• Fifty Dead Men Walking

    Updated: 2010-01-31 04:38:50
    Just watched this. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Some of the character relationships were too rushed or shallow. Ben Kingsley, always a compelling performer, should never wear a toupee. That said, a fantastic COIN, counterintelligence, police drama kind of film. The fictionalized story of IRA infiltrator Martin McGartland eminded me a little of a Gaelic version of Donnie Brasco.

  • GAO Reviews Security of DOE Controlled Nuclear Materials

    Updated: 2010-01-31 00:01:26
    Some fun facts: The Department of Energy(D.O.E.) possesses and secures its own nuclear materials. The D.O.E. sites storing these holding these materials are protected by private contractors. A separate agreement governs each nuclear site Such a decentralized system–on its face–doesn’t seem best at cutting costs or ensuring effective security. But we should all read the GAO report first. [...]

  • QDR Embraces Reduced Role for Nukes in U.S. Strategy

    Updated: 2010-01-30 22:38:33
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog QDR Embraces Reduced Role for Nukes in U.S . Strategy Travis Jan 30, 2010 0 The new 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review has leaked out I just gave it a pretty good read through . Here†s my quick cut analysis on nuclear weapons . issues The QDR states that “new , tailored , regional deterrence architectures” and “new capabilities” will “make possible a reduced role for nuclear weapons in our national security strategy.” It embraces the concept of minimum deterrence , endorsing the goal of “a safe , secure , and effective nuclear arsenal at the lowest levels consistent with U.S . and allied interests.” Yet the QDR does not discount the dangers and uncertainties ahead . It : states Until such time as the Administration†s goal of a world free of nuclear weapons is achieved , nuclear capabilities will be maintained as a core mission for the Department of Defense . We will maintain a safe , secure , and effective nuclear arsenal to deter attack on the United States , and on our allies and partners . : Moreover

  • Questions for the Prime Minister

    Updated: 2010-01-30 05:23:16
    Not a bad idea. The appearance is Axelrod-designed posturing to reach out to independents via signalling , but still, the results might be healthy in a minor way. Decades of gerrymandering has created so many “safe” districts that the House has become far more polarized in political terms than the voting public as Congressmen increasingly represent only [...]

  • Biden: FY 2011 Budget to Pour Money into Sustainting U.S. Deterrent

    Updated: 2010-01-29 19:19:40
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog Biden : FY 2011 Budget to Pour Money into Sustainting U.S . Deterrent Kingston Jan 29, 2010 0 You Go Joe In his April 2009 Prague speech on a vision of a world free of nuclear weapons , President Obama vowed to purse a number of steps to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons . “As long as these weapons exist,” the President added , “the United States will maintain a safe , secure and effective arsenal to deter any adversary , and guarantee that defense to our allies.” Vice President Joe Biden takes to the page of the not-so friendly Wall Street Journal op-ed page today to outline how the Obama administration†s upcoming Fiscal Year 2011 budget , which will be released next week , will allow the U.S . to maintain a strong deterrent into the future . Recent reports have suggested that the Administration is about to propose a 10 increase in the nuclear weapons budget . The Vice President confirms these : reports To achieve these goals , our budget devotes 7 billion for maintaining our nuclear-weapons

  • Center Executive Director John Isaacs Discusses START on Russia Today

    Updated: 2010-01-29 18:41:02
    Last night, Center Executive Director John Isaacs was interviewed on the Russia Today news program on START. Watch the video to see John's views on the impact of the December 5th expiration of START and the timeline for finalizing its successor. Read the brief excerpt below, and then watch the video on our YouTube channel. Here we are, almost 20 years after the Cold War ended, and both the US and Russia still have huge [numbers of] – many tens of thousands – nuclear weapons. There are about 23,000 nuclear weapons across the globe, and Russia and the US have over 90% of them. And this treaty is designed to begin the reduction process, which then has to go much further beyond this treaty. The US Senate takes a long time to deal with this treaty, so even if the two presidents of Russia and the United States signed an agreement let’s say the next month, by February, it still will take several months, maybe many months, before the US Senate ratifies.  

  • Center Praises Nuclear Security Agenda Outlined in the President’s State of the Union

    Updated: 2010-01-29 02:49:22
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Nukes on a Blog Center Praises Nuclear Security Agenda Outlined in the President†s State of the Union Kingston Jan 28, 2010 0 We liked the speech , at least the part dealing with nuclear weapons . Some excerpts from our press release : today “The President deserves praise for his continued efforts to lead a bipartisan nuclear security agenda that addresses the grave threat posed by nuclear weapons,” said Lt . Gen . Robert Gard , the Center†s chairman . “As the President said , he has embraced the vision of John F . Kennedy and Ronald Reagan through a strategy that reverses the spread of nuclear weapons and seeks a world without them.” Gard added , “Nearly every national security expert agrees that terrorist use of nuclear weapons against the United States is our gravest security threat . The best way to address the threat of nuclear terrorism is by securing vulnerable nuclear materials and verifiably reducing nuclear stockpiles , just as President Obama has pledged to do.” “Today there is a growing bipartisan consensus

  • Draft QDR Offers a Glimpse into the Future of Pentagon Spending

    Updated: 2010-01-28 22:20:07
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Security Matters Draft QDR Offers a Glimpse into the Future of Pentagon Spending Laicie Jan 28, 2010 0 Defense geeks are abuzz : A draft version of the Pentagon's 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review QDR was obtained yesterday by Defense News The Pentagon†s major planning document , spearheaded by Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy , will shape U.S . defense posture around the globe for the next several years and likely influence the fiscal year FY 2011 budget . The document “Acknowledges and puts top priority on succeeding in today†s conflicts,” but also places a major emphasis on the balance between “near and longer-term risks.” It states that the FY 2011 budget will build on FY 2010, placing additional attention on “key lines of investment.” These include , “our troops and our people” and “how we buy and operate.” Gone is the focus on fighting two peer militaries simultaneously , which has existed as a pervasive part of the QDR since the 1990s The Pentagon will scrap that concept , “in order to prepare

  • Where is the Pentagon’s Freeze?

    Updated: 2010-01-28 18:55:52
    Nukes of Hazard Blog Subscribe to Our Feed Print Email Link Share add to facebook add to del.icio.us add to digg add to yahoo related at technorati Security Matters Where is the Pentagon†s Freeze Laicie Jan 28, 2010 0 Freeze What Freeze An article in the Washington Independent today , in which I†m quoted , points to one – particularly glaring – problem with President Obama†s proposed spending freeze : Why does the proposal exclude defense spending From the piece by Spencer : Ackerman But while Obama did not rule out future defense cuts in the speech , many of these defense wonks could not understand why an effort at deficit reduction would explicitly exclude defense spending . “Defense spending is over half our discretionary spending,” Olson said . “It would be crazy not to include it . It begs the question whether this is a real effort.” Shortly before the speech , Rep . Nancy Pelosi D-Calif . the speaker of the House , told reporters that any spending freeze ought to include defense . spending snip Still , Todd Harrison , an defense-budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments , said he believed the combination of massive defense budgets

  • Burma, Bombs and Boxes [8]

    Updated: 2010-01-28 16:28:56
    : , ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact Burma , Bombs and Boxes posted Thursday January 28, 2010 under proliferation-networks by jeffrey ISIS has released a long-awaited trio of papers on Burma’s very odd nuclear . programs Burma : A Nuclear Wanabee Suspicious Links to North Korea High-Tech Procurements January 28, 2010 A look at Burmese high tech illicit procurement efforts , the cooperation with North Korea in the areas procurement and development , and imagery analysis of several suspicious facilities . Exploring Claims about Secret Nuclear Sites in Myanmar January 28, 2010 An analysis of several facilities described by Burmese dissidents as involved in a Burmese nuclear program . More Deep Connections between Myanmar’s Department of Atomic Energy and the DTVE January 28, 2010 ISIS traces the links between Burma’s Department of Technical and Vocational Education and the Department of Atomic Energy Some loyal readers have been writing me about Burma in the past few weeks I implored them to hold off while ISIS completed what is a lot of grist for the crowdsourcing mill . Have at . it I just want to make the same point from my Wilson Center talk proliferation

  • The Think Outside the Bomb Conference is Coming Up

    Updated: 2010-01-27 22:04:48
    Think Outside the Bomb (TOTB) is a grassroots youth organization that aims to eliminate nuclear weapons. This year, TOTB is focused on recruiting young people from across the country to participate in two major events it has planned for this year: actions at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review conference in May and at its “Disarmament [...]

  • Turning the Doomsday Clock

    Updated: 2010-01-27 13:56:00
    Twenty-first century threats require innovative and global solutions. Reducing the numbers of nuclear weapons in the world and preventing their further spread will require concerted effort by many nations and sustained leadership from the United States, writes Katie Mounts in the Register Citizen.

  • Battleground Yemen

    Updated: 2010-01-27 06:09:25
    An informative post by Curzon at Coming Anarchy Yemen: Geography Matters! ….The Saudis are guilty of aggravating and prolonging the conflict. Wary of taking too many losses on the ground and unable to do much by air and sea, they have recruited the Hashed, a local tribe, to fight against the Huthi, the tribe central to the Shia [...]

  • Stanton Fellowships [1]

    Updated: 2010-01-26 15:34:38
    : ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact Stanton Fellowships posted Tuesday January 26, 2010 under administrivia by jeffrey For regular readers who also happen to be pre-doctoral or post-doctoral acadmics , the Stanton Foundation has funded a series of fellowships in nuclear security . Here is a list of participating : institutions Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs Harvard University , Cambridge , MA Carnegie Endowment for International Peace , Washington , DC Center for Security and International Cooperation Stanford University , Palo Alto , CA Council of Foreign Relations New York , NY Institute for International and Strategic Studies London , UK RAND Santa Monica , CA Pittsburgh , PA Washington , DC For reasons that totally baffle me , the Carnegie Endowment has not posted its announcement yet . Be mindful : the due dates , application materials and salary vary from one place to the next , sometimes greatly . The salary range , for example , runs from the Harvard discount of 20,000 over ten months for a pre-doctoral fellow up to 100,000 over a full year for post-docs at some other institutions . In fairness , academic institutions like Harvard and

  • Japan Hates TLAM-N [6]

    Updated: 2010-01-25 19:40:04
    : ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact Japan Hates TLAM-N posted Monday January 25, 2010 under japan by jeffrey Well , well , . well Japanese Foreign Minister Okada sent a letter , dated December 24, the explicitly denies Japan wants the United States to retain the archaic Nuclear Tomahawk . Regular readers know that I find the Nuclear Tomahawk to be largely irrelevant to extended deterrence and useless and therefore not credible Okada’s letter is in Japanese , but Philip White at the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center which , along with UCS has done more to bring this issue to light in Japan than any other group made an unofficial translation full text in the comments Here is the relevant passage regarding TLAM : N It was reported in some sections of the Japanese media that , during the production of the report of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States” released in May this year , Japanese officials of the responsible diplomatic section lobbied your government not to reduce the number of its nuclear weapons , or , more specifically , opposed the retirement of the United States’ Tomahawk Land Attack Missile Nuclear TLAM N and

  • “WE MUST FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO WAR”

    Updated: 2010-01-22 03:27:00
    : skip to main skip to sidebar The Nuclear Abolitionist Working towards a nuclear weapons-free world Quotable I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation . Martin Luther King . Jr Thursday , January 21, 2010 WE MUST FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO WAR Dear , Friends Here is a slideshow of a somewhat atypical celebration of the memory of Martin Luther King , Jr . nbsp Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action celebrated with a traditional vigil and nonviolent action at the gates of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor , West coast home of the U.S . Navy's Trident nuclear submarine fleet , and storehouse of roughly one-fourth of all U.S . nuclear weapons , probably the most nuclear weapons at any one site in the world The theme of the event was WE MUST FIND AN ALTERNATIVE TO WAR I think Dr . King would have approved . nbsp Enjoy the show Then go out and abolish those nukes Peace , Leonard View all Get your own Posted by Leonard Eiger at 7:27 PM Labels : Bangor Submarine Base Ground Zero Nuclear Abolition Nuclear weapons Trident 0 comments : Post a Comment Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom

  • Working…..

    Updated: 2010-01-22 02:54:04
    On kind of a big post. Won’t finish it tonight but I think it will generate some discussion when I do. Then again, I am often a poor judge of what topic will cause the comment section to go en fuego, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

  • George Bunn, The Norm Builder [6]

    Updated: 2010-01-21 16:15:07
    : , ArmsControlWonk.com Home About Book Archive Contact George Bunn , The Norm Builder posted Thursday January 21, 2010 under krepons-shoebox by michael_krepon George Bunn above , sailing and with son Matt is one of the founding fathers of nuclear arms control . He was present at the creation of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , and served for eight years as ACDA’s first General Counsel . George participated in the negotiation of the Limited Test Ban and Nonproliferation treaties . Fortunately , he took notes during his years of public service , which is evident in Arms Control by Committee , Managing Negotiations with the Russians 1992 George wrote this book to add to the negotiating history of key accords and to suggest lessons learned , using the case study method . In his chapter on the test ban , George reveals that ACDA Director William Foster exceeded his negotiating instructions trying to bridge differences on the number of on-site inspections required for a comprehensive treaty . The Politburo finally budged from zero to three OSI s per year the Kennedy administration wanted seven inspections , but was prepared to fall back to six . Before throwing in the towel ,

  • Honoring Dr. King – Keeping the Prophetic Voice Alive

    Updated: 2010-01-21 06:31:00
    : . skip to main skip to sidebar The Nuclear Abolitionist Working towards a nuclear weapons-free world Quotable I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation . Martin Luther King . Jr Wednesday , January 20, 2010 Honoring Dr . King Keeping the Prophetic Voice Alive , Friends I honored the memory of Martin Luther King Jr . on Saturday , January 16, 2010 by gathering with other peacemakers at the site of one of the largest concentrations of nuclear weapons anywhere in the world . nbsp We were there to speak truth to power . nbsp Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor , according to a 2006 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council , has 2,364 nuclear warheads , or approximately 24 percent of the entire U.S . nuclear arsenal . nbsp The base is home to Trident , the U.S . Navy's first strike nuclear weapons system . nbsp Members and supporters of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action held a vigil and nonviolent direct action honoring the memory of Dr . King , nbsp much of which has been conveniently lost or perhaps sanitized by our nation by and large the memory of a powerful anti-war prophet is

  • Books For a Near Future Review

    Updated: 2010-01-21 05:10:32
    Complicit: How Greed and Collusion Made the Credit Crisis Unstoppable by Mark Gilbert Inside Cyber Warfare: Mapping the Cyber Underworld by Jeffrey Carr Received courtesy review copies of two books that will serve to “stretch” my knowledge base and increase my cognitive map. Mark Gilbert is a financial columnist and bureau chief for Bloomberg News in London and he has [...]

  • Help Advance Nuclear Disarmament

    Updated: 2010-01-20 20:32:55
    “One nuclear weapon exploded in one city — be it New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague — could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And no matter where it happens, there is no end to what the consequences might be — for our global safety, our security, [...]

  • A Positive Take on the Evans-Kawaguchi Nuclear Threat Report

    Updated: 2010-01-16 15:38:37
    Last month “Eliminating Nuclear Threats: A Practical Agenda for Global Policymakers”—a joint Australian-Japanese project—was released. While much reaction has been critical, Haaretz correspondent Amir Oren writes this positive editorial: It is no longer possible to dismiss as negligible the possibility that a fanatical organization will get nuclear arms, materials or know-how from one of its patrons, [...]

  • Britain’s Nuclear Future—And Nuclear Payment to Australia’s Aboriginals

    Updated: 2010-01-15 21:36:40
    With the Iraq War fallout, Britain has been forced to reassess its military posture. The Financial Times offers an aged—but still—fantastic panel discussion on Britain’s military future. For this blog, David Davis’ contribution on Britain’s nuclear arsenal merits particular note: In January, Field Marshal Lord Bramall, former chief of the defence staff, General Lord Ramsbotham and General [...]

  • Nuclear Doctrine and Missing the Point.

    Updated: 2010-01-08 21:10:37
    The government’s much anticipated Nuclear Posture Review, originally scheduled for release in the late fall, then last month, then early February is now due out the first of March.  The report is, no doubt, coalescing into final form and a few recent newspaper articles, in particular articles in Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, have [...]

  • News Note: Sole Survivor of Both Atomic Blasts Dies

    Updated: 2010-01-07 23:37:33
    Tsutomu Yamaguchi—the Beckettian survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings—passed away Monday at the age of 93. The Guardian offers this report.

  • Iran Sanctions Are Counterproductive

    Updated: 2010-01-07 16:12:00
    If the United States hopes for the emergence of an environment in Iran where pro-democracy forces may successfully challenge—and one day replace—the current regime, new sanctions are a step in the wrong direction. Poorly designed gasoline sanctions strengthen hardliners’ anti-American arguments and undercut moderates’ calls for internal reform and external engagement with our country, writes Laicie Olson in the East Texas Review.

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