The theory and practice of deterrence between the United States and the Soviet Union were predicated on the unitary, rational-actor model. Life-or-death decisions in deep crises would be made by leaders driven by rational calculations of national interest and executed by coherent chains of command. The unitary, rational-actor model, from which the constructs of escalation …
Rare Earths
by | 2012-11-16 | 5 Comments
I am working on it! I have a post up today at ForeignPolicy looking at some of the issues relating to Burma’s nuclear program. I promised to host a discussion here of the role of some of the equipment described here might play in in rare earths extraction. I am behind a bit — but I’ll …
Fact-Checking From Low-Earth Orbit
by | 2012-11-12 | 17 Comments
Fact-checking political rhetoric has lately become something of a cottage industry in America. Getting into that line of work seems to require a cutesy visual rating system involving wooden noses, flaming trousers, or some such. But with such a sweet target of opportunity, who can resist? After all, this may be the first time that …
Greetings from Vienna
by | 2012-11-12 | 1 Comment
I would post one of my own pictures of the view from our office in Vienna, the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation — but its very cloudy. Here is a picture of the building, the Torre Andromeda, that someone took in the winter. (It’s not that cold right now.) We have a pretty interesting POSSE meeting, …
