When Nuclear Weapons Programs Fail to Ripen

Missile defense systems against nuclear strikes are often considered “destabilizing” to the strategic balance.” On May 3, Russia’s RIA Novosti demonstrated this principle in action.

Russia does not exclude preemptive use of  weapons against [NATO] missile defense systems in Europe but only as…

The Institute for Science and International Security is dedicated to preventing nuclear proliferation and its president, David Albright, is often quoted in the mainstream media. Much of its energy is spent in raising the alarm about Iran, though — thank goodness for small favors — it doesn’t…

Fidel Castro, who has not had much experience with political competition of any kind has referred to the Republican primary campaign as a “competition of idiocy and ignorance.” Sadly, the longtime Cuban leader has a point.  The race to the intellectual bottom and the loutish demonstrations…

Since the Rose Revolution, one of the obstacles to further democratic development in Georgia has been the dominance of political life in that country by one political force, President Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement (UNM).  The UNM arose shortly after the Rose Revolution from a…

Well, that might be an overstatement. But let’s start with St. Petersburg, the country’s intellectual capital.

The local legislature in St. Petersburg is only one, largely formal reading away from passing a law that would outlaw “homosexual propaganda.” The fines for violators would…

During the last weeks, three issues in the Middle East have become increasingly significant.  The heightened tension between the U.S. and Iran, leading to more talk of possible war between the two countries, the violence in Syria as the authoritarian Assad regime continues to crack down on…

Somewhere over the Atlantic in December a courteous Turkish Airlines
flight attendant handed me that rectangular blue paper that every
person headed to the U.S. at one point has to fill out.

The form is standard and designed to eliminate most of the work
customs and passport control would…

On March 4th, Russians will go to the polls to “elect” their next president.  As with most elections in the former Soviet Union, other than the Baltic countries, the most interesting questions are not concerned with who will win.  It is all but certain that Russia’s current prime…