TOP NEWS Trump-Kim Summit Breaks Down After North Korea Demands End to Sanctions BBC News Strategic Deterrence, the SSBN Force and the Columbia SSBN’s Essential Contribution RealClear Defense – Franklin Miller The Nuclear Game Theory of the India-Pakistan Crisis Atlantic Council East Asia Trump-Kim Summit Breaks Down After North Korea Demands End to Sanctions BBC News2/28/2019 Trump-Kim summit breaks down after North Korea demands end to sanctions. “It was all about the sanctions,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “They wanted the sanctions lifted in their entirety and we couldn’t do that.” South Korea, Japan Back Trump’s Decision to Walk Away from Nuclear Summit With Kim NBC News2/28/2019 Some of the countries living in fear of Kim Jong Un’s arsenal appeared to heave a collective sigh of relief Thursday even though President Donald Trump abruptly left the nuclear summit with North Korea without an agreement. Intelligent, Bright and Merciless: A North Korean Official’s Take on Kim Jong-un New York Times2/27/2019 Kim Jong-un, the mysterious and mercurial leader of North Korea, has no intention of relinquishing his nuclear arsenal, a potent tool that gives him leverage abroad and authority at home, the highest-ranking North Korean diplomat to defect in years said in an interview. South Asia The Nuclear Game Theory of the India-Pakistan Crisis Atlantic Council2/27/2019 New Delhi and Islamabad see the possession of nuclear weapons not only as cementing their rightful place in the world as powerful nations, but also as providing a credible deterrent against threats, real and perceived. India, Pakistan teeter towards war over Kashmir and how Trump-Kim 2.0 ends TASS Russian News Agency2/28/2019 India and Pakistan, which had fought four times in their history, reminded the entire world that their unresolved bilateral conflict, which has lasted for more than 70 years, is the oldest conflict on the United Nations agenda and remains a serious destabilization factor that could blow up in the global community’s face at any moment. Middle East Does a Nuclear-Armed Saudi Make the World a Safer Place? Al Bawaba News2/28/2019 Currently, the chances of Saudi receiving nuclear technology and transforming its civilian nuclear program into a military weapons program are low. But the way Saudi officials have conducted themselves in regulatory negotiations aimed at placing limits on a prospective nuclear program has experts worried Saudi is seeking to preserve the option to weaponize the technology. Opinion and Analysis Strategic Deterrence, the SSBN Force and the Columbia SSBN’s Essential Contribution RealClear Defense – Franklin Miller2/25/2019 Based on its merits and on the global situation, public support for the full “minimum of twelve COLUMBIA SSBNs” should be universal. But, sadly, that is not the case. Today, some disarmament proponents and even some elected officials are publicly calling for reducing the number of new COLUMBIA SSBNs to eight, or even fewer. Reducing even to eight (let alone less than eight) would pose very serious problems for the United States. What Restrains India, Pakistan From Nuclear War The Christian Science Monitor – Monitor’s Editorial Board2/27/2019 Their ‘surgical’ retaliatory strikes on each other after a terrorist attack reveal a constraint driven by a firmer embrace of rules for protecting innocent life. The Value of the LRSO in an Uncertain Future Environment – Issue No. 438 National Institute for Public Policy – Matthew Costlow2/27/2019 The Long-Range Standoff missile (LRSO) will be a nuclear-armed air-launched cruise missile (ALCM) the U.S. Air Force is scheduled to first deploy in the early 2030s. It is prudent to examine three fundamental questions facing U.S. policy makers regarding LRSO: First, why do U.S. defense officials believe a replacement ALCM is necessary? Second, what deterrence characteristics will this replacement ALCM have? And third, how will these characteristics contribute to U.S. security interests and missions, and at what cost?