Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on April 4, 2014. Article summary below; read the full text here. Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine has left many observers fearing that Washington and Moscow are headed towards a new Cold War. It is not surprising, then, that the crisis has spawned plenty of chatter […]
Obama’s nuclear legacy on the line
by Kingston Reif Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on February 27, 2013. Article summary below; read the full text here. For all the well-justified praise US President Barack Obama has received for his efforts to roll back the Iranian nuclear threat, the rest of his nuclear security agenda has stalled. Obama famously […]
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Reduce the Bombs
by Kingston Reif and Usha Sahay Outside of Congress, there is a strong consensus among security experts of both parties that the U.S. arsenal of approximately 5,000 nuclear weapons, deployed and in storage, greatly exceeds American security requirements. Inside of Congress, however, nuclear weapons have been subject to the same grinding partisanship as most important policy […]
Pentagon pushes for billions to refurbish nuclear bombs
by Kingston Reif Published in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists Online on October 25, 2013. Article summary below; read the full text here. At an estimated cost of more than $11 billion, the life-extension program for the B61 bomb would be the most ambitious and expensive nuclear warhead refurbishment in history. Concerned by this massive […]
Blown Opportunity: The Folly of Exempting Nuclear Weapons from Sequestration
by Kingston Reif While there is widespread agreement that sequestration is not a wise way to manage reductions in military spending, it is the law of the land. Unless Congress changes the legislation, the Pentagon will be forced to find $500 billion in spending reductions over the next decade beyond what is has already planned. […]