Many nuclear experts recently gathered in Oslo for an event on nuclear disarmament, organized by the Nobel Institute. Bruno Tertrais, attendee and friend of wonk, sends along this photo of what, for him, was the highlight of the meeting: A…
Iran is obviously investing a lot of its political, intellectual, and financial resources into the Natanz enrichment center. But can we come up with a figure for how much it has cost Iran? Perhaps we can estimate it based on…
Dan Pinkston pointed out this gem from KCNA: Taedonggang Beer Pyongyang, June 25 (KCNA) — The beers including black beer and rice beer made by the Taedonggang Beer Factory are these days popular with the Pyongyang citizens. Beer houses are…
A couple of weeks ago, I complained that the Los Angeles Times‘s Ralph Vartabedian wrote a misleading story on the W76-1 stockpile life extension program (W76 Problems Seem Overblown, June 3, 2009). Bascially, Vartabedian used a relatively minor delay in…
This shoe box entry could benefit greatly from reader participation. I have three great one-liners about the quest for the Bomb in my 4×6 card collection. My definition of a one-liner is different from Henny Youngman. (Am I showing my…
The House Armed Services Committee defense authorization bill contains language that would repeal language creating the RRW program in favor of a “stockpile management program.” I notice that the term of art is management, not modernization, although I wouldn’t object…
Back in January 2008, Michael Bilton in the Sunday Times had a very interesting article on the UK Trident force that I somehow missed. Sort of a UK-version of Doug Waller’s excellent, Big Red. The most intriguing part, to me,…
A few days ago, CNN reported that a Chinese submarine had collided with the towed sonar array of a USN destroyer. The AP now reports confirmation of the incident by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The American side has yet to…
The International Crisis Group, to my mind, is a very uneven operation. It also annoys me that they never sign their reports. But Dan Pinkston, out in Seoul, has a trio of very good reports on North Korea’s Chemical and…
I’ve been reading “Caging the Dragon” on the flight to London and it reminded me of a little song from Sesame Street that goes: One of these things is not like the others One of these things is just not…
