(With apologies to Alexander George.) North Korea and the Trump Administration turn out to be a pretty heady mix. That blend has been driving Americans to distraction for weeks, and keeping the natsec Twittersphere continuously busy. With North Korea in mind, I dashed off a thread on some of the basics of nuclear deterrence and the non-use of nuclear weapons. …
The American Century
by | 2017-04-30 | 4 Comments
Quote of the week: “Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.” —David Fromkin, The Way of the World, with due credit to Heraclitus and Gautama In an essay published in Life magazine, media impresario Henry Luce declared the 20th Century to be the American Century. That was before Pearl Harbor, …
Skin in the Game: Why Worry about North Korean ICBMs?
by | 2017-04-26 | 16 Comments
Around these parts, North Korea’s ICBM program is the national-security obsession du jour. That’s validating for someone like me, sure. But why? And why now? As I see it, there are good reasons and bad reasons to be concerned, and focusing on one set or another will lead to very different conclusions. Let’s start with the good reasons. The …
The Great North Korea War Scare
by | 2017-04-24 | 7 Comments
Today’s news continues, or perhaps renews, the weird sense of self-imposed crisis surrounding U.S. North Korea policy: Entire U.S. Senate to go to White House for North Korea briefing: https://t.co/wbRa4H0IOA pic.twitter.com/l3E4BSEqBR — Reuters Politics (@ReutersPolitics) April 24, 2017 Why not just have a hearing? But anyhow. Having declared an end to the era …
