On 22nd January, BASIC Executive Director, Paul Ingram was quoted in the US Defence Journal for his analysis of the recent Trident missile test failure.
“It is a complex system. It is an amazing feat of human engineering but everything has to work or there is catastrophic failure and a catastrophic failure can have catastrophic consequences.”
Read the full article here.
On 23d January, BASIC Executive Director, Paul Ingram was quoted in the US Defence Journal for his analysis of the recent Trident missile test failure.
BASIC's Chairman of the board, Dr Trevor McCrisken was interviewed by the News & Star about the new President-elect, Donald Trump and his pending responsibility over the nuclear codes. Trump's seemingly implusive and reactive temprement has aroused global concerns that he could launch a reckless nucear strike – McCrisken outlined the potential risks;
“You could imagine perhaps a situation where he just loses his mind or gets angry and decides to launch.”
For a while during the Cold War, the nuclear standoff was almost comfortable. When the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was briefed on the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb, he told his son Sergei, he was so upset that he could not sleep for several nights. But then, he said, he realised that these weapons could never be used and he could sleep again.
As the USNS Bowditch was recovering a UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle, or underwater drone) in the South China Sea on 15th December, a light-fingered Chinese Navy salvage ship reportedly called Naniju swooped in and took it in spite of repeated bridge-to-bridge demands to return the craft.
In times when evidence-based policy making approaches are under assault, communities that devote themselves to managing the dangers of strategic competition and nuclear arms racing need to come together to consider ways to realise their common objectives.
The recent blogpost by BASIC’s Project Leader, Sebastian Brixey-Williams was referenced in The Guardian in an article which explored the impetus for China’s seizure of a US underwater drone.
BASIC hosts the open-access Gender and Nuclear Weapons Bibliography. We welcome any and all contributions.