Watching the collapse and observing a retreat into xenophobia… Today a more dangerous world, tomorrow another withdrawal from international engagement and cooperation. National and international security threats multiply — pandemic, economic depression, climate disruption, a new nuclear arms race, weapons proliferation, decades of conflict, migration of refugees in the millions, political chaos
At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union and US took a half century facing off and ramping up nuclear weapons. Doomsday war games threatened life on the planet. Dr. Strangelove-types planned to ‘bring it on’. Today, proliferators are back with a vengeance. Time to meet ‘MET’
Coronavirus politics… between now and the November 3 election in the U.S. the wheels will turn, hundreds of millions, a billion plus, will be spent. Prepare for a daily news cycle of blame game, recriminations, politics of division — political division, national division, international division. Time for attack politics, war room politics
Fifty years on… and still going strong. Your Strategic Demands editor reflects on the road to the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970. Senator Nelson played a key role, Rep. George E. Brown worked behind the scenes, the Vietnam Moratorium with its message to Nixon and tactics of ‘teach-ins’ inspired. The word went out — […]
Again, we point at the challenge of front-line reporting, data intelligence, wide and targeted testing to monitor the spread of the new Coronavirus. Government decision-makers must manage policies and guidance based upon essential data. Measuring & monitoring the virus data is the key to managing the pandemic
Pandemic. The threat is real. The novel Coronavirus / COVID-19 continues infecting populations across the nations of the world. As people isolate and economies shut down an admonition comes to mind. We need extensive testing to effectively measure, monitor and manage this disease
The US stock market crashes, the world economy wavers between recession and depression, and a pandemic threatens. The US president at first speaks of a threat exaggerated, then blames China for not reporting the severity of the virus, then pivots to a national response
The Earth holiday is celebrated on March 20th, the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere
CBS-moderated US Democratic presidential debate ends without one question being asked about the existential Climate Crisis or New Nuclear Arms Race: Questions of existence are not worthy of discussion, it seems, even as a US president denies Climate science and releases huge new nuclear budget featuring nuclear pits ‘n triggers for new ‘usable’ nukes
It is the proverbial ‘elephant in the room’ or, to put it in other terms, it is the ‘dinosaur in the room’, the oil and gas, the security threat in the Middle East oil region, and the ‘no see ums’, an accumulating fossil fuels debt that is coming due for our generation and coming generations
(Update – Signing of agreement on Feb. 29, 2020 – Additional details to follow) The news of on again, off again talks and meetings between Afghan Taliban forces and the US seems to signal the latest truce will be followed by an agreement for US withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. The war operation began with […]
Nuclear weapons brinksmenship has a new cold war player. Forgotten collective memory. The collective intelligence of the world’s nations has forgotten the lessons of the Cold War. A new Cold War 2.0 is heating up, everyday and like Global Warming, the existential threat is created by us
The ‘long-awaited’ U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace was revealed today… by all accounts, Palestinian representatives had no part in the announced plan. It showed. The White House ceremony was presented as spectacle without the respective participants needed for peace
Headline that came and went “Pentagon Racks Up $35 Trillion in Accounting Changes in One Year”… then a man running for president, who started a news company reporting on this story, one of the few following the story, says he has the skill set to manage these ‘issues’…
The killing of Iran’s general Soleimani is a ‘beheading’. Provocation takes another step forward as the US joins with Iran’s traditional enemy, Saudi Arabia, in carrying out beheadings of opponents as a cultural practice. Swords and falling heads, Religion, politics, oil. This killing with an overhead drone strike in Iraq will have consequences over decades
As we enter the uncharted realm of 2020 and the coming decade, we have to pause and ask — How fast will the nuclear control dominoes continue to collapse, one arms agreement after another? Who can put in place nuclear arms control agreements now? We have to ask. Who can do?
