Guidance from Van Morrison: Rave on John Donne, rave on thy Holy fool Down through the weeks of ages In the moss borne dark dank pools Rave on, down through the industrial revolution Empiricism, atomic and nuclear age Rave on down through time and space down through the corridors Rave on words on printed page …
Iskanders in Kaliningrad
by | 2016-12-11 | 3 Comments
Last week, Geoff Brumfiel at NPR wrote a story about my research, with Veli-Pekka Kivimäki, showing that Russia was now deploying the Iskander missile system to Kaliningrad. This is the longer analysis that outlines the evidence that Russia is putting the Iskander in Kalniningrad.
Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century
by | 2016-12-08 | 3 Comments
Ages ago, I was a Legislative Assistant on Capitol Hill, working for a member of the House Armed Services Committee. The most impressive person who testified before the Committee was Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger. His mind was like a steel trap. He personified cold logic, equanimity, and mental toughness. I disagreed with almost everything …
Trump and the Bomb (cont.)
by | 2016-12-01 | 4 Comments
Donald Trump’s narrow victory could bring a reprise of President Richard Nixon’s “madman theory” of deterrence – except on steroids. Nixon and Henry Kissinger believed that projecting an image of readiness to use nuclear weapons could provide negotiating leverage. They tested this assumption in the 1973 Middle East crisis and during the Vietnam War — …
