By Anna Schumann Masked beneath the humor and heart that made the 1985 movie, Back to the Future, such a classic, is the very real issue of nuclear security and nuclear terrorism. The movie begins with a newscast in the background: “In other news, officials at The Pacific Nuclear Research Facility have denied the rumor […]
Diplomacy and North Korea: Fact and Fiction
By Meyer Thalheimer In an editorial in The Washington Post earlier this year, Stephen Rademaker, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation from 2002–2006, echoed a common line of thought on the North Korean nuclear crisis. He argued that “[i]n the absence of good military options or a Chinese deus ex machina, the […]
Nuclear Terrorism: A Real and Preventable Threat
By Anna Schumann I can’t say I’d ever spent too much time thinking about nuclear terrorism before former Secretary of Defense William J. Perry’s class on the issue. I have spent most of my life in America, so the alarming scenarios that clutter my mind typically involve a mass shooting on the public transit I […]
Black Saturday: Lessons from the Brink
By Meyer Thalheimer Last week at the Ploughshares event, “Nuclear Weapons Policy in a Time of Crisis,” former Secretary of Defense William Perry was asked to reflect on his memories of the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the crisis, he was analyzing Russian missiles to assist U.S. intelligence capabilities. “I believed then that every day that […]
Keep Calm and Carry On: No Risk In the Uranium One Sale
By Sara Z. Kutchesfahani The Uranium One story — the one where Secretary Clinton “gave away all of our uranium to Russia” — is back in the news. The politics behind it are covered here, but it’s important to understand why, from a technical perspective, this whole “controversy” is ridiculous. Despite what Fox News and less mainstream purveyors […]
