12 Oct, 2022
Death by nationalism?
Death by nationalism? by Robert C. Koehler 911 words The game may be almost over. Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S.Davies put...
2 Oct, 2022
Nukes, war and moral sanity
Nukes, war and moral sanity by Robert C. Koehler 939 words What does surrender look like in the world of...
19 Sep, 2022
Avoiding a War without a Winner: How we Could Ease the Deadly US-China Dispute
In a world haunted by the specter of nuclear war, needlessly aggressive competition among nations could lead to an apocalyptic catastrophe.
28 Aug, 2022
The dance of sympathy
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I recently joined a gathering of people highly concerned with a range of threats, from war to climate catastrophe and more.
3 Aug, 2022
Beyond the mulish, look to the stars
Nancy Pelosi’s stopover in Taiwan may be brave or foolhardy, but the Chinese reaction so far (lots of live-fire weapons drills close to the island nation, along with acts of cyber-sabotage) suggests how threatened the government of the Peoples’ Republic of China feels.
22 Jul, 2022
Deterrencelessness: Nuclear threats neither credible nor viable
Threatening to make attacks with nuclear weapons is known as “deterrence” when the United States does it, but it’s called madness, blackmail, or “terrorism” if Russia, China, or North Korea does.
24 Jun, 2022
Hypocrisies and successes at UN meeting to ban nuclear weapons
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been ratified by 65 governments, known in diplomatic circles as States Parties.
18 Jun, 2022
The Nuclear Weapons Treaty Ban in the footsteps of 1982’s Million-Person March
Last Sunday marked the 40th anniversary of the June 12, 1982 million-person march in New York City for a “freeze” on nuclear weapons building, followed two days later by a mass
25 May, 2022
Omicron Catches Up with North Korea
After having proclaimed for more than two years that the country was untouched by the coronavirus, North Korea now faces a potential health catastrophe...
26 Apr, 2022
Delusional
One adjective often, and correctly, used for Putin’s invasion is “delusional.” Even if he manages to pound Ukraine into scorched rubble, he’ll still be further than when he began from anything resembling victory.
20 Apr, 2022
With humanity on the brink, should we trust deterrence theory, or disarmament?
On Monday, the Pentagon announced the US will soon begin training the Ukrainian military in using howitzer artillery in an unnamed country. Presumably this will be in a NATO member state. If Russian intelligence found out where, might it attack to stop the howitzers from being deployed against Russian forces in Ukraine?
17 Apr, 2022
Nuclear weapons and cranial winter
Nuclear sanity: ultimate (or, God help us, immediate) disarmament. Nuclear insanity: ongoing development and deployment, endless investment, eventual (either accidental or intentional) use.
29 Mar, 2022
A modest proposal for peace in Ukraine
Maybe, as the human world stands at the brink of possible nuclear annihilation given the antiquated launch on warning system of Russia and its 2,000 “small or tactical nuclear weapons” that Putin may have to “use or lose” depending on the fog of war, it is time to actually consider an “equal protection of the law” approach to resolution.
16 Mar, 2022
The Tragedy of Ukraine and New Thinking
As we lock horns with the cruel and out-of-touch Putin, once again we’re at a moment that too closely resembles the Cuban crisis of 1962. We really don’t seem to have learned very much since then. Sixty years is a long time not to have figured out that nuclear chicken is a game with no winners.
10 Mar, 2022
Our new normal
Putin’s cruel invasion of the Ukraine reminds us that there are leaders of countries—and not only Putin—who think and act according to the conviction that if they do not get their way, they might turn to nuclear weapons as a last resort.