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…
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.”
Nuclear weapons of the US and adversaries remain on “high alert”. The Union of Concerned Scientist address the risks, as the United Nations Non-Proliferation Review Conference concludes in disarray…
As the war in Ukraine grinds on and new weapon systems are escalating the fighting, a war of words, threats, and responses are delivering new levels of risks, collapsing arms control agreements, and calls for a negotiated wars end. Will the 2022 Russia-Ukraine war continue to expand, and expand…
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
If decades of disastrous wars in the Mid/Near East aren’t enough for you… if U.S. forces based across the globe aren’t enough… if a Triad of 24/7/365 hair-trigger alert nuclear weapons aren’t enough, if the collapse of weapons control agreements and treaties aren’t enough then how about a Big Show on the 4th of July? […]
Press reports of the Putin-Trump meeting in Helsinki converged quickly on a dominant narrative — Putin advanced Russian interests and the US president inexplicably supports (or doesn’t support) Putin’s interests. At Strategic Demands, as an independent voice distinct from news cycle narratives, we focus here on our interests, the ‘issue of issues’, nuclear weapons
The U.S. needs new oversight on the unlimited power of the president to order nuclear use on any day at any moment for whatever reason. The singular nuclear launch authority one person has is an extreme and potentially cataclysmic authority. Now is the time for a sane nuclear launch system
At the Brink … US – Russian cooperation breaks down as Russia again charges the US and US allies with supporting Islamic Salafi-Jihadi forces — and ups the ante after the US September 17th Deir Ezzor “accidental air attack” that killed and wounded 200 Syrian government troops
At StratDem we look out at the security horizon and continue our attempt to develop “New Definitions of National Security” with an emphasis on bringing together “Environment Security with National Security”. Today we look at two key executive presidential actions in this regard, and a poll of American voters on likelihood of nuclear weapons use […]
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 […]
A Nuclear Arsenal and Reflections on a President’s Last Days in Office Obama plans major nuclear policy changes in his final months … Obama administration determined to advance the nuclear reduction agenda. StratDem update: A month ago we wrote that the president’s final days in office should include executive orders addressing nuclear proliferation issues… Now, […]
Last week we wrote of President Obama and his National Security counsel as they prepared to leave office and leave behind the power of the White House to shape security policy. This week we continue on the theme of the president’s legacy and strategic nuclear risks by again considering My Journey at the Nuclear Brink […]
A decade ago your editor organized a policy conference in Washington DC with a group of national security experts that ranged from a former NSC senior staffer (and Kissinger aide who resigned in protest of the Cambodia invasion) Roger Morris to current National Security Advisor Susan Rice. The 2006 conference was inauspiciously called “Surviving Victory”
The final question from the international press assembled at the Nuclear Security Summit addressed next generation nuclear weapons. ‘Smarter’ (precision-guided), more usable (‘dial up’ yields), miniaturized nuclear warheads, and delivery systems in development (cruise missiles and F-35s) are soon-to-be-deployed. A new Cold War arms race is heating up
Blip on the Screen – Doomsday Scenario 3 Minutes to Midnight End of Times|Armageddon|The Apocalypse Is it Time to consider Environmental Security as Integral to National Security? Time to consider risks of next generation nuclear weapons? Deployment… Escalation… Proliferation
