Steven Pifer

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - SEPTEMBER 11, 2021: Russias President Vladimir Putin speaks during a meeting with Tokyo 2020 medalists at the Moscow Kremlin. Alexei Druzhinin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS.No use Russia.

Will Putin miscalculate?

Monday, November 22, 2021

U.S. successfully conducts SM-3 Block IIA Intercept Test against an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Target The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA), and U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS John Finn (DDG-113), an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) System-equipped destroyer, intercepted and destroyed a threat-representative Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) target with a Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA missile during a flight test demonstration in the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii, Nov. 16 At approximately 7:50 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time, (12:50 a.m., Nov. 17, Eastern Standard Time), the ICBM-representative target was launched from the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site, located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Republic of the Marshall Islands, toward the broad ocean area northeast of Hawaii. In this developmental test, the destroyer used engage-on-remote capabilities through the Command and Control Battle Management Communications (C2BMC) network as part of a defense of Hawaii scenario. After receiving tracking data from the C2BMC system, the destroyer launched a SM-3 Block IIA guided missile which destroyed the target.Where: Hawaii, United StatesWhen: 16 Nov 2020Credit: MDA/Cover-Images.com**VIDEOS AVAIL & MORE WORDS: INFO@COVERMG.COM**

Missile defense and the offense-defense relationship

Andrey Baklitskiy, James Cameron, and Steven Pifer

October 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron take part in the final session of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall in Britain, June 13, 2021. Doug Mills/Pool via REUTERS

Trans-Atlantic Scorecard — October 2021

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Handout file photo dated September 28, 2021 of the Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS Columbia (SSN 771) conducts tactical maneuvers and naval formations during a training exercise. A US navy nuclear engineer and his wife have been charged with trying to sell nuclear secrets to what they thought was a foreign state. Jonathan Toebbe and his wife Diana were arrested in West Virginia on Saturday, the Justice Department announced. They allegedly tried to sell nuclear submarine design data, hidden in a peanut butter sandwich, to someone they thought represented another country. In fact, it was an undercover FBI agent. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James S. Hong via ABACAPRESS.COM

Go bold or go home: The Nuclear Posture Review must give Biden real options

Thursday, October 7, 2021

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba give a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, April 13, 2021. Francisco Seco/Pool via REUTERS

Ukraine and NATO — don’t ask, do

Friday, October 1, 2021

An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile streaks through the sky of Vandenberg in California. An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile streaks through the sky of Vandenberg in California August 25, 2005. The missile's single unarmed re-entry vehicle is expected to travel approximately 6759 km (4200 miles) in about 30 minutes, hitting a pre-determined target at the Ronald Reagan Test Site near the Kwajalein Atoll in the western chain of the Marshall Islands. The Minuteman is a strategic weapon system using a ballistic missile of intercontinental range.

Strengthen US security through nuclear arms reductions

Ami Bera and Steven Pifer

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attend a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine May 6, 2021. Efrem Lukatsky/Pool via REUTERS

President Zelensky comes to Washington

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

(L to R): Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, European Council President Charles Michel, U.S. President Joe Biden, Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, France's President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel pose for a family photograph of the G7 summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England on June 11, 2021. ( The Yomiuri Shimbun )

Trans-Atlantic Scorecard — July 2021

Thursday, July 22, 2021

German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Armin Laschet, Green party co-leader Annalena Baerbock and German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) attend a television debate in Berlin, Germany, June 26, 2021. REUTERS/Christian Mang/Pool

Germany’s upcoming election and the future of nuclear sharing

July 2021

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND JUNE 16, 2021: US President Joe Biden (L) and Russia's President Vladimir Putin (2nd R) meet for talks at the Villa La Grange. Mikhail Metzel/TASS.No use Russia.

Did Biden succeed with Putin? Check back in six months

Thursday, June 17, 2021