“MIRV” stands for Multiple Independently-targetable Re-entry Vehicles, the ability to put lots of very accurate nuclear warheads on a single missile. Michael Krepon watched the US-Soviet arms race dangerously accelerate as both sides deployed large numbers of MIRVed missiles in the 1970s. Now other countries, like China and India, seem to be heading down this …
The Humanitarian Pledge, Nuclear Weapons, and the Laws of War
by | 2016-06-04 | 4 Comments
Dear Readers of ACW: I have posted the perspectives of others in this space on whether the explosive use of nuclear weapons can be reconciled with the laws of war. This discussion is useful, in my view, because it clarifies that the continued abundance of nuclear weapons held by the United States and the Russian …
Python Library for Nuclear Weapons Effects
by | 2016-06-03 | 8 Comments
Edward Geist has created a Python library of nuclear weapons effects, including Soviet models. If there was ever a reason for this blog to exist, announcing something like this is pretty much it. Introducing GLASSTONE—a Python library for modeling nuclear weapons effects Edward Geist Unfortunately, the public has been kept in the dark about nuclear …
Evaluating the Visit to Hiroshima
by | 2016-05-31 | 10 Comments
What are we to make of President Obama’s visit to Hiroshima? To my ear, President Obama’s speech was oddly unequal to the occasion – and not just because he signaled no new efforts to move in the direction of his aspirational goal of a world without nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama was obliged to repeat this …
