George Perkovich | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
A House of Dynamite shows us why everyone on earth must question the wisdom of granting a handful of leaders with nuclear buttons the power to kill everyone and every living thing on the planet—in less time than it takes to watch the film. So long as these weapons are deployed, competing states will find ways to render each other powerless to block their delivery in devastating numbers.
Tim Kelly and John Geddie | Reuters
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi this week hinted at a possible shift in the country's decades-old non-nuclear principles, raising speculation that she might seek to revise a ban on the entry of such weapons into its territory. Takaichi on Monday in parliament said she could not say whether those three principles, not to possess, produce or introduce nuclear weapons into its territory, would be maintained in an upcoming revision of Japan's security strategy.
Steven Erlanger | The New York Times
President Trump insists that U.S. strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program this summer, but regional officials and analysts have become less convinced in the months since, and they warn another outbreak of war between Israel and Iran is only a matter of time… The result is a dangerous stalemate — with no negotiations, no certainty over Iran’s stockpile, no independent oversight. And many in the Gulf believe that makes another Israeli attack on Iran almost inevitable, given Israeli officials’ long-held view that Iran’s nuclear program is an existential threat.
Stephanie Liechtenstein | AP News
The International Atomic Energy Agency has not been able to verify the status of Iran’s near weapons-grade uranium stockpile since Israel and the United States struck the country’s nuclear sites during the 12-day war in June, according to a confidential report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog circulated to member states and seen Wednesday by The Associated Press. The agency warned that it “lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the previously declared inventories of nuclear material in Iran” at facilities affected by the war and stressed that this issue must be “urgently addressed.”
Joon Ha Park | NK News
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “will lose sleep” over the prospect of South Korea deploying a nuclear-powered submarine, Seoul’s defense minister said Sunday, forecasting that construction could finish within the next decade… Ahn said a nuclear-powered submarine would dramatically enhance the South Korean navy’s capabilities by providing greater underwater endurance and stealth potential compared to its current fleet of diesel-electric submarines.
David Pierson | The New York Times
China’s nuclear forces are expanding quickly. Yet behind that rise, the top leader Xi Jinping’s sweeping purge of generals and military leaders has exposed deep-seated corruption and raised questions about the country’s ability to manage its growing arsenal. The uncertainty adds to concerns about a new era of volatility in global nuclear politics, as President Trump has called for renewed U.S. testing and as Washington is also pushing through major changes in its military.
Sarah Young and Alistair Smout | Reuters/Yahoo
Britain selected North Wales for its first small nuclear power station on Thursday, angering the United States which had wanted a large, U.S.-led plant built there as part of its greater involvement in the UK's energy sector… "We are extremely disappointed by this decision, not least because there are cheaper, faster, and already-approved options to provide clean, safe energy at this same location," U.S. ambassador Warren Stephens said in a statement.
Joseph MacKay and Christopher David LaRoche | European Journal of International Relations
Endings give meaning. We read significance into stories—moral, political, analytical, biographical, historical—from how they conclude. Politics too is in this sense shaped or defined by eschatology: the possibility that the present story has a terminus and may be approaching it. Drawing on philosophy of history and literary theories of narrative structure, this article argues International Relations (IR) theorists must take endings seriously as core aspects of how we construct theories to make sense of world politics.