Avatar photoThe Trouble With Zero

Image is credited to “Shout” in the NYT. Philip Taubman, a former New York Times reporter now writing a book at Stanford, has a wonderful survey of the debate about nuclear abolition in the New York Times entitled, The Trouble With Zero: Yet even as the allure of disarmament grows, the obstacles seem as daunting …

Avatar photoDF-21 Delta Confirmation

In October, I observed that the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missile was probably styled the DF-21 Delta, making it the fourth mod of the DF-21. (A journalist had referred to it as the DF-21 Charlie, which I think is just the plain vanilla conventionally-armed DF-21 variant). Looks like I was right. A senior defense official dropped …

Avatar photo(Space) Insurers Are My Heroes

…and they should be yours too! There is a question of when an international practice becomes a binding law. Some invoke the Treaty of Vienna, a highly controversial subject in the United States, to say that a treaty obligation arises as soon as a country signs a treaty regardless of whether or not it is …

Avatar photoJapan ♥ TLAM/N

The Strategic Posture Commission Report contains at least one outright howler — the claim that the deployment of nuclear-armed cruise missiles is essential to extended deterrence in Asia: In Asia, extended deterrence relies heavily on the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles on some Los Angeles class attack submarines—the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile/Nuclear (TLAM/N). This capability …