Over the past few weeks, several blogs have spotlighted a recent article by scholars Keir Lieber and Daryl Press that analyzes the threat of a nuclear weapons state transferring nuclear weapons to a terrorist organization. The article – “Why States Won’t Give Nuclear Weapons to Terrorists” — asserts that a state has little incentive to deliberately transfer nuclear weapons to a terrorist group, because if that group were to carry out a nuclear attack with said weapons, neither party would remain anonymous, and retribution from the attacked state would undoubtedly ensue.
The Sequel’s Not Any Better: Why the US Should Be Wary of Pyongyang’s Shift in Rhetoric
Let’s start this post off with a pop culture confession: I didn’t like The Hangover. I realize that this probably puts me in the minority of the American movie-going public (the film earned nearly a half-billion dollars at the box office, making it the highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all-time), but I found it to be a bit too crass and a bit too formulaic for my taste.
DefenseOne OpEd: What Ash Carter Gets Wrong about Nuclear Weapons Spending
Published in DefenseOne on July 24, 2013 What Ash Carter Gets Wrong about Nuclear Weapons SpendingHistorically, cost has not played a decisive role in the United States’ nuclear weapons policy. For most of the nuclear age, money for the nuclear enterprise was viewed almost entirely in the abstract: $1 million was just a number and […]
The UK’s Trident Program: Sink or Swim?
Well, it looks like the US isn’t the only country grappling with the issue of nuclear modernization. Across the Atlantic, the British government is in the midst of such a debate. The latest shoe to drop was the release on July 16 of a much-anticipated government-commissioned report titled the “Trident Alternatives Review.” The report put forth a range of possible alternatives to the country’s current nuclear deterrent.
Key Takeaways from Colin Powell’s Interview with the Asahi Shimbun
In an interview with Japan’s Asahi Shimbun last week, former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke at-length about an array of nuclear issues, ranging from the value of nuclear weapons, to unilateral nuclear US reductions, to the threats posed by the Chinese, North Korean, and Iranian nuclear programs.
