Military Wisdom and Nuclear Weapons
The U.S. administration’s dream of banishing nuclear weapons draws on a long history. Some suggest the fundamental question of whether such weapons should even exist was largely bypassed. Moreover, various well-known outcomes ascribed to the use or threat of atomic weapons, such as the Japanese surrender and the Cuban missile crisis, have subsequently been shown to be due more to conventional factors than to the bomb. A mystique surrounds nuclear weapons, so the discourse has often been characterized by wishful thinking or an exaggerated sense of their impact. As the wish to do away with nuclear arms grows while at the same time they proliferate to unstable actors, reasoned military thinking regarding their actual military utility must offset fanciful speculation
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05 февраля 2013
Russia and European Missile Defenses: Misdirection or Self-deception?
The reset concept in the U.S.-Russia relationship sometimes seems on the brink of abandonment, but it could be rejuvenated along with further strategic nuclear arms reductions. Washington and Moscow could rediscover a steadying deterrence through assured retaliation at levels prescribed by New START or lower. A reinvigorated reset could also give new life to NATO-Russian negotiations on eliminating or reducing nonstrategic nuclear weapons based in Europe. Absent momentum there, Russia could repudiate the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty and reinstall intermediate- and shorter-range missiles in both Europe and Asia. A further benefit would be substantiating U.S. and Russian reliability in leading toward multilateral nuclear arms reductions. Missile defense factors could be favorably impacted by a robust reset agenda as well
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05 февраля 2013
Executive Summary
As the often quoted Chinese proverb says, we do indeed live in interesting times. As this edition goes to press, the fiscal difficulties of the government remain unresolved, along with the question of how this situation will impact the Armed Forces. A number of senior military officer mistakes have grabbed the headlines. A brief but violent exchange of lethal fires between Israel and Hamas resulted in death and destruction on both sides. A ceasefire negotiated by the participants with involvement by the United States seems to be holding. The People’s Republic of China held its once-a-decade swap out of national leadership. These are indeed interesting times
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05 февраля 2013