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News that the Biden administration will delay the seating of several Trump appointees to defense advisory boards is a welcome signal that incoming leaders recognize these groups are essential, not just patronage jobs. But the review needs to go much further than that.
Dr. David Relman, an esteemed microbiologist, kept returning to the same conclusion as he fielded questions as a guest at Rep. Jerry McNerney’s virtual town hall. No matter what your fears or concerns, getting a vaccine, Relman said, is far better and safer than getting the virus.
Trying to Box in Biden on Arms Control
Former Trump officials complain that the new president doesn’t want what they failed to achieve.
Extending the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, with Russia was one of President Biden’s first foreign policy acts after he took the oath of office on Jan. 20. The treaty would have otherwise ended on Feb. 5, leaving the U.S. and Russia without any agreed upon limits on their strategic nuclear forces for the first time since 1972.
In the first of a two-part Q&A, Stanford political scientist Kathryn Stoner discusses how Biden’s foreign policy in Russia is a departure from the Trump administration.
Saving the Open Skies Treaty
Last November, the Trump administration unwisely withdrew the United States from the Open Skies Treaty. Earlier this year, the Russian government said it will take steps to follow suit.
The Biden Presidency and Ukraine
The Biden Presidency and Ukraine
In a December 2020 New York Times interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Joe Biden’s election as U.S. president. Zelensky observed that Biden “knows Ukraine better than the previous president” and “will really help strengthen relations, help settle the war in Donbas, and end the occupation of our territory.”
On the World Class Podcast, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Steven Pifer says we can expect a consistency between the president’s behavior and policy toward Russia.
The Biden administration should consider whether the benefits to United States and allied security of limiting all nuclear weapons, including non-strategic nuclear arms, would justify accepting some constraints on missile defense.
Arms control offers a tool to enhance U.S. security.
Defense spending will come under pressure in an era of trillion-dollar COVID-19 deficits. As a result, the Defense Department will need to make trade-offs that it previously could avoid.
Where Next On Nuclear Arms Control?
Where Next On Nuclear Arms Control?
For nearly five decades, nuclear arms control has been an exclusive enterprise between Washington and Moscow. The resulting agreements have provided significant constraints on the U.S.-Soviet (later, U.S.-Russian) nuclear relationship while mandating substantial reductions in their arsenals.
In commemoration of its 75th anniversary, CISAC Fellow Ryan A. Musto looks back at the UN’s first-ever resolution and finds that it “was not the lodestar many in the nuclear policy community imagine,” with lessons for the 2017 UN Ban Treaty soon to become international law.
The Soft War That America Is Losing
The Soft War That America Is Losing
The US depends far more on its soft power than authoritarian China does. Once it is lost, it is hard to get back.
On Jan. 6, the U.S. Capitol was assaulted and occupied for the first time since 1814. Five people were killed, including a Capitol Police officer. Two Republican Representatives have introduced a bill to establish a national bipartisan commission to investigate the attack. We agree that a commission is needed.
Longer-Term Cybersecurity Implications of the Occupation of the Capitol—Beware of Fake Leaks
Inside the U.S. Capitol last week, laptops from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Jeff Merkley, and other devices were taken, presumably by the occupiers. These devices are now in the physical possession of people who can be considered adversarial threat actors, who can take their time in trying to see what data is available on those machines.
A National Academies panel commissioned by the State Department shed new light on a disturbing and still mysterious episode. Employees in the Cuban embassy reported headaches, pressure, nausea, strange piercing noises, and cognitive problems seeming to emanate from a directed source. Commerce Department employees in China also had similar experiences.
Because all countries engage in espionage, intrusions like Russia’s latest data hack are devilishly hard to deter.
After years of researching American public opinion on the use of nuclear weapons and the ethics, we found the levels of public support for a strike that violated ethical and legal principles to be deeply troubling. We proposed that future research focus on interventions that might blunt these disturbing instincts of the American public.