Miscalculation, mistake, a cyber attack or provocation that spirals out of control… the reality of cold war-legacy systems with hair-trigger response imperatives… escalating political conflict and threats… the development and deployment of a next generation of tactical / strategic nuclear weapons, bombers, missiles, submarines… The 21st century scenario is delivering ominous nuclear odds
The Doomsday Clock, first unveiled in the late 1940s when atomic scientists who built the first nuclear weapons were having second thoughts, is now closer to a midnight of disaster than ever before. We’ve arrived, humanity has arrived. The clock’s hands of fate display we’re on the brink of paroxysm and unimaginable cataclysm
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…
It doesn’t take a Kissinger to see how nations respond to threats. It doesn’t take a Balance of Power theory to explain why when one nation throws out arms control and races to build a next generation of new nuclear weapons, then other nations will race to not become a hostage to hard power. So […]
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
Two minutes to midnight, an atomic clock’s ticking. Few are aware of the danger. The nuclear risk is real but it seems far away. Then there are open-eyed scientists in the nuclear weapons biz who know the danger and are raising their voices. Former Governor Jerry Brown and Secretary of Defense William Perry step up […]
Tom Nichols Makes His Case. Strategic Demands’ editor responds… Former US Defense chief, William Perry, weighs in… Negotiating horizon? Time to prep? Two months. Negotiating prep to date? No visible prep. Korean Ambassador? No US Ambassador. Nuclear weapons experts? Arms Control team? Questionable at best. Winging it? Admittedly. Other options? War. Nuclear war. Dead-Hand Disaster.
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
Article VI of the NPT: “Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control”
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 […]
This past week the Democratic Party reeled from the release of an email “dump” from WikiLeaks. The thousands of emails were embarrasing at the minimum and at the maximum may have involved a foreign government ‘intrusion’. This week as the Democratic convention opens, the head of the Hillary Clinton campaign alleges ‘the Russians are involved‘ […]
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”
U.S. nuclear national laboratories at Los Alamos and Sandia in New Mexico are the world’s foremost facilities for the production of mass destruction and death… Over the past 60 years, our country has spent over $7 trillion to generate 70,000 nuclear warheads at an average cost of about $100 million apiece… 10,400 such weapons […]
Failed Policies, ‘Perpetual War’ War Costs — profoundly understated Definitions of national security — outdated Nuclear risks of a Cold War 2.0 are escalating The nation ignores larger existential security threats The U.S. is facing a crisis of governing, and loss of popular support. Decades of war have delivered deep costs, war costs […]
Stewards of the Apocalypse ♠
(Excerpt) The President may direct the use of nuclear weapons through an execute order via the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the combatant commanders and, ultimately, to the forces in the field exercising direct control of the weapons.
