Nowadays it is hard for anyone much under the age of 50 to imagine, but once upon a time the threat of nuclear war and the prospect of planetary extinction were things people actually worried about.
Steven Pfifer: As US-Russian arms control faces expiration, sides face tough choices
The Trump administration’s proposal for trilateral arms control negotiations appears to be gaining little traction in Moscow and Beijing, and the era of traditional nuclear arms control may be coming to an end just as new challenges emerge.
Q&A: James Muller, MD, on Nuclear Weapons as a Health Threat
The devastating effects of nuclear war are not talked about because they are difficult to imagine. But you cannot prevent something you cannot imagine. Part of the medical work is to help people conceptualize the effect of a nuclear bomb on a city: millions killed and injured in an instant.
Lynn Rusten: On the danger of not renewing New START
Less than a year from now, the landmark New START Treaty is set to expire. The nuclear arms control agreement, signed by U.S. president Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev a decade ago, places a ceiling on the number of strategic nuclear missiles that can be deployed by both countries.
Stephen F. Cohen: Nuclear Explosion and Political Protest in Russia
Stephen F. Cohen, a Nation contributing editor and professor emeritus of Russian studies at NYU and Princeton, discusses with the host of The John Batchelor Show the recent nuclear accident on a submarine in Northern Russia and the unrelated political protests in Moscow. Cohen puts both in the historical and political context usually missing from media accounts. The first should be understood in the context of the new US-Russian nuclear arms race triggered by Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 — and as further confirmation that the new Cold War is more dangerous than was its predecessor. On the other hand, provoked by the authorities’ refusal to register some opposition figures as candidates in upcoming Moscow city elections, the protests are best viewed in the context of the struggle for the democratization of Russia. This historic struggle began with the pro-democracy reforms of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, in the late 1980s, and has continued, not surprisingly, with “many zigs and zags,” as Gorbachev himself has often remarked.
(Cohen’s most recent book, War With Russia? From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate, is available in paperback and as an ebook. His weekly discussions with Batchelor, can be found here: https://audioboom.com/channel/johnbatchelor)
Mel Gurtov: Nukes: The Unmentionable Election Issue
One of these days, national security policy will get a few minutes of campaign debate time. And when that day occurs, perhaps—just perhaps—attention will turn to a matter of some urgency: the continuing threat posed by nuclear weapons.
George Beebe: How Trump Can Avoid War with Russia
Our Russia challenge does not fit neatly into either the “offensive Russia” or “defensive Russia” schools of thought, but the tangled set of issues crisscrossing the U.S.-Russian relationship does reflect the complexities of a classic wicked problem.
Paul Robinson: Review of Joshua Yaffa’s ‘Between Two Fires’
Yaffa’s not stupid. He must know who it was who was shelling the places like Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and Donetsk. And he must know that it wasn’t the Russian army. But he never tells you this. It’s more than a little disingenuous.
Global Zero: No First Use Facts
No First Use” is a commitment to never use nuclear weapons first under any circumstances, whether as a preemptive attack or first strike, or in response to non-nuclear attack of any kind.
Aleks Zivic: The Danger of Turning Russia Into a Pariah State
A generally overlooked and misunderstood turning point in the history of relations between Russia and the West occurred in April 1922 in the town of Rapallo, Italy. It was there, on the coast of the Ligurian Sea, that the Second Treaty of Rapallo was signed between the newly created entities of the Soviet Union and the German Republic. It would leave an indelible mark on the future of Europe.
UVA Center for Politics: Did Russian Interference Affect the 2016 Election Results?
Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s recent testimony was a reminder that Russia attempted to influence the outcome of the 2016 election and very well may try to do so again in 2020. This begs the question: Is there any evidence that Russian interference may have impacted the results, particularly in key states?
FT: The Human Factor: Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher, and the End of the Cold War
Archie Brown praises soft power, challenging the idea of a victory for military might alone.
Alice Slater: Time to Tell the Truth About US-Russia Relations and the Bomb
August 6 and 9 mark 74 years since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where only one nuclear bomb dropped on each city caused the deaths of up to 146,000 people in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki.
Sarah Lazare: The reliance on the military for emergency response is a testament to the failures of the liberal welfare state.
Hyper-militarism may be a tempting short-term emergency strategy, but it’s ubiquity is a testament to the failures of the liberal welfare state. Replacing it with strong public institutions under civilian control as the go-to large-scale logistical institution in times of crisis should be an urgent priority–to get us through this crisis, and the next one.
Gar Alperovitz: The War Was Won Before Hiroshima—And the Generals Knew It
Seventy years after the bombing, will Americans face the brutal truth?
Bloomberg: Russia’s Virus Epidemic Is Worse Than Data Show, Mayor Warns Putin
In a rare public admission of what some experts and critics have claimed is an under-reporting of the scale of the outbreak, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said testing in Russia’s regions doesn’t show the “full picture” and that the country faces “big trouble that will pop up sooner or later.”
Dimitri K. Simes: Delusions About Russia
The same experts who are terrified of confrontation with North Korea, with its rudimentary nuclear arsenal, or Iran, which has no nuclear arsenal at all, take a remarkably cavalier approach towards the prospect of a clash with Russia.
CNN: Why does Russia, population 146 million, have fewer coronavirus cases than Luxembourg?
Does Russia have coronavirus under control? According to information released by Russian officials, Putin’s strategy seems to have worked. The number of confirmed Russian coronavirus cases is surprisingly low, despite Russia sharing a lengthy border with China and recording its first case back in January.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: What would happen if an 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated above Manhattan?
Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles are believed to carry a total of approximately 1,000 strategic nuclear warheads that can hit the US less than 30 minutes after being launched. Of this total, about 700 warheads are rated at 800 kilotons; that is, each has the explosive power of 800,000 tons of TNT.
Reuters: Russia to Use Mobile Phones to Track People at Risk of Coronavirus
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on Monday gave the authorities five days to develop a system to track people who have come into contact with anyone with coronavirus by using mobile phone geolocation data.