Regular readers know that I have tried to accumulate all the information I can about the 2005 NIE on Iran’s nuclear program — it is interesting in its own right and as a predecessor to the much misunderstood 2007 NIE. (I did my best to create a detailed account in “NIE on Iran’s WMD Programs,” …
Gates On 'Likely Conclusions' of NPR
by | 2009-09-22 | 9 Comments
It’s baaaaack. SECDEF Robert Gates told the Air Force Association last week that a “ likely conclusion” of the Nuclear Posture Review will be that “in one or two cases” existing warheads would be replaced with “new designs”: SEC. GATES: Well, the Nuclear Posture Review is well under way, and I would say we’re beginning …
Testing European Missile Defense
by | 2009-09-21 | 12 Comments
Plenty has already been said about last week’s missile defense announcement, with the diplomacy and the politics taking center stage. Now let’s see if we can’t tip the balance back just slightly towards the wonky. After all, that’s where President Obama put the focus on April 5 when he said, “As long as the threat …
Hidden Agendas and Missile Defenses
by | 2009-09-18 | 5 Comments
Back in 1970, I had the good fortune of taking a graduate seminar taught by Mort Halperin, who was then working on his book, Bureaucratic Politics and Foreign Policy, with the help of a very bright research assistant, Arnie Kanter. A second edition of this fine book was published in 2006. A key chapter, which …
