Here’s a new development: some in India now worry in public about Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities. Indian influentials tend to match up to China and look down on Pakistan. Lately, New Delhi’s strategic calculations have become more complicated. Vice Admiral (ret.) Verghese Koithara’s book, Managing India’s Nuclear Forces (2012), details a lethargic Indian approach to operationalizing …
Cluster Bombs
by | 2013-02-17 | 24 Comments
Believe it or not, the gray battleship of the establishment’s fleet, Foreign Affairs, published an article decrying the use of cluster bombs during the Vietnam War. I can believe it because I was the author. How in the world did this staid journal publish an essay by an anti-war activist titled, “Weapons Potentially Inhumane: The …
Making Yield Estimates
by | 2013-02-15 | 25 Comments
Update | James says I misrepesented his method, which I may well have done. He is going to post a comment that explains his method in better detail than I have apparently done. Apologies that it took so long to post the companion piece on yield estimation to my Foreign Policy column, North Korea’s Big …
Yield Estimation Placeholder
by | 2013-02-13 | 26 Comments
It’s late, I am tired. I’ve got the better part of a post done, but I’ll finish it in the morning. Short version: don’t spend too much time estimating yield using the USGS Mb number. It gives you only a very rough approximation and there are better ways for seismologists to do it. Until then, …
