Some deep irony to China questioning Japan’s sovereignty over Okinawa over Japan’s support for Taiwan. As for me, I ask, why not self-determination for Okinawans? And also Taiwanese, Tibetans, and Uyghurs, and whoever? None of us are free until we all are, lol

So, hey, my new book on Truman and the Bomb comes out NEXT WEEK! In this post on Doomsday Machines, I give a rundown of WHAT IT IS ABOUT, and other useful information, including the talk I am giving about it on December 16. doomsdaymachines.net/p/the-most-a...

A tiny crack in a spacecraft window triggered China’s first-ever emergency launch to Tiangong space station. A CCTV article reveals what happened over 20 intense days, and why a piece of space debris smaller than 1 mm forced the emergency response.

"This study identifies two variations of guanxi work processes. [...] The first pattern features a style of guanxi work that stresses the declaration of pseudo-kin or friendship, ritualistic toasting and drinking, and top-down driven emotion work."

Wait did Bigelow make a nuke movie with a North Korean ICBM launch that's somehow less realistic than my 2018 short story? www.vice.com/en/article/a... (tl;dr: Kim Jong-un tests a single ICBM, US fires several interceptors, Russian radar misses DPRK missile but seems many US missiles, nuclear war)

Theodor Adorno liked wombats, and so should you

I was going to write something more general about Curtis LeMay, but I fell into the rabbit hole that is his bizarre memoir, “Mission with LeMay,” and felt that this was more than enough for one DOOMSDAY MACHINES post… doomsdaymachines.net/p/i-have-sou...

Thinking of doing a space policy/security PhD where I and my Durham colleagues could supervise but need funding? Have a look at the NINE DTP funding programme, now open. You need approval from host department first - internal deadline 9th January. www.ninedtp.ac.uk

1/ A longtime Wired editor just wrote a mush-brained essay about how he totally missed the political rot of Silicon Valley (& still doesn't get it). But in the late 1990s, a Wired journalist warned of a toxic ideology bubbling up from tech. Paulina Borsook has largely been erased. Let's change that

Just spectacular how little the US debate on China's space tech has moved on since 1958. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

My colleagues and I here at the FAS Nuclear Information Project have posted this analysis of the nukes at the Chinese victory day parade. If you have corrections/suggestions, please let us know. fas.org/publication/...

today's weibo is the epitome of completely normalized everyday militarism... if you want to browse endless photos of missiles and see everyone repeat "打击范围覆盖全球” (strike range covers the entire globe)

This one too

Typing Rocket Force slogans into the pinyin input tool and its response is largely "surely not!?". Why yes, computer, I am trying to write "LOVE THE MISSILES".

Go and work for my old boss! The subject matter might be depressing but Drew is very supportive ☺️

People exploring the future of military staffs would be well served to pay closer attention to history, especially the organization and operation of U.S. Navy staffs and how they differed from Army staffs.

Making support material is the main use for LLMs in wargaming I'm considering. A designer can't make news bulletins for every outcome in advance. Unexpected player choice is to be encouraged! Simulated news in-game can be imperfect without harm i.e. writing off hallucinations as misinfo or error

As ever, Sebastian has wise words for us on wargaming 👇

Lanyue descent test video. Via: m.weibo.cn/detail/51973...

Hopefully the bingo game made people think about the terms and language we use in the space sector, how and why some phrases fall in and out of fashion, and showcased why humanities, social sciences, and arts research belong in the space sector just as much as our STEM counterparts.

Had a very wargames-y Sunday, heading to the "Joy of Six" show at Sheffield Hallam university. I couldn't resist asking the Cold War Gone Hot gamers about their views on battlefield nuclear weapons...

Thanks so much to Matthew for inviting me and @bleddb.bsky.social on to chat about military AI. The situation has certainly not improved since we published ~2 years ago.

One thing I’ve learned from my time running wargames: the person who is afraid of rolling dice, is the worst strategic thinker in the room. Fear that your “plan” isn’t resilient enough to deal with the fog, friction, and uncertainty inherent in war is a tell. It tells us you’re unfit to lead.

Just goes to show how far you can get on tech bro hate-reads and web crawling bot-reads

No surprise that I agree with Franz-Stefan on this. The AI war boosters consistently fall into the same errors - a case @bleddb.bsky.social and I made in our feather-ruffling article: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

'Firsts' in space only matter to the extent that they signify: - something clever to overcome some problem, OR - something disruptive to overcome some systemic violence. Not the bare fact of inclusion. *Disruption*. How is this disruptive to a context of rampant erasure, hatred, & violence? A 🧵.

📚 @astropoliticswg.bsky.social Book talk: 15 May @fiona-cunningham.bsky.social will be discussing her new book 'Under the Nuclear Shadow: China’s Information-Age Weapons in International Security' To register now 👉 buff.ly/4UaCBm9 @princetonupress.bsky.social @perryworldhouse.bsky.social

🏆 To celebrate the arrival of my "Littoral Commander: Baltics" #wargame, I am going to give away a signed copy of the game. Like, repost, and follow by April 8 (midnight EST)! May the odds be ever in your favor. 😉🎲 #wargaming

Colleague took me to a place where pints are only 30 kr. (£3.35/$4.50). This is unheard of in Copenhagen and I will not be sharing the location out of selfishness.

It bears repeating: by all means, roll out AI for actual systems – logistics systems, transport systems, supply chains … anything where data is easily available. But: political / social communities of people are not pure systems and in those contexts AI will always run into the problem of data. 1/

Xi may have canned the PLA Strategic Support Force, but they lived on in our game of Littoral Commander (set c. 2040) last night. 中国人民解放军战略支援部队万岁？？？

An unhappy topic - total disagreement how to tackle nuke issues amid growing arsenals and "emerging" tech. However, a happy moment to finally hold hard copies of the last project's book - co-written with friends. Please DON'T BUY OUR BOOK. Read it free here: www.taylorfrancis.com/books/978103...

📢So happy that every piece of the 🔥Special Issue “Grappling with the climate crisis in IR” is out now! 🥳🥳🥳 It's published by CJIR, all open access, and you can find the contributions here 🤗: cjir.iir.cz/index.php/cj... A short 🧵👇 (1/8)

Why do I put my 4forty2nd comic up for free? Because of crap like this.

Once again puzzling why: ALCM = Alk'em SLCM = Slick'em BUT ICBM ≠ Ick'bum Important to correct this inconsistency before the next nuclear war.

Congratulations to Prof Onderco! Looking forward to reading this, I may force the rest of the Ritual Deterrence team to read it too.

ICYMI, the video of our @apln.network panel discussion on Taiwan, US-Taiwan relations, and cross-Strait issues in 2025 is now up!

Please can I borrow some coats

Maybe if I hide under some coats this conference paper will write itself.

Delighted to have a new article out with @ibkardon.bsky.social in International Security. China is emerging as a global security provider, including to countries that get security assistance from the US. 1/3

I finally pulled my finger out and got on here...happy Thursday, acquaintances old and new!

What are your favorite books on the geopolitics of technology development, including the notion of "races," e.g., "space race"? (Thinking more broadly than military technology) AI is the analogue my friend is thinking about but he wants older examples.

National Photographic Interpretation Center report on China's 1980 ICBM test: nsarchive2.gwu.edu/nukevault/eb... Wish the maps were better quality!

Chinese state media published rare footage showing one of the country's long-range radars, the Jiamusi Large Phased Array Radar (LPAR) station, that is designed for detecting missiles from thousands of miles away. www.newsweek.com/china-news-l...

Somehow accidentally timed it perfectly so that "Here Comes the Sun King" started playing as my train pulled into Paris. Not sure this was the meaning Lennon and McCartney intended

What the hell is going on with nuclear weapons these days? My old team tried to find out by studying 20 countries - you can read our findings for free in our brand new book 👇 www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mon...

I sat down to chat with @thewirechina.bsky.social ‘s Noah Berman about my new book on China’s information-age weapons, published last week by @princetonupress.bsky.social See the interview here: www.thewirechina.com/2025/01/12/f...

Since AI is in the news again and seemingly big on the Government's wish-list, just plugging my co-authored article with @cameronhunter.bsky.social on the inability of "AI" technologies to command in the military. Open access - no paywall! 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Launch day! My new book “Under the Nuclear Shadow” about China’s approach to strategic deterrence and information-age weapons is officially out with @princetonupress.bsky.social ! To read more about it and order it, see press.princeton.edu/books/paperb...

New year, new article! I am so delighted to see my piece on venture capital logics, military AI companies and their impact on shaping military norms out with @finandsoc.bsky.social. Open access! #civmilsky #milsky www.cambridge.org/core/journal...