Avatar photoElahe Mohtasham Decision

If you are not familiar with Ms. Elahe Mohtasham’s allegations against various persons associated with the University of Southampton, lucky you. Keep it that way and read no further.  I will not dignify the allegations by repeating them. If you have been exposed, however unwillingly, to this ugliness, then you ought to know that the UK …

Avatar photoNuclear Nightmares Revisited

I’ve been enjoying the comments here at the blog on my piece at Foreign Policy regarding some scary moments involving nuclear weapons. I thought I’d devote a post to a few of my favorite suggestions. 1. CASTLE BRAVO. A US thermonuclear test in March 1954 at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The designers were …

Avatar photoObama vs. Romney

U.S. presidential elections periodically offer a dramatic choice rather than an echo. This was Barry Goldwater’s campaign slogan in 1964 against Lyndon Baines Johnson. Voters chose LBJ in a landslide.  Lop-sided victories are the usual outcome when two starkly different choices face U.S. voters in presidential contests.  Think of  Nixon vs. McGovern, or Hoover vs. FDR. …

Avatar photoClose Calls

I have a special Halloween column up at Foreign Policy on various nuclear crisis, accidents and other near-catastrophes. As I said in the opening piece, I was struck at how much I remember correctly – but also how many things I didn’t know.  I am sure there will be a little error here or there, …