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Obama @ the UN: Nuclear Options
Tomorrow, Barack Obama will deliver his last address to the United Nations as president. What will he say? What should he say? He is likely to touch on a range of global issues, including climate...
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25 Years Ago Today a President Changed Nuclear Policy Forever. Will This One?
Today marks the 25th anniversary of the start of the most remarkable and rapid changes ever made in U.S. and Soviet/Russian nuclear posture and policy. Susan Koch, who was director for defense policy...
View ArticleAnother knock against MOX
The MOX program has been staggering along for years, struggling for survival. Today’s news, that Russia is suspending the joint U.S.-Russian agreement to dispose of excess plutonium, should be the...
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New START is a Winner
U.S. military leaders continue to strongly support New START, the arms control treaty between the United States and Russia that limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed, long-range nuclear...
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The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: NNSA’s FY18 Budget Request
On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget request. In an overall federal budget where many, many programs faced severe budget cuts, the National Nuclear...
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The Bad: Post #2 on the NNSA’s FY2018 Budget Request
On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget request. I am doing a three-part analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget. That...
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The Ugly: Post #3 on the NNSA’s FY2018 Budget Request
On Tuesday, May 23, the Trump administration released its Fiscal Year 2018 (FY2018) budget request. I am doing a three-part analysis of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s budget. That...
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The Case of the Missing Numbers
Good performance requires good long-term planning. For federal agencies like the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), one of its important functions is preparing its part of the federal...
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The Trump’s Administration’s Dangerous New Nuclear Policy
Last night the Huffington Post released a draft version of the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, a deeply dangerous document that makes nuclear war more likely. UCS has a press statement...
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The Case of the “Low-Yield” Trident Warhead
Among the nuclear weapons programs included in the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review, only one could start this year and be fully implemented in 2019. The military could field a “low-yield”...
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Opposition to Trump’s New Low-Yield Nuclear Warhead
And the “consensus” on rebuilding the US nuclear stockpile The Trump administration’s program to deploy a new, low-yield variant of the W76 warhead carried by U.S. submarine-launched ballistic missiles...
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The Long-Overdue Missile Defense Review Expected (Again) This Week
Where’s the Trump administration’s hugely delayed Missile Defense Review? The latest rumor is that it will be released this coming Thursday, and that seems plausible (but I wouldn’t hold your breath)....
View ArticleHave I got a Deal for you! Let’s get this STARTed.
President Trump claims to be a deal-maker. Russian President Putin has offered him a deal that no reasonable person would turn down – the chance to ensure that the United States and Russia continue to...
View ArticlePresident Biden, Nuclear Weapons, and US Security: The First 100 Days
As President-elect Biden prepares for the enormous responsibility of becoming president of the United States, there is one question I want to ask him: Sir, are you a fan of a nuclear arms race? Because...
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The Number of Active Satellites in Space Skyrockets . . . Literally
In the four months between January 1 and May 1, 2021, a startling 836 satellites were launched into orbit, pushing the total number of active satellites to more than 4,000 for the first time. That is...
View ArticleCould Biden’s Legacy Be Leaving Behind a Safer World?
On this day 35 years ago, a deal was almost struck that would have radically altered human history. Every person on earth was achingly close to living in a world free from the threat of nuclear...
View ArticleMaking Sense of Ukraine, Russia, and Nuclear Threats
The world is a changed and very dangerous place. Russian President Putin has turned a central premise of nuclear deterrence – that it is a stabilizing force – on its head. On February 27, Putin raised...
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The Meteoric Rise in Satellite Numbers
Between April 31 and December 31, 2021, 866 satellites were put into orbit. While not as dramatic as the 836 launched in the first four months of the year, it completes a meteoric rise of 1,702...
View ArticleHow Should the US Respond if Russia Goes Nuclear?
This week, as Russia’s military forces continued to face setbacks in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin accused the West of “nuclear blackmail” and issued new, thinly veiled nuclear threats, adding,...
View ArticlePutin’s Nuclear Threats and the Commitment Trap
Last weekend, President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan went on the Sunday talk shows to convey the message that there would be “catastrophic” consequences for Russia if President...
View ArticleThe Failures of Biden’s Nuclear Posture Review
Released today, the Biden administration’s unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is, at heart, a terrifying document. It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways...
View ArticleWhy is Congress Funding a Nuclear Weapon the Biden Administration Doesn’t Want?
This week Congress will finish the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the annual bill that provides its views on defense policy and its first crack at setting the military budget. Notably, the...
View ArticleA Year into the Invasion of Ukraine, What is Happening with Nuclear Weapons?
A year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—one that was accompanied by an ominous cloud of allusions to nuclear use issued from Moscow—how goes the age of predatory nuclear-weapon states? In short, the...
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How Many Satellites Are in Space? The Spike in Numbers Continues
At the end of 2022, countries had a total of 6,718 active satellites orbiting the planet, an increase of nearly 2,000 satellites in just one year. The bar chart below lays out the massive expansion in...
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