Avatar photoCrowdsourcing Scud Launches

Sonni Efron has an article online at the TheAtlantic.com detailing the efforts of a Syrian activist to crowd-source missile launches [link fixed] against civilians in Aleppo and other opposition-held areas: [Dishad] Othman’s SCUD early warning system began operating on Wednesday. It is called Aymta, which means “when” in Arabic. Users can opt to receive alerts by …

Avatar photoDisarmament Winners and Losers

Reader Chris Camp, who comments under the name Cthippo, sent me an essay last week that I wanted to share with readers. Camp asks which states would be winners (or losers) if some sorcerer used a magic wand make all the world’s nuclear weapons disappear. As I read through and found myself agreeing here, disagreeing …

Avatar photoSecond Term Blues

There have been only two Democratic Presidents since FDR who have been elected to serve two full terms. On nuclear issues, Barack Obama seems to be following in the footsteps of Bill Clinton. President Clinton achieved considerable success in reducing nuclear dangers during his first term, but lost momentum during his second. In his first …

Avatar photoFYRP: Between Two Stools

We know you’ve missed your favorite post! New York Times | Is anybody happy with President Obama’s Berlin speech? The NYT Ed Board wishes he had the nerve to endorse unilateral nuclear arms cuts rather than wait on Russia. Eric Edelman and Robert Joseph, observing that he hasn’t completely ruled it out, predict that Obama will end up going …