In meetings over the past few weeks, I have heard repeated references to the wonderful 1983 essay Deterrence and Reassurance by the late Michael Howard. Point of fact — Sir Michael Howard is not dead. But with the way in which conference goers continuously distort his seminal article, published as both an Adelphi Paper and …
TRR Refueling and Proliferation Barriers
by | 2009-10-12 | 14 Comments
Much has been said about the decision to refuel Iran’s Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) and many have worried about possible consequences for proliferation that supplying Iran with uranium enriched to 19.75% U235 might imply. As I hope I made clear, I am a big supporter of this deal. However, we definitely want to make sure …
France's Role in the LEU-TRR Deal
by | 2009-10-09 | 20 Comments
Yes, we’ve all had a big helping of TRR lately, but this extra tidbit is just too juicy to pass up. Other topics again soon, I promise. A friend of the blog who shall go nameless points out that just as the envoys of Iran and the P5+1 were meeting in Geneva on October 1, …
Defining Arms Control
by | 2009-10-08 | 8 Comments
Thomas Schelling and Morton Halperin provided the most widely used definition of arms control in their seminal book, Strategy and Arms Control (1961): We believe that arms control is a promising, but still only dimly perceived, enlargement on the scope of military strategy. It rests essentially on the recognition that our military relation with potential …
