Nuclear Deterrence
Americans Shouldn’t Doubt the Nuclear Chain of Command
There has been a long-running chatter in the media and certain circles in Washington about President Joe Biden’s fitness for carrying out the duties of the presidency, especially when it...
The Fallacy of Finite Deterrence
What’s old is new again. The onset of intensive great-power nuclear competition has revived calls for finite deterrence and its associated industrial (countervalue) targeting doctrine. A relatively modest strategic posture,...
Russia Simulates ‘Massive Nuclear Strike’ During Drills
Russian leader Vladimir Putin oversaw military exercises on Wednesday simulating a massive launch of nuclear missiles. The exercise was framed as a practice retaliatory strike in the event of a...
Conventional Arms Alone Can’t Stop Russian Escalation
Following Russian president Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine, Russia has serially threatened Ukraine, NATO, and the West with nuclear threats. While dangerous in itself, Moscow’s threats are balanced by...
Should the United States Eliminate a Leg of the Nuclear Triad?
Could the United States sustain strategic nuclear deterrence with a dyad rather than a triad? Some members of Congress and advocates of nuclear disarmament think so. The idea faces significant...
What Abolitionists Get Wrong About U.S. Nuclear Deterrence
The Russian threat to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine has generated more discussion about U.S. nuclear deterrent policy than at any time since the height of the nuclear freeze movement...
Senate Hearing Focuses on the Russian Nuclear Threat
The pace of Chinese nuclear weapons modernization and Russian president Vladimir Putin’s recent move to put his nuclear forces on “high alert” have created a fast-changing global threat landscape of...
Is the United States Trying to Fight and Win Nuclear Wars?
In mid-2020, the Louisiana Tech Research Institute published Guide to Nuclear Deterrence in an Age of Great Power Competition, a twenty-three chapter handbook written by the country’s top nuclear experts,...
Nuclear Weapons, China, and a Strategic Defense Initiative for this Century
In 2019, I was honored to receive the Hudson Institute’s Herman Kahn Award. Herman Kahn, the esteemed physicist, strategist, and futurist, founded the Hudson Institute. No book is more aptly...
Arms Control Plus: What Reagan Got Right About Nuclear Deterrence
From early 1985 through 1986, the Reagan administration was faced with several difficult strategic nuclear deterrence challenges. Arms control, particularly the call for reductions, was stalled; the Soviets had walked...
China and Russia’s Nuclear Ambitions are Leaving America Vulnerable
The United States is facing two serious and relatively immediate military threats—one from the East and one from the West. Russia is massing troops and armaments on the eastern border...
Is Missile Defense Our Best Shot at Nuclear Abolition?
Are arms control and deterrence two sides of the same nuclear coin? Or are they separate and distinct, serving different objectives and fundamentally at odds? In a new book, Winning...