Dealing With a China That Will Not Talk
Even if averting a new arms race will be extremely difficult, the next U.S. president still should try to do that by forcing the bureaucracy to consider its costs seriously.
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James M. Acton
Jessica T. Mathews Chair, Co-director, Nuclear Policy Program
about
James Acton holds the Jessica T. Mathews Chair and is co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A physicist by training, Acton is currently writing a book on the nuclear escalation risks of advanced nonnuclear weapons and how to mitigate them. His work on this subject includes the International Security article “Escalation through Entanglement” and the Carnegie report, Is It a Nuke?.
An expert on hypersonic weapons and the author of the Carnegie report, Silver Bullet?, Acton has testified on this subject to the U.S. House of Representatives Armed Services Committee and the congressionally chartered U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. He has also testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee on nuclear modernization.
Acton’s publications span the field of nuclear policy. They include the Carnegie report, Reimagining Nuclear Arms Control (with TD MacDonald and Pranay Vaddi), and two Adelphi books, Abolishing Nuclear Weapons (with George Perkovich) and Deterrence During Disarmament. With Mark Hibbs, he co-wrote Why Fukushima Was Preventable, a groundbreaking study into the root causes of the accident.
Acton is a member of the International Advisory Council for the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe. He has published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Dædalus, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, Science & Global Security, and Survival. He has appeared on CNN’s State of the Union, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, and PBS NewsHour.
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296 Results
The Post-Cold-War Nuclear Disarmament Period Is Over, Pentagon Says
A conversation about the dangers of what is being called the new nuclear age.
The Forgotten World War III Scare of 1980
Moscow and Washington trapped themselves in a cycle of fear over Iran.
The Moral Hazard of Biden’s Support for Israel
To reduce the danger of Israel starting a war that it needs the United States to finish, U.S. officials should make it very clear—ideally in public as well as in private—that the U.S. commitment to Israeli security is conditional.
A New Russian Weapon System for Targeting Satellites Is Under Development
There's a new Russian weapon under development. A source has confirmed to NPR that the weapon is some kind of space-based nuclear system for targeting satellites.
Should The U.S. be Concerned Putin & Russia Might Have Nukes in Space?
Are the Russians developing space-based nuclear weapons?
Two Myths About Counterforce
China’s growing nuclear arsenal has prompted a debate about how the United States should adapt its nuclear posture to the emergence of a second “nuclear peer.” The central issue is the arcane subject of nuclear targeting: the question of what facilities the United States should, in the detached language of nuclear strategists, “hold at risk,” or in plain English, threaten to nuke.
Russian Nuclear Moves and a New Era of Nuclear Danger?
While the wars in Ukraine and Israel have been dominating headlines, there have also been rumblings about an interest in Russia to restart nuclear testing.
The U.S. Nuclear Arsenal Can Deter Both China and Russia
Before responding to the challenge of two nuclear peers, the United States should revisit the question of which nuclear strategy can best achieve its goals of preventing nonnuclear aggression against itself and its allies, avoiding nuclear war, and avoiding catastrophic escalation if nuclear war occurs.
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