Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century
Ages ago, I was a Legislative Assistant on Capitol Hill, working for a member of the House Armed Services Committee. The most impressive person who testified before the Committee was Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger. His mind was like a steel trap. He personified cold logic, equanimity, and mental toughness. I disagreed with almost everything […]
Trump and the Bomb: U.S. Nuclear Policy Under the Next Administration
When U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, he will face a global nuclear order that is increasingly unstable. North Korea, deteriorating U.S.–Russian relations, and the triangular competition among India, Pakistan, and China are all cause for concern. Add in Beijing’s growing ambitions to control resources and sea-lanes around its periphery and Trump’s repeated […]
Cry, the Beloved Country
The United States is so divided that the election of a new President has become a cause of mourning for half the population. To me, Donald Trump’s election feels like Ronald Reagan over Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush over Al Gore — only worse. It’s impossible for people like me to forget how Trump […]
Bombs, Bans, and Norms
Early drafts of the Nuclear Ban Treaty green-lighted by the UN First Committee seek to prohibit the development, production, testing, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, deployment, threat of use and use of nuclear weapons. This would be the most ambitious treaty negotiated since the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact, which outlawed war. The Kellogg-Briand Pact didn’t work out so well; […]
The Nuclear Ban Treaty and Our Wobbly Nuclear Order
Even after the Iran nuclear agreement, nuclear dangers are growing on four fronts – North Korea; U.S.-Russian relations; India-Pakistan, with China mixed in; and the potential for offshore frictions between the United States and China. Sure, there were more intense periods of nuclear danger during the Cold War, but only two parties were involved. Nowadays, we’re […]
Elections, Fear of the Bomb, and the the Great Unraveling
Thankfully, a dispiriting election season in the United States is almost over. France and Germany await their ordeals. Democracies have been battered by the Great Recession, triggered by the greed of financial institutions and abetted by weak governmental regulations. Fears of displacement and loss have been fueled by the influx of foreign workers and the […]
Tech Sector Offers Promising Solutions on WMD
By Cameron Trainer and Brian Finlay: As the A.Q. Khan network demonstrated, committed proliferators have become expert at exploiting the seams of the global regulatory network to procure and transship their illicit wares. Increasingly, the sophistication and agility of these networks allow them to remain steps ahead of government regulators and investigators who are hampered […]
Innovating for a Secure Future: Summary and Findings of InnoCentive Competition on Nuclear Nonproliferation
Background The rapid pace and geographic breadth of technology innovation; the staggering volume of international trade; globalized business practices from outsourcing to off-shoring with intricate and oft times invisible supply-chains; and the inherent inability of governments to act at the speed of 21st-century commerce: these are but a few factors negatively influencing our ability to […]