Nuclear expert Alex Wellerstein on North Korea and other threats

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Date: August 11, 2017 at 10:13:20 AM EDT
> To: Dave Farber <farber () gmail com>
> Cc: John Horgan <jhorgan () stevens edu>
> Subject: Nuclear expert Alex Wellerstein on North Korea and other threats
>
> Dave, I thought your list might find this Q&A with nuclear-weapons historian Alex Wellerstein interesting. He has 
> smart things to say about North Korea and Trump as well as nuclear terrorism, modernization, proliferation and civil 
> defense. Cheers, John Horgan
>
> An excerpt from Wellerstein's remarks: "What I find most worrying about our present time is the apparent decrease in 
> the salience and power of the “nuclear taboo” in the United States. The American public seems more willing than it 
> ever has since the end of the Cold War to consider using nuclear weapons to achieve its policy aims; read Scott Sagan 
> and Benjamin Valentino’s recent paper on this point. The current US President seems to have no self-control, no sense 
> of personal (much less national) consequences, and no sense of the dangers of war or even nuclear war. It is easy to 
> imagine scenarios in which he might be convinced that a nuclear weapon might be a palatable option to use, and there 
> are essentially no legal checks (and very few possible practical checks) on his ability to order such an attack. It 
> is a bad thing to have to say, but I find him much more unpredictable and disturbing along these lines than, say, Kim 
> Jong-un, Vladimir Putin, or any of the others in the “rogue’s gallery” of people that get worried about with regards 
> to nuclear weapons."
>
>
>
> For more see 
> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/nuclear-expert-considers-risks-of-conflict-with-north-korea/​



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