By now, you have undoubtedly seen press reports claiming that North Korea may have conducted a pair of clandestine nuclear tests in April and May 2010. The reports are based on a forthcoming paper by a well-known Swedish radiochemist, Lars-Erik De Geer. I don’t buy it. At least not yet. Look, I would be the …
Complaints about the Code
by | 2012-02-05 | 6 Comments
Major diplomatic accomplishments for space are as rare as triple crown winners in baseball. The last year both occurred was in 1967, when the Outer Space Treaty was finalized and Carl Yastrzemski powered the Red Sox into the World Series. (Yaz and outer space have something else in common: shift the number 8 on Yaz’s …
DIAC has a Scud!
by | 2012-01-31 | 17 Comments
Did you know there is a Scud missile in the lobby of the Defense Intelligence Analysis Center. A colleague sent along this little video, noting that if you look closely, there it is at 0:13! (Apparently, they also use it as a rally point as in “meet by the Scud”.) I know that the United States acquires foreign military equipment, …
Nixon, Kissinger, and SALT
by | 2012-01-29 | 6 Comments
Reading 1,000 pages of memoranda, meeting notes, and transcripts of conversations about SALT I in Volume XXXII of Foreign Relations of the United States prompts many unsettling questions, beginning with the competence of President Richard Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger. Nixon comes across as someone with a surprisingly uncertain grasp of the issues …
