As the U.S. and its allies prepare for another round of negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, powerful and wealthy opponents—from the halls of Congress to Middle East capitols—are maneuvering to torpedo them. At stake is the real possibility of a war with...
Ban the Bomb!
Several months ago, even the most politically engaged Americans had probably never heard of either the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) or the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). That was no longer the case after August 21, when news broke of...
When It Comes to Nuclear Weapons, Austerity Has a Silver Lining
“Omne trium perfectum” goes the Latin saying -- “everything which comes in threes is perfect.” Let’s see: the spiritual perfection of the Holy Trinity, the cinematic perfection of the Three Stooges, and … the nuclear triad. Those dubious that the Three Stooges help...
Foreign Policy Thin-Sliced (10/17)
Not Enough Stock Dividends From a Peace Dividend In 2001, military spending, as a function of the over-all American economy, was, at six per cent, the lowest it had been since the Second World War. … In much the same way that the peace dividend expected with the...
Applied to Nuclear Weapons, Realism is the Road to Ruin
In an op-ed at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists titled Why nuclear realism is unrealistic, Benoit Pelopidas writes that “adopting the point of view often called nuclear realism—the notion that technology and careful management will keep us safe—is a dangerous...
Netanyahu Unfazed by Historic Diplomacy Between U.S. and Iran
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dedicated the lion’s share of his UN General Assembly Speech last week to rebuking the recent diplomatic efforts of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Netanyahu, who last year took to using cartoons at the UNGA to demonstrate...
Israel on the Sidelines
Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren recently spelled out quite clearly for MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell his government’s attitude toward possible new openings in relations between the United States and Iran. Mitchell had asked him: “What is Israel's posture towards this...
Has Nuclear Disarmament Passed Its Sell-by Date?
From the Partial Test-Ban and nuclear Non-Proliferation treaties through Reykjavík in the eighties to START I in 1991, arms control was beginning to look like it might corral nuclear proliferation by other countries and on our own soil. Instead, institutional...
Prompt Global Strike Too Prompt for Its Own Good?
Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS), still under development, is a weapons system designed to provide the military with the option to strike fast, even on the other side of the world. It affords the speed of nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, but...
On the Fence about Syria? Read This!
Some progressives remain conflicted about how the United States should respond to Syria's increasingly violent civil war. This internal division has only deepened as the Obama administration considers launching a military strike on Bashar al-Assad for an alleged...