Month: July 2025

Notes of an S&T officer ACDA In 1982 after my INR assignment, I took an assignment in the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), which was not part of the State Department.  ACDA was an independent agency created by President Kennedy in 1961; it was abolished in 1999.  According to…

Trump’s decision to sue the WSJ for $10 billion is typical Trump, all bluster and publicity, no substance.  No new information about Epstein, just a threat, “If you question me, I will destroy you!”  For Trump, the law is a weapon, not a means of doing justice.  That’s how he…

The personnel cuts at the State Department have hit people working on science and technology particularly hard.  As a retired Foreign Service officer who spent a lot of time working on science and technology issues, I am not surprised.  I was also disappointed that State cut several civil service experts…

Fedscoop reports that at the State Department, impacted science and tech workers and department formers say the loss of knowledge threatens to impair the agency’s science and technology diplomacy. ByMadison Alder Areduction-in-force at the Department of State on Friday cut more people in science and technology bureaus than previously expected,…

Ian Bremmer comments on the usefulness of nuclear weapons. Does acquiring nuclear weapons make your country safer? It’s a difficult question. On Ian Explains, Ian Bremmer looks back to the 1990s and a tale of two radically different nuclear—Ukraine and North Korea. Ukraine inherited the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal after the Soviet…

Trump’s big beautiful bill is unlikely to raise the opposition that Democrats hope it will. The tax cuts will go into effect immediately, but the Medicaid cuts will not go into effect until after the midterm elections.  The tax cuts will not be very apparent because they just extend the…

The old nuc­lear rules won’t stop pro­lif­er­a­tion From the Financial Times: The writer is exec­ut­ive dir­ector of the Non- pro­lif­er­a­tion Policy Edu­ca­tion Cen­ter and was the Pentagon’s deputy for non­pro­lif­er­a­tion from 1989-93 Henry Sokol­ski Of all the ques­tions Amer­ica’s bomb­ing of Iran has gen­er­ated, the one that’s received the least…

The Financial Times’ Martin Wolf has written an excellent column on the international and domestic dangers unleashed by Donald Trump’s administration. He says: Let us start with the domestic front. We are watch­ing an assault on the rule of law. Abbe Low­ell, erstwhile defender of Jared Kush­ner and Hunter Biden,…

American President Trump and Brazilian President Lula have been arguing at long distance since Lula hosted the BRICs meeting in Brazil.  According to Bloomberg, Lula told Trump to mind his own business after Trump defended former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro from criminal prosecution in Brazil for attempting a coup.  “This country…