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Heritage Foundation
Michaela Dodge is a Senior policy analyst 's Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies, where she specializes in missile defense and nuclear weapons modernization.
PROFILE
Michaela Dodge
Guest
FROM Michaela Dodge
To the Point
The US is preparing for nuclear war As a candidate, President Trump asked, "If we don't use nuclear weapons, why do we have them?" "Modernization" began with Barack Obama. Now, it's more intense than at any time since the Cold War, which ended when Ronald Reagan and Michael Gorbachev agreed to downsize their arsenals. India, Pakistan — even North Korea — have programs for nuclear weapons, the US is buying new ones — and B-52s may go back on 24-hour alert. We hear about the benefits of the new strategy and the risks. Is it required by new realities, or a return to "nuclear madness?"
To the Point
Thinking about the "Unthinkable": the Prospect of Nuclear War It's been 70 years since the US became the first nation to drop an atomic bomb. So far, it's the only one. But how long will that last? Today there are some 16,000 nuclear weapons in nine countries, and they're many times more powerful than those used against Japan. Despite arms reduction agreements, the US and Russia still have massive arsenals, and now both countries are “modernizing” their stockpiles — ostensibly for defensive purposes. But each side suspects the other of thinking offense -- as memories the more than 100,000 people who died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki fade into the past.
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