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Nuclear Weapons

Turkey’s ICBM: Ambition for Autonomy

Allies & Extended Deterrence, Archive, Arms Control & Nonproliferation, Government & Politics, Strategic Adversariesalliance priorities, alliance reliance, America, American nuclear commitment, arms dependence, arms embargoes, arms supplier., autonomy, ballistic missile, civilian space, command and control, defense self-sufficiency, Deterrence, deterrent capabilities, domestic aerospace, drone, eastern Mediterranean, escalation risks, EU, foreign defense suppliers, forward deterrence, France, geopolitical power, Germany, ICBM, instability, Iran, Iraq, long-range ballistic capabilities, long-range strike, military power, Military Technology, missile, missile ambitions, missile security, national sovereignty, National Technology Initiative, NATO, NATO Europe, Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear arsenal, nuclear delivery capability, Nuclear Deterrence, nuclear warhead, Nuclear Weapons, operational freedom, payload, Poland, power projection, precision guidance, reentry vehicle, regional influence, rocket propulsion, Russia, sanctions, satellite-launch, Somalia, sovereignty, spaceport, state security, strategic ambitions, strategic autonomy, strategic calculations, strategic independence, Syria, technological progress, Ukraine, Western security, Yildirimhan

Turkey’s ICBM: Ambition for Autonomy

Curtis McGiffin0 Comments

Published: May 26, 2026 At the recent SAHA Expo 2026, Turkey unveiled a mock-up of the Yildirimhan (Thunderbolt) and released details about the long-range, four-engined, liquid-fueled ballistic missile. The designation…

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Beyond the American Umbrella: Europe’s Turn to Forward Deterrence

Archive, Deterrence & Foreign Policy, Strategic Adversariesair and missile defense, arms imports, Berlin, Buy American, Buy European, Centre for International Strategic Studies AJK, conventional forces, Doctrine, drone defense, Eastern Europe, Emmanuel Macron, EU defense spending, European defense, forward deterrence, France, geopolitical dynamics, Germany, global nuclear order, global priorities, Greenland, Ile Longue speech, Indo-Pacific, integrated defense, interoperability, joint exercises, long-range strike, Moscow, NATO, Northwood Declaration, nuclear deterrent, nuclear submarine, Nuclear Weapons, operational autonomy, Paris, Poland, President Tusk, Quaid-i-Azam University, Rafale jets, Russia, second-layer deterrence, security guarantees, sovereign deterrence, strategic autonomy, strategic posture, The Invincible, transactional alliances, U.S. National Defense Strategy, United Kingdom, United States, Warsaw

Beyond the American Umbrella: Europe’s Turn to Forward Deterrence

Qurat-UL-Ain Shabbir0 Comments

Published: 20 May 2026 In his “Ile Longue” speech on March 2, 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a message that will echo across European capitals for years to come.…

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The Halls of Ivy and National Defense

Archive, Defense & Security, Government & Politics, Strategic Adversariesactivism, antisemitism, armed forces, campus protests, categorization, China, classroom discourse, Columbia University, counterinsurgency, Deterrence, education policy, education reform, engineering, family values, federal government, First Amendment, free speech, global competitiveness, government micro-management, Harvard, innovation, international threats, Ivy League, Leadership, learning experiences, Middle America, military, military academies, military experience, military service, National defense, National Security, NIDS, Nuclear Weapons, OODA loop, patriotism, Penn State-Brandywine, political influence, public institutions, radicals, research funding, Routledge Handbook, Russia, science, settlement, society, space warfare, Stephen J. Cimbala, technology, Trump administration, Ukraine, universities, University of Pennsylvania, urban terrorism, war fighting, workforce

The Halls of Ivy and National Defense

Stephen Cimbala2 Comments

Published: May 19, 2026 The relationship between the federal government and American universities is tense and often misunderstood. The gap between the purposes and priorities of government, on one side,…

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Yes, You Can Be a Feminist and Still Support Nuclear Deterrence

Archive, Strategic Adversariesarmed conflict, capability, cold war, credibility, critical theory, Critique, deterrence strategy, escalation, explanation, gender critique, gender norms, global war, Here is a comma separated list of keywords from the paper: feminism, international relations, IR feminists, Margaret Thatcher, masculinity, moral responsibility, Nuclear Deterrence, Nuclear Weapons, patriarchy, peace, policy, realist theory, security, sexual violence, strategic calculations, technostrategic language, violence, war avoidance, war crimes, war prevention, women

Yes, You Can Be a Feminist and Still Support Nuclear Deterrence

Alexis Schlotterback0 Comments

Published: May 4, 2026 In 1987, acclaimed feminist researcher Carol Cohn released a scathing gendered critique of Cold War nuclear deterrence. Cohn argued that the ‘technostrategic,’ masculinized language used to…

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The Pitfalls of Offensive Counterproliferation

Archive, Arms Control & NonproliferationAl-Kibar, Arms Control, assassination, Ayatollah Khamenei, ceasefire, counterproliferation, cyber-attacks, emerging disruptive technology., Gulf War, hardliners, Here is a comma-separated list of keywords from the paper:nuclear non-proliferation, IAEA, inspections, international scrutiny, Iran, Iraq, Israel, kinetic attacks, Libya, military intervention, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, NPT, NSG, nuclear ambitions, Nuclear Deterrence, nuclear fuel, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, nuclear program, nuclear reactor, Nuclear Weapons, offensive counterproliferation, Osirak, proliferation, realist, regime change, religious verdict, sanctions, South Africa, state sovereignty, strategic stability, Stuxnet, Syria, technology transfer, Ukraine, United States

The Pitfalls of Offensive Counterproliferation

Ali Abbas0 Comments

Published: April 30, 2026 The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was intended to limit the spread of nuclear weapons, and it has achieved remarkable success. Since the treaty was entered into…

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Much Ado About Nothing: The Proliferation Debate Post Venezuela

Archive, Arms Control & Nonproliferation, Strategic Adversariesexternal intervention, industrial base, international politics, Iran, Iraq, Juan Guaido, Libya, Middle East, North Korea, nuclear domino scenario, Nuclear Non-Proliferation Regime, nuclear proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, President Maduro, realist school, regime change, Saudi Arabia, security studies, sovereignty, technological knowledge, U.S. intervention, U.S. strikes, Ukraine, Venezuela

Much Ado About Nothing: The Proliferation Debate Post Venezuela

Soumyadeep Bidyanta0 Comments

The morning of January 3rd, 2026, a U.S. Army delta-force team conducted an operation in Caracas, Venezuela, capturing President Maduro and his wife. The operation comes in the wake of…

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America’s Managed Retreat: How the 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy Shifts the Burden to Allies

Allies & Extended Deterrence, Archive, Arms Control & Nonproliferation, Deterrence & Foreign Policy, Strategic Adversariesallies, America First, American power, artificial intelligence, burden shifting, China, Defense Spending, Deterrence, Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, Europe, First Island Chain, global leadership, Indo-Pacific, Japan, Middle East, missile defense, Monroe Doctrine, national security strategy, Nuclear Weapons, Philippines, quantum computing, regional balance, South China Sea, South Korea, United States, Western hemisphere

America’s Managed Retreat: How the 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy Shifts the Burden to Allies

Sidra Shaukat0 Comments

The United States’ 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) is a document that has been written under the shadow of economic strain and military overreach, and it raises the slogan of…

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The Dawn of 2026 and Challenges to Non-Proliferation

Allies & Extended Deterrence, Archive, Arms Control & Nonproliferation, Deterrence & Foreign Policy, Emerging Threats, Strategic AdversariesArms Control, Article VI disarmament obligations, artificial intelligence-enabled command systems, centrifuges, Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), data sharing, diplomatic strain, Fordow facility, Hwasong-20 missile, hypersonic delivery vehicles, ICBMs, inspection regime, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Iran nuclear program, MIRVs, missile factories, modernization, multipolar competition, New start treaty, North Korea nuclear development, NPT Review Conference, nuclear alert status, nuclear arsenals, Nuclear Deterrence, nuclear threshold lowering, Nuclear Weapons, treaty expiration, Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), U.S.-Russia strategic stability, Ukraine conflict, unintended escalation, uranium enrichment, verification mechanisms, Yongbyon facility

The Dawn of 2026 and Challenges to Non-Proliferation

Harsa Kakar1 Comment

The year 2026 arrives with looming threats of nuclear weapon employment more than ever, as the world is faced with eroding arms control agreements and the global environment seems increasingly…

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The AI Revolution’s Outsized Impact on Deterrence

AI & Deterrence, Allies & Extended Deterrence, Archive, Arms Control & Nonproliferation, Emerging Threats, Strategic AdversariesAI models, AI race, AI talent competition., artificial intelligence (AI), China, code theft, command-and-control systems, Cyberattacks, Deterrence, EMP strike, escalation, global diplomacy, grey zone operations, Manhattan Project moment, micro-attacks, National Security, near-peer adversary, Nuclear Weapons, power grid, strategic stability, superintelligence, surprise attacks, system isolation, United States, wargaming

The AI Revolution’s Outsized Impact on Deterrence

Robert Kittinger0 Comments

The impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on national security at large and deterrence specifically cannot be overstated. The business leaders competing in the field of AI, like Sam Altman, Elon…

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Meet the Human in Nuclear Deterrence

Allies & Extended Deterrence, Archive, Defense & Security, Emerging Threats, Strategic Adversariesacquired color vision deficiency, Air Force 711th Human Performance Wing, always/never reliability, CAD color vision test, cognitive psychology, color blindness, color vision, D-15 test, delivery platforms, demon core incident, Deterrence Posture, engineers, FAA standards, fallible humans, high-consequence systems, human element, human error, human factors, human performance, human reliability, industrial-organizational psychology, Ishihara test, national laboratories, Nuclear Deterrence, Nuclear Weapons, Pantex Plant, physicists, psychology, QMU, quantification of margins and uncertainty, Rabin test, red-green deficiency, sabotage, Sandia National Laboratories, Titan II missile explosion, tool slips, Tritan defect, Waggoner Computerized Color Vision Test, WCCVT, weakest link

Meet the Human in Nuclear Deterrence

Robert Kittinger0 Comments

Not long ago, uttering words like “human element” or “psychology” at a physics or engineering national laboratory would make scientists’ eyes roll. Their silence was a clear “does not compute”…

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Deterrence of North Korea and Iran: Interests-Objectives-Analysis Framework

Archive, Bonus Reads, Defense & Security, Strategic Adversariesactivities, aggression containment, alliance cooperation, allies, American warfighter, burden sharing, China, comparative analysis, counterterrorism, credible deterrence, decision analysis, Defense Spending, deterrence framework, deterrence strategy, DPRK, Energy Security, extended deterrence, global engagement, Gulf States, hamas, homeland defense, Indo-Pacific, industrial base, interests, Iran, Israel, kinetic operations, Middle East, military assets, military strikes, mutual defense treaties, National defense, national defense strategy, National Security, nonproliferation, North Korea, nuclear proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, objectives, Partners, proliferation control, proxy networks, regional deterrence, regional stability, Russia, sanctions, security cooperation, sovereignty, Straits of Hormuz, strategic shifts, threat scenarios, transnational threats, two-front war, U.S. military power, U.S. policy, United States, uranium enrichment

Deterrence of North Korea and Iran: Interests-Objectives-Analysis Framework

Nathan Heath0 Comments

On June 22, the United States struck multiple Iranian nuclear sites, marking a tipping point in its deterrence of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions. It was no longer enough to…

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Deterring Nuclear Terrorism in the Era of Great Power Competition

Allies & Extended Deterrence, Archive, Arms Control & Nonproliferation, Defense & Security, Deterrence & Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, Emerging Threats, Strategic AdversariesAfghanistan, Arms Control, Atomic, China, cold war, Deterrence, global security, Hezbollah, ICBM, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Middle East, National Security, Nuclear Deterrence, Nuclear Weapons, Russia, security, Syria, Taliban, Terrorism, Title 22, UN

Deterring Nuclear Terrorism in the Era of Great Power Competition

Alexis Schlotterback0 Comments

As the Cold War ended and new counterterrorism priorities took root in the 2000s, the threat of nuclear terrorism cemented itself as the ultimate catastrophic scenario. Dick Cheney famously stated…

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