Cleo Paskal’s Post

Informative Read! I usually listen to the nuclear ☢️ discussion form the sidelines but I pay attention to co-author Richard Clarke. “How long would it take to scale up a rescue involving massive medical needs, housing, food, and public order? Unfortunately, today there is little reason to think that anything like an adequate response would be available for weeks. Many who could have been saved would die from lack of government planning and preparation. Spending significant resources on governmental and private sector capacities that would only be useful in the event of a nuclear war is not something that anyone wants to do.” #emergencymanagement #crisismanagement #risk

US nuclear shield The US nuclear weapons control system was compromised, Mikhail Popov believes. Speaking in an interview for Izvestiya, he commented on the situation around the hospitalization of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. Popov pointed out that a nuclear launch decision in the US must be made by a US president, in agreement with a defense secretary and a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "And the Defense Secretary is not in office, and no one knows where he is, who stands in for him. According to the media, some of his duties were delegated to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. But, at that moment, she was on vacation in Puerto Rico," the official described the situation. "Surprising as it may be, the US nuclear shield has effectively been compromised." Popov pointed out that US President Joe Biden and his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan found out about the situation several days after Austin’s hospitalization. He commented on Austin’s decision not to announce his diagnosis with irony: "Apparently, Lloyd Austin simply did not want to disturb the leadership and the people of the country during the Christmas holidays over such a ‘trivial’ issue." However, in his opinion, a US defense secretary must be guided by their feeling of responsibility and service duty in situations like this. "We are not talking about a banana republic, but about a nuclear-armed nation that constantly claims the role of a global hegemon," Popov underscored. According to the Security Council Deputy Secretary, thinking US citizens get ideas that the US control system and the procedure of the use of nuclear weapons are currently in a dubious state. He pointed out that certain US servicemen even tried to challenge the procedure of nuclear launch order relay. (Part Two, The End) #business #finance #financialservices

The lack of agreement on the nuclear legacy issues holds up the Marshall Islands’ Compact Review negotiations with the United States, according to Marshall Islands Speaker Kenneth Kedi during the Marshall Islands Media Summit on Democracy last week in Majuro. The disagreements over nuclear legacy issues not being addressed by the United States are holding up the Compact Review progress. “I call it nuclear injustice, not nuclear legacy,” expressed Marshall Islands Speaker Kenneth Kedi. Matters of contention holding up the negotiations include what Speaker Kedi said is the “refusal” of the U.S. government to pay the US$3.188 billion compensation for the damages from nuclear bomb impacts such as displacement, land contamination, medical costs and more, to compensate the Marshallese people affected by the 67 nuclear bombs detonated in the Marshall Islands. “The US$150 million that the U.S. paid under the initial Compact as compensation plus the yearly payments they made is simply not enough,” Speaker Kedi said of the initial compensation package under the Compact Agreement. Full story on our site! #compact #marshallislands #nuclear #unitedstates

After months of thorny negotiations that almost broke down at certain points, the United States and the Marshall Islands have finally signed a new 20-year agreement to renew the economic provisions of the Compact of Free Association. Under the new deal, the Marshall Islands stands to receive nearly $2.3 billion over the next two decades, plus an additional US$700 million that is earmarked for the “extraordinary needs” of the Marshallese who were affected by the U.S. nuclear testing programme. #compact #marshallislands #unitedstates

Just published James W. Davis's review of Janice Gross Stein's article, “Escalation Management in Ukraine: ‘Learning by Doing’ in Response to the ‘Threat that Leaves Something to Chance’,” _TNSR_ 6:3 (2023): 29-50 https://lnkd.in/dW4w228N "For the average person, indeed, for most sane people, nuclear war is simply unthinkable. For those of us who have committed our professional lives to thinking about the unthinkable, nuclear war between two states that possess secure second-strike capability is irrational. There are simply no political objectives worth the assured destruction that likely would follow any first use of nuclear weapons. More formally, the subjective expected utility of any gains that would result from a first strike needs to be weighed against the subjective expected utility of the losses that would result from nuclear retaliation. Even if the probability of a second strike is low, the negative utility of such an outcome overwhelms any expected gains because the losses would be so massive. At least at the level of strategic interaction, the fact of mutual assured destruction should give us some confidence that volitional nuclear war among two or more nuclear armed states makes no sense and thus should not occur. And yet, many of us continue to worry. Are all decisionmakers rational in the sense that they value the continued existence of their populations more than other goals? Might nuclear war result through accident? That is, could some error in states’ command and control systems lead to the false conclusion that nuclear war was already underway and thus precipitate civilian decisionmakers or field commanders to initiate what they erroneously believe to be a retaliatory strike?...

The UK government will launch a “national endeavour” to reinforce the country’s nuclear deterrent, including a promise to invest more than £760mn with industry over the next six years into critical skills and infrastructure. The Government is partnering with industry, including BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, EDF and Babcock International Group, to invest at least £763 million by 2030 in skills, jobs and education. The investment will create more than 8,000 career opportunities to help the sector fill 40,000 new jobs by the end of the decade – and will support plans to double the number of nuclear apprentices and graduates and quadruple the number of specialist science and nuclear fission PhDs (see link below for UK Government information source 👇) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will on Monday also announce a separate £200mn investment into a “transformation fund” for Barrow-in-Furness, the Cumbrian town where Britain’s nuclear submarines are built by BAE Systems for the Royal Navy. Barrow has suffered from health inequalities, poor housing and some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country despite multiple attempts at lasting regeneration. #uk #nuclear #defence Pravo Consulting Campaign Catapult