nuclear weapons

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/25/2023
  

  Canada's Hottest Tourist Attraction Could be the Government's Doomsday Bunker

  Canada's Diefenbunker was decommissioned in 1994, and today is one of the few places where tourists can see the preparations made to preserve government in the event of the unthinkable. 

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• 1/15/2023
  

  Martin Sherwin's "Gambling with Armageddon" Strips away the Myths of Nuclear Deterrence

  by Lawrence Wittner

  As Sherwin points out, “the real lesson of the Cuban missile crisis . . . is that nuclear armaments create the perils they are deployed to prevent, but are of little use in resolving them.”

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• SOURCE: NPR
  12/17/2022
  

  Energy Secretary: Revoking Oppenheimer Security Clearance Was Wrong

  Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated that the revocation of the physicist's clearance after his opposition to the US hydrogen bomb project was the result of a biased process, one historian Kai Bird calls a "kangaroo court." 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  12/15/2022
  

  Peace is Not Our Profession

  by William J. Astore

  The unveiling of the newest stealth bomber underscores the fundamental insanity and cruel wastefulness of the policy of peace through nuclear deterrence, argues a historian and retired USAF lieutenant colonel. 

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• SOURCE: Perspectives on History
  12/12/2022
  

  Resisting the Plans for America's "Nuclear Sponge"

  by Taylor Rose

  An unlikely coalition of conservative "sagebrush rebels" and Native tribal activists opposed a plan to locate the US ICBM arsenal in Utah and Nevada, creating a single nuclear sacrifice zone in the event of an attack. 

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• 12/4/2022
  

  What's New About Putin's Nuclear Threats? Just that the US is on the Receiving End

  by David P. Barash

  From the American perspective, the seeming danger of Putin's nuclear saber-rattling is partly due to the novelty of being on the receiving end. 

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• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  11/17/2022
  

  Putin's Invasion of Ukraine Won't Set Off a Nuclear Scramble

  by Eric Brewer, Nicholas L. Miller, and Tristan Volpe

  It seems that Russia's invasion of Ukraine may eventually help the cause of nuclear nonproliferation, if the United States approaches its allies with the right mix of defense assurances and aid to civilian nuclear power that may serve as a "hedge" to reassure other governments that they could develop weapons, even if they don't. 

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  11/7/2022
  

  Putin's Nuclear Threats are Warping the West's Ukraine Strategy

  by Anne Applebaum

  Nuclear bluster is a purposeful strategy to leverage fear to make NATO nations less willing to defend Ukraine and other nations neighboring Russia. How can they have a better response? 

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  10/27/2022
  

  Newly Translated Documents Give Fuller Picture of Nuclear Danger During Cuban Missile Crisis

  The National Security Archive has released an English translation of the account of a Soviet submarine officer of events in October 1962 tells the story of how his vessel's commander nearly launched nuclear weapons against US Navy ships enforcing the quarantine of Cuba.  

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• SOURCE: National Interest
  10/26/2022
  

  Perspective: Using a Nuclear Weapon Would be Disastrous for Russia

  by Steve Cimbala and Lawrence J. Korb

  Russia has retained much of the Soviet-era's top-down command structure, which removes decisionmakers from both the real-world context and consequences of big decisions. This presents a danger that those leaders will misundersand the catastrophic result of a nuclear bomb. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  10/16/2022
  

  Nuclear Fears 60 Years After the Cuban Crisis

  From the actions of Soviet naval officers to the real-time recommendations of Robert F. Kennedy, the official story of the 1962 crisis is due for some updates according to historians who've published recent work on the subject. 

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• SOURCE: Associated Press
  10/16/2022
  

  Radioactive Pollution from WWII-Era Atomic Bomb Projects Contaminates St. Louis Elementary School

  Waste from weapons production was dumped into streams near an airport and still contaminates a suburban elementary school. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  10/16/2022
  

  A Decision to Declare an Already-Public History Secret is Bad for the Public

  The State Department's official history of US-Soviet relations includes a military intelligence officer's recollection of a 1983 exercise that nearly triggered nuclear war. Why has the government pulled that official history and restricted the original memo? 

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• 10/16/2022
  

  Bye Bye, World: Will Humanity Continue to Tolerate the Risk of Nuclear War?

  by Lawrence Wittner

  Since the dawn of the nuclear age, broad-based disarmament movements have demanded a world without the threat of nuclear annihilation. Will the governments of powerful nations lead the way to realizing that goal? 

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  

  A "Nuclear Posture Review" For the People Would Assess All the Harm of Nuclear Weapons

  There are substantial harms involved in maintaining a nuclear arsenal that fall on the poor and people of color whether or not a nuclear warhead is ever detonated. The review of the United States' nuclear policy should incorporate these harms, say two advocates for arms reduction and abolition. 

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  10/11/2022
  

  Don't Forget about the Nuclear Danger over Taiwan

  by Michael Klare

  Ukraine isn't the only potential nuclear flashpoint. The United States and China need to begin negotiations to limit the risk around the conflict over Taiwan's status. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/5/2022
  

  What the Cuban Missile Crisis Tells Us About Putin's Possible Intentions

  by Michael Dobbs

  The danger of nuclear brinksmanship is not that any one leader is irrational or intransigent, but that even rational leaders can't always control events they set in motion. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  9/26/2022
  

  If Putin Says Nuclear Weapons Threat is No Bluff, Believe Him (and Prepare)

  by Joseph Cirincione

  The first use of nuclear weapons is a part of both Russian and American military strategy; the task for the world is to assess the most likely scenario and plan to respond effectively. 

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• SOURCE: ProPublica
  8/8/2022
  

  Making a Uranium Ghost Town

  Both the Homestake Mining Company and New Mexico state regulators knew almost immediately that a uranium mine opened in 1958 was poisoning local groundwater. They didn't tell local residents, who have been fighting for their lives and for justice. 

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• 5/8/2022
  

  Reigniting a Nuclear Arms Race is the Wrong Take-Home from Ukraine

  by David P. Barash

  A simplistic assumption of nuclear deterrence – that having nuclear weapons protects a nation against aggression – has frequently failed in practice. The Ukraine invasion should be a call to rethink deterrence and move toward abolishing nuclear weapons.