Another legislative attempt to bring sanity into nuclear weapons policy. Being ‘on the brink’ of disaster is not rational policy. A new nuclear arms race is accelerating. Threats and chaos dominate U.S. foreign policy. Risks are multiplying and strategic opportunities lost in clicks of daily crisis. It is time to change course …
“We will not cooperate” … “The ICC is dead to us” John Bolton threatens the International Criminal Court. In a tirade against the court, Mr. Bolton says: The ICC is a threat to “American sovereignty and US national security.” “If the court comes after us, Israel or other US allies, we will not sit quietly.” […]
In the US Congress survival is being debated. Nuclear weapon use, first use, is up for debate for the first time in over 40 years. A point of view brought forward by StratDem before the presidential election and more actively since July 2016 is now world news. Now is the time to change first-use policy […]
As war drums beat, talk of war grows closer. Yesterday, we exchanged pre-publication messages with professor Tom Nichols over the issue of “preventive” versus “preemptive” war. We went further by asking how many Americans, who support a US attack on North Korea, even know the difference between preventive and preemptive war. A Trump-ordered first strike […]
The “button” can morph into a perverse temptation for an unstable leader. In 1974, during his impeachment proceedings, President Richard M. Nixon said to reporters: “I can go into my office and pick up the telephone, and in 25 minutes, 70 million people will be dead.”
Continuing on our push for a change in US nuclear weapon first-use policy, we fair-use post an editorial arguing again with growing support that now is time for the President to use his executive powers as the clock ticks toward his last days in office. “President Obama has an opportunity to further delegitimize nuclear weapons […]
Look carefully as the U.S. is declaring what, when, why, where and how the use of Nuclear Weapons is authorized to take place in the new National Defense Strategy and Nuclear Posture. More than anything else focus on how many uses of nukes are authorized as a ‘first use’ of nukes is approved
The Russia-Ukraine Crisis… February 19, 2022… ‘Ratcheting Up’, tactical nukes in the field… Nuclear ‘Drills’ as Russian Forces Run ‘Firing Exercises’
As readers of Strategic Demands may recall, your editor as a younger man was close to Dan Ellsberg during his Rand research days in Santa Monica. Dan’s role with the “Pentagon Papers” was historic, but few know of Dan Ellsberg’s role as a U.S. nuclear war planner…
For years Strategic Demands has pushed for rational controls of nuclear weapons, in particular the critical need for new ‘first use’ controls over the ‘sole authority‘ of the U.S. president to order nuclear war… Now comes a harsh realization this is no academic issue
A John Bolton interview. Another warning about command and control of nuclear weapons presents itself. A series of threats, abandoned arms agreements, collapsed diplomacy, escalations and provocations emanate daily in the news. How often, over the years, do we have to be warned of ‘erratic’ decisions delivering catastrophic consequences
The Russian president sends a warning — the end of the INF and resumption of US tests of intermediate range ground-launched nuclear warheads means gravely higher stakes. When new first strike, ‘usable’ nukes are deployed to countries threatening the Russian Federation, then all bets are off
As White House cabinet officials, aides and staff rapidly come and go, today comes Mike Pompeo. The CIA chief nominated to replace the recently departed Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, delivers a close presidential relationship and promises “not to play games at the negotiating table”
What’s an appropriate response to news of an unexpected meeting in Beijing and newest moves by the US president threatening trade war with China? The first shots in the trade war are now fired, global markets are responding, and the visit of N. Korea’s leader to meet the Chinese president signal a new asymmetrical conflict […]
The new Nuclear Posture Review signals a new nuclear arms race. Luck of the draw. “Do you feel lucky?” The question of generational, existential risk takes on new dimension as strategic arms experts ask deadly end game questions. Nuclear tensions are turning to nuclear threats, an international ramp up of nuclear weapons development, ‘usable’ nukes, […]
At the front lines of the Cold War, a green political movement was launched in Europe. Today, green parties exist in over 1/2 the countries of the world — as nuclear nonproliferation education continues at the front of a green agenda