! I have a post up today at ForeignPolicy looking at some of the issues relating to Burma’s nuclear program.  I promised to host a discussion here of the role of some of the equipment described…

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Fact-Checking From Low-Earth Orbit

Fact-checking political rhetoric has lately become something of a cottage industry in America. Getting into that line of work seems to require a cutesy visual rating system involving wooden noses, flaming trousers, or some such. But with such a sweet…

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Greetings from Vienna

I would post one of my own pictures of the view from our office in Vienna, the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation — but its very cloudy. Here is a picture of the building, the Torre Andromeda, that someone took in…

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Now What?

Democrats were obliged to expand their base after the 1972 McGovern campaign. The Republican Party now finds itself in the same boat. Who knew? It turns out that Fox Television and hard-right radio, long the bêtes noires of liberals, are…

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Elahe Mohtasham Decision

If you are not familiar with Ms. Elahe Mohtasham’s allegations against various persons associated with the University of Southampton, lucky you. Keep it that way and read no further.  I will not dignify the allegations by repeating them. If you have…

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Nuclear Nightmares Revisited

I’ve been enjoying the comments here at the blog on my piece at Foreign Policy regarding some scary moments involving nuclear weapons. I thought I’d devote a post to a few of my favorite suggestions. 1. CASTLE BRAVO. A US…