America’s Massive Missile Defense Mistake by Lt. General Robert Gard and Phil Coyle On June 22, the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system successfully intercepted and destroyed a target missile in a test over the Pacific Ocean. The Obama administration has said that a successful test would trigger the addition of fourteen more long-range missile defense […]
Summary of the House Appropriations Committee version of the Fiscal Year 2015 Defense Appropriations Bill
By Laicie Heeley, Kingston Reif and Brenna Gautam On June 10, the House Appropriations Committee approved its version of the Fiscal Year FY) 2015 Defense Appropriations Bill, which includes $571 billion in total funding. Although this is an increase from the 2015 requested budget amount, it reflects an overall $1.7 billion decrease in funding from […]
Kingston Reif speaks at CSIS debate on U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in Europe
See a video of the event at: https://youtu.be/UQ7SuXPxt7Y Opening Statement for CSIS PONI Debate on Tactical Nuclear WeaponsMay 19, 2014Russia’s annexation of Crimea and continued threats to eastern Ukraine are unequivocal violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and international agreements that have been the backbone of stability in Europe. Russia should face (and is facing) political and economic consequences […]
When all you have is a Hammer: Strategic Nuclear Forces and the Ukraine Crisis
By Andrew Szarejko and Kingston Reif Like a bad penny that always seems to find its way back into your pocket, critics of the Obama administration are using a crisis abroad to recite their favorite talking points about the importance of nuclear weapons and missile defense to U.S. security. Further Russian aggression toward Ukraine could […]
In the Shadow of the Nuclear Modernization Mountain, Nuclear Weapons Budget Ripe for Savings
by Kingston Reif Last week, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey previewedthe Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Pentagon budget request. Additional details are not scheduled to be released until Tuesday (March 4), but the broad outlines of the request are already clear. And despite cuts to many […]
