Arms Control Wonk

Article

CTBT Scope Note

I’ve been meaning to write something about the scope of the CTBT — this ongoing debate about whether the Russians believe so-called hydronuclear tests are permitted under the treaty I don’t find compelling the evidence that Russia has a different…

Article

Publishing the Unpublishable

There was some heartburn in the comments about the heat-to-light ratio in Jeff’s post on the Washington Post and the Joint Threat Assessment on Iran. So let’s see if we can’t address the same topic from a slightly different angle.…

Article

An Introduction to Non-introduction

Israel’s nuclear posture is unique. Some countries with “advanced nuclear capabilities,” such as India and China, have publicly adopted “No First Use” postures. Israel has adopted a declaratory policy that it will not be the first to “introduce” nuclear weapons…

Article

Atomic Won

I came into possession of a lovely collection of images of DPRK bank-notes. (You can go ahead and make your own forgery-related one-liners in the comments.) I was amused to see that the fiver (above) is nuclear-themed.

Article

WaPo Hit Job on EastWest Institute

Open note to Fred Hiatt: You are a total neocon hack job. I don’t know how Hiatt ended up as the editorial page editor at the Washington Post, and I suppose this ends my chances of placing any op-eds at…

Article

Donald Report

After the USAF shipped four Minuteman III nosecones to Taiwan, SECDEF Robert Gates asked Admiral Kirkland H. Donald to investigate the “facts and circumstances surrounding the accountability for, and shipment of, sensitive missile components to Taiwan.” Gates eventually briefed the…

Article

A Place For One's Mat

Gregory Kulacki and I have published a paper on the history of China’s space program, A Place for One’s Mat: China’s Space Program, 1956–2003, as part of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Reconsidering the Rules of Space project:…

Article

DPRK: Drilling for Nuke Verification

The position measurement of the 25 May 2009 “nuclear” test, with errors. Up until now, I have been very skeptical of suggestions that the DPRK 2009 nuclear test was actually a conventional explosion. But because of a very interesting presentation…

Article

UCS Summer Symposium 2009

UCS Summer Symposium at Fudan University’s Center for American Studies Hello from Shanghai! I’m here in this booming Chinese city for the 21st annual UCS Summer Symposium and it’s off to a great start. For those of you who don’t…

Article

Useful Fictions and Big Whoppers

Bernard Brodie wrote in The Absolute Weapon that, “Everything about the atomic bomb is overshadowed by the twin facts that it exists and that its destructive power is fantastically great.” From this simple truth, the dictates of state regarding the…