With realpolitik in mind, Strategic Demands has proposed a ‘fix’ to the Ukraine crisis, a confrontation that publicly seems to be without resolution. We believe security is at the center of the dispute. We propose a mutual security that goes to a core threat of nuclear weapons and the need now for an expanded INF […]
Time to talk or time to move beyond negotiation and diplomacy? This week delivered another ratchet up of tensions along the Russian-Ukrainian border — and beyond. Germany foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, a leader of the Green Party in a newly installed coalition government, meets with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov
Two citizens of the United States respond to the latest U.S. Department of Defense Report to Congress on the “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China”. The editor of Strategic Demands focuses in on a predictable result of U.S. nuclear weapons ‘modernization’ and expansion of capabilities…
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…
Strategic Demands in association with its partner site GreenPolicy360 have advanced a new vision of national security, one that is forward-looking and comprehensive. Join with us to bring “New Definitions of National Security” into security discussion, debate and democratic decision making. Now is a propitious time to act…
As with so many of the current US administration’s international agreements and treaties, the New START nuclear weapons agreement is threatened and, as of public announcements this week, seems to be on the way out… the new nuclear arms race, a Cold War 2.0 is ratcheting up
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 […]
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?
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 […]
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”
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
On Veterans Day, formerly World War One Armistice Day, the “war to end all wars”, we look back and forward at the costs of war and remember the courage in defense of values worth defending. My father was a B-17 pilot then trained as a B-29 pilot among those who began the nuclear era…
Via RT — Russia has unveiled the first image of its new thermonuclear missile system, RS-28 Sarmat, nicknamed “Satan-2” by NATO. The MIRV’d Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, designed to be fitted with hypersonic warheads, are expected to go into production as early as 2018. Tags: Calculus of War; Cold War 2.0; Nuclear Proliferation; Hypersonic Arms Race
One has to ask after watching this week’s foreign policy speech from candidate Clinton, billed as a “major” policy presentation, where were the foreign policies and national security positions? The speech was an unrelenting attack on candidate Trump, yes, but Clinton tough talk and a ‘new neo-con’ confrontational foreign policy remains a major issue
Presumptive Republican nominee delivers what is introduced as the beginning of a Trump administration. In his think-tank crafted overview laying out policies and positions, with accompanying comments, the potential Republican party leader addresses how he sees the world — and America’s interests
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
As Presidents Obama and Putin meet in New York … the UN meets this week under a supermoon to talk of the state of the world. In DC and NYC the signs are ominous as the Pope returns from the U.S. to the Vatican and throughout the Mid East, catastrophe escalates as millions of refugees […]
