Updated September 2022 North Korea’s nuclear weapons program has existed for decades in a self-described attempt to protect the regime from security threats posed by adversaries and proxies. Bilateral efforts between the United States and the DPRK under the Agreed Framework ultimately failed, and in 2003, North Korea officially withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). […]
STRATCOM Commander Makes a Misleading Sales Pitch before Congress
By Geoff Wilson and John Isaacs Admiral Charles Richard, Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, painted a dire picture of the nuclear threats the United States faces from abroad, and claimed that they could only be met by renewing the U.S. commitment to nuclear dominance over the coming century. In his two days of testimony […]
China Is Not the New Soviet Union
By John Isaacs Despite the massive superiority of American military forces over China by most major metrics, there is a rising clamor in Washington, D.C., appealing for a substantial increase in the Biden military budget to confront a resurgent China. However, the United States has a substantial lead in key capacities, such as total annual […]
Op-ed: India, China, Pakistan: Three nuclear powers hurtling towards the boiling point
Program Coordinator Abby Pokraka wrote an op-ed in Responsible Statecraft on the importance of paying attention to the tensions between the nuclear-armed states of India, Pakistan and China. For decades, India and Pakistan have clashed over Kashmir, the mountainous region both countries claim. But to make matters more complicated, China has a stake in the […]
Op-Ed: How the Arms Trade Treaty has influenced the US-China diplomatic chessboard
Research Analyst Samuel Hickey and former intern Jessica Budlong wrote an op-ed in Responsible Statecraft about how the little-known Arms Trade Treaty has influenced the U.S.-China diplomatic chess board. Almost four years into its term, the Trump administration continues to abandon international security agreements at a dizzying clip. These actions are providing China with the […]
