Arms Control Wonk

The legendary Fred Kaplan joins Jeffrey to talk about his brand new novel, A Capital Calamity. 

Fred and Jeffrey talk through the Fred's experiences in nuclear strategy and the influences on his new novel, A Capital Calamity, from JFK's EXCOMM tapes, the MX basing debate, and the Jane Austen meets Dr. Strangelove comedy of DC manners and etiquette. 

Catch one of Fred's upcoming book readings for A Capital Calamity in DC and NYC, at the Union Market Politics & Prose on Saturday, October 26th and at Community Bookstore, Park Slope, Brooklyn, on Tuesday, October 29th.  

Fred Kaplan is a national security columnist for Slate. Former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for Boston Globe. Author of 7 books, including The Bomb, The Wizards of Armageddon, The Insurgents (Pulitzer Prize finalist), and now, his first novel, A Capital Calamity.

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Direct download: 306.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 6:35pm EST

An absolutely massive mobile ballistic missile was paraded in North....

...wait sorry....

South Korea. Force of habit. 

 

Decker joins Jeffrey to talk about the absolute unit that the ROK just showed off. But don't worry, it's just an "SRBM with an eight ton warhead," nothing to see here. The team talks about messaging, move/countermoves on the Korean Peninsula, and who actually started this dang missile race to begin with. 

Audio Originally Recorded October 2nd.

 

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Direct download: 305.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:01am EST

China tested an ICBM deep into the Pacific Ocean, instead of short-shooting it into PRC deserts. 

Decker Eveleth joins Jeffrey to talk about why this is a fascinating change in behavior for the PLA Rocket Force and PRC in general. China has only ever done this twice before, both over 40 years ago, back in 1980. Decker and Jeffrey talk about the internally signalling mechanisms, the issues with corruption in the PLARF, China's potential move to US and Russian style ICBM test notifications, strategic stability, and our favorite: absolutely gorgeous high-resolution photos of solid-fuel ICBMs.

 

Audio Originally Recorded September 27th

 

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Direct download: 304.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:53am EST

Iran just launched what may be the largest single missile raid in history, and Israel claims no Israeli deaths.

While we're still very early in the news cycle, Jeffrey and Aaron start picking apart the information available to look at what we can learn about the state of the Iranian offensive missile arsenal, weight what Iran's options for next steps are, and dive into the internal nuclear politics of both Israel and Iran.

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Direct download: 302.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:44pm EST

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