Henry D. Sokolski

A new study focuses on six areas for trilateral collaboration that move beyond traditional security issues At a time when US President Joe Biden’s administration is seeking to restore faith in alliances and show resolve, the potential for security cooperation between Japan and South Korea is dimmed by the continuing primacy of disputes over history.…

Accurate missiles and drones could knock down critical electrical supply lines to Turkey’s nuclear reactor and destroy its emergency generators, nuclear control rooms, reactor containment buildings, and spent reactor fuel buildings. Although it got little attention from the U.S. media, an explosion late last month at a Turkish nuclear power plant construction site raised eyebrows in…

For decades, U.S. presidents have pledged not to talk about Israel’s nuclear arsenal despite pushing for nonproliferation in the region. It’s time for Washington to end the double standard. Until Feb. 17, U.S. President Joe Biden had delayed making the usual post-inauguration ceremonial call to the Israeli prime minister. Washington insiders concluded that the apparent…

Last month, Prime Minister Abe ignited a trans-Pacific debate over how best to protect Japan from North Korean missile attack by canceling Aegis Ashore—the largest joint missile defense program ever attempted by Washington and Tokyo. Now U.S. and Japanese military planners are scrambling to come up with alternatives, including floating Aegis missile defenses on barges or preemptively attacking North Korean launchers…

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. With the world ever more dangerous, and with rising authoritarian challengers emboldened, a look at what the next 75 years of the Bomb might bring. Seventy-five years after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, one wonders what the next 75 might bring. Will nuclear weapons’ strategic status…

Of the world’s 50 satellite laser ranging stations, five fixed stations are in Shanghai, Changchun, Beijing, Wuhan and Kuming. The Defense Intelligence Agency warned in January 2019 that China likely will field in 2020 a ground-based laser weapon that can counter low-orbit space-based sensors. By the mid-to-late 2020s it may field higher power systems that could damage…

The US Defense Department recently awarded three contracts totaling $40 million to kick off a design competition to build small mobile nuclear reactors that can “be forward deployed with forces outside the continental United States,” including at “remote operating bases.” The notion of small reactors accompanying troops in battle raises all sorts of military, logistical, and international…

The nuclear lobby is playing the national security card in trying to justify Federal handouts. It’s a con. We are getting used to brazen coronavirus claims for federal largess, but it’s hard to beat the claims coming from the nuclear industry. Even before the pandemic hit, it had for the most part given up competing…

The coronavirus crisis highlights the resilience problem of civilian nuclear power plants. The coronavirus crisis has revealed a significant Achilles’ heel in civilian nuclear power: The plants can’t operate if their relatively few highly skilled operators get sick or become contagious and have to be quarantined, a situation that, according to news reports, some plants are…

Resuming nuclear testing is for chumps; “unsigning” or ratifying the treaty is for the flamboyant. For now, steering clear of all three is America’s best course. Last week, the State Department caused a stir raising suspicions the Chinese were violating the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Almost immediately, at least one senator repeated an earlier request…