Is international relations a field for cautious minds, marked by permanent setbacks, or terrain where the bold are encouraged to seize the day? In terms of dealing with the existential and even unimaginable horror that is nuclear war, the bold have certainly stolen a march. The signature of Honduras was […]
Strategic Deterrence
New START: Putin’s “Win-Win” With Trump
The Russian proposal of October 20 for a simple one-year extension beyond February when the New START treaty expires, has received a curt reply from Washington within hours. Something is still better than nothing, as the curtain comes down on Russian-American relations at the end of the US President Donald […]
The US Response To China’s Growing Might
In early September 2020, the Pentagon issued a report on the development of China’s military and security services. The report is destined for US Congress, where the US Defense Department has been sending such reports for the last 20 years. The beginning of the report states that the Chinese People’s […]
The US’ Nuclear START Ultimatum To Russia Risks Provoking The Unthinkable
The previously unthinkable scenario of the US and Russia returning to nuclear brinkmanship with one another is once again on the cards after America’s START ultimatum to the Eurasian Great Power. What Could Be Worse Than The Cuban Missile Crisis? The Cuban Missile Crisis is universally considered to have been […]
Catholics Against Nukes: Archbishop Wester’s Hiroshima Vigil
In what is a turn-up for the books, a senior voice of the Catholic Church made something of an impression this month that did not incite scandal, hot rage, or the commencement of an investigation. It did, however, agitate a few editors. Archbishop John C. Wester of San Fe, in […]
Opponents Of The Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty
It would seem a logical step, at least from an existential perspective: to ban something so utterly horrendous to life; to forbid its use in any circumstances, whatever rationale employed to justify its use. But the nuclear weapon has its admirers. There are those who continue to worship its sovereign […]
US Space Flags And Super-Duper Missiles
US President Donald Trump is much taken with the bombastic and the exaggerated. In an interview with the Associated Press in April 2017, he spoke of his infamous if somewhat less than successful wall project on the US-Mexican border. Ever happy to stretch the record on costs, he took issue […]
Russia, China Won’t Accept US Nuclear Superiority
Geopolitics has returned with a bang although Covid-19 is still very much around and a ‘second wave’ is also expected. The US President Donald Trump’s arms control negotiator, Special Presidential Envoy Marshall Billingslea said in an online presentation to a Washington think tank on Thursday that the United States is […]
Scuttling New START: Trump’s China Distraction
“If we want to preserve strategic stability using arms control as a counterpart of that, as a tool in that toolkit, then China should be in as well.” US Defence Secretary Mark Esper, Defense News, Feb 26, 2020 For a person keen on throwing babies out with their bath water, […]
The UK’s Trident Nuclear Programme
Of the “official” nuclear powers (Russia, the US, France, the UK, and China), the UK probably has the most idiosyncratic approach to nuclear deterrence. Keeping the UK out of Russian–US nuclear arms control agreements in conjunction with US SLBMs is an opportunity for “unofficial” Trident test launches.
Putin And Trump vs The New World Order: The Final Battle
This outmost daring move comes at a crucial point in time, and faces us with the realization that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are united and have taken humanity to the crossroads of the New World Order and freedom. As I have stated often before, I thought that the world would deeply change between 2020 and 2024.
Golden Anniversaries For Flawed Treaties: The NPT Turns Fifty
In an era where agreements have been abandoned as “bad”, to use that favourite word of US President Donald Trump, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons continues to feature on the books of diplomacy. But age seems to be wearying it and decoding sober readings from hype-filled tat […]
Comments