Matthew Bunn

Senator Kelly is correct.

Plus a Public Service Announcement:

KEY section of Department of Defense's Law of War Manual is 18.3.2.1.

The VERY rule on the "requirement" to refuse illegal orders gives as its paradigmatic example of what is "clearly illegal:
"orders to fire upon the shipwrecked."

The Observers - Exclusive: The first proof of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war An investigation by the FRANCE 24 Observers team reveals how chlorine gas was used as a weapon in the ongoing civil war in Sudan. All evidence suggests the Sudanese army used chlorine to recapture a…

Exclusive: The first proof of the use of chemical weapons in Sudan’s civil war
Source: France 24

www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/...

• If the U.S. military operation to interdict and destroy suspected narcotraFicking vessels is a “non-international armed conflict,” as the Trump Administration suggests, orders to “kill everybody,” which can reasonably be regarded as an order to give “no quarter,” and to “double-tap” a target in order to kill survivors, are clearly illegal under international law. In short, they are war crimes. • If the U.S. military operation is not an armed conflict of any kind, these orders to kill helpless civilians clinging to the wreckage of a vessel our military destroyed would subject everyone from SECDEF down to the individual who pulled the trigger to prosecution under U.S. law for murder.

Highlighted sentence at the end of the document reads: Again, the bottom line is that, since orders to kill survivors of an attack at sea are “patently illegal,” anyone who issues or follows such orders can and should be prosecuted for war crimes, murder, or both.

Former US military lawyers speak out:

"The Former JAGs Working Group unanimously considers both the giving and the execution of these orders, if true, to constitute war crimes, murder, or both."

Statement on Media Reports of Pentagon “No Quarter” Orders in Caribbean Boat Strikes

1/2

Senate Armed Services Committee responds to news stories about the alleged double tap strike:

Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme.

You can get ChatGPT to help you build a nuclear bomb if you simply design the prompt in the form of a poem, according to a new study from researchers in Europe. www.wired.com/story/poems-...

To put a finer point on this whole thing: "Two people with direct knowledge of the operation" — presumably uniformed military leaders — are accusing the U.S. Secretary of Defense of personally ordering specific war crimes. That's a historic accusation.

BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:

The Untold Story of China's Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing The Untold Story of China’s Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing offers the most comprehensive account of China’s nuclear weapons development f...

So, while a return to nuclear testing would be a huge setback for global nuclear control efforts, it would not enable China to develop dramatically new nuclear capabilities.
mitpress.mit.edu/978026205182...

China rapidly expands nuclear test site as Trump revives Cold War tension The quiet expansion of Beijing’s remote nuclear weapons complex, Lop Nur, points to years of preparation for a potential return to a Cold War-era arms race.

ICYMI, this WaPo story on activity at China's Lop Nur test site makes clear they are prepared to resume nuclear testing if the United States goes ahead. But as Zhang's new book makes clear, China has already developed nuclear weapons comparable (including in yield-to-weight) to U.S. designs.

The Untold Story of China's Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing The Untold Story of China’s Nuclear Weapon Development and Testing offers the most comprehensive account of China’s nuclear weapons development f...

Excited to say that my colleague Hui Zhang's magnum opus, providing a detailed technical history of China's nuclear weapons development and testing -- every test, what they learned from it, etc. -- is out now from MIT Press. mitpress.mit.edu/978026205182...

Great news! Looking forward!

I'm thrilled to have a contract with @academic.oup.com for my book on "Entanglement and Unintended Escalation." (There'll be a better title!)

The manuscript is drafted and currently being revised. Hopefully should be out second half of next year!

Ok. I’ll go: As I was trained and trained others, US military service members are legally, morally, & ethically obligated to refuse to follow unlawful orders.

Doing so is high risk, as it is a de facto case of guilty until proven innocent — but it is a duty to refuse to follow them all the same.

Opinion | Ukraine needs Russia’s frozen $200 billion immediately, Europe With Trump seeking Kyiv’s capitulation to Russia, now is the moment for decisive European action.

This isn’t a “peace plan.” It’s a blueprint for Ukraine’s capitulation. If implemented, it would turn this pro-Western, democratic nation, which has been courageously resisting Russian aggression since 2014, into a Kremlin colony. wapo.st/3XcRot6

Faculty searches at Harvard Kennedy School in applied microeconomics and in technology and public policy www.hks.harvard.edu/more/about/l...

The cover of the November 21, 1983, edition of Newsweek, with the text: "TV"s Nuclear Nightmare Public Service or Propaganda? How Will It Affect Children? Below this is a color photo of a scene from the movie (oversaturated in orange and yellow) of a large mushroom cloud rising over a road and farm fields, as a young man runs toward the camera while glancing back over his left shoulder at the cloud.

The cover of the November 19-25 edition of TV Guide with the text: "America is Hit 'The Day After Brings Nuclear War Horror ... and Hot Controversy" The cover is a color photo montage of a nuclear fireball, in front of which are running (toward the camera) a young boy in a striped short-sleeve shirt and dark pants and, behind him, an older man (John Cullum) in a plaid long-sleeve shirt and blue jeans.

Tonight in 1983, more than 100 million Americans saw multiple thermonuclear weapons destroy Kansas City, Missouri, in “The Day After” on ABC. A.C. Nielsen Company reported that 62 percent of television sets that night were tuned to the film. I watched in my packed college dorm lounge. How about you?

Trump: “We had a meeting today that actually surprised me. He wants to see no crime. He wants to see housing being built. He wants to see rents coming down…I expect to be helping him, not hurting him…I think this mayor can do some things that are going to be really great.”

And China is ALSO building more nuclear power plants than anyone else in the world -- but still a very small fraction of the electricity produced by coal.

But arms control is another matter. It's precisely countries you fear and distrust whose nuclear forces you want to limit. If we can get serious limits on Russian forces, while maintaining what's needed to also deter China, we should do so.

A "peace plan" that offers security guarantees for Ukraine without ANY troops on the ground to back them up reflects a profound lack of understanding of Putin's Russia and of what is needed for credible deterrence of future Russian attacks.

US Reaches Initial Deal With Saudi Arabia on Nuclear Sharing US negotiations with Saudi Arabia on a long-sought nuclear technology-sharing deal have been completed, potentially opening the door for American companies to build reactors in the kingdom.

Does the deal include the earlier idea of providing a U.S.-owned, U.S.-operated enrichment plant, but not the technology? ("Black boxes" for technology tend to be gray.) Does it include Saudi Arabia accepting the Additional Protocol to IAEA safeguards? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Solidifies Economic and Defense Partnership with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia STRENGTHENING OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP: Today, President Donald J. Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Saudi

Concerning how little has been made public about the nuclear energy deal with Saudi Arabia that the Trump administration announced had been reached during MBS's visit. What does it include about uranium enrichment, about strengthened safeguards?
www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

Trump's full 28-point Ukraine-Russia peace plan The full plan was obtained by Axios and verified by Ukrainian and U.S. officials.

“17. The United States and Russia will agree to extend the validity of treaties on the non-proliferation and control of nuclear weapons, including the START I Treaty.”

Earlier this morning, President Trump threatened me and a group of service and veteran Members of Congress with arrest, trial, and death by hanging.

Here’s my response:

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...

Interesting podcast in which @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social & @wslafoy.bsky.social discuss (and tear apart) 'A House of Dynamite'. The fundamental problem is the unrealistic scenario -- who would fire one missile at the continental US? And why would this necessitate immediate retaliation?

Good morning, New York. While you were sleeping, this was the most-read story on.ft.com/47WDgKJ

‘This Is Corruption’: ’60 Minutes’ Reports Trump Pardoned Binance Boss After He ‘Enriched’ Crypto Business Tied to Trump Family "60 Minutes" reported President Trump pardoned the founder of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange after he "enriched" the Trump family during its crypto push The post ‘This Is Corruption’: ’60 Minutes’ Reports Trump Pardoned Binance Boss After He ‘Enriched’ Crypto Business Tied to Trump Family first appeared on Mediaite.

‘This Is Corruption’: ’60 Minutes’ Reports Trump Pardoned Binance Boss After He ‘Enriched’ Crypto Business Tied to Trump Family

Prohibited activities include advising Chinese graduate students. For reference, a recent Georgetown report estimated 16% of STEM graduate students in the US are Chinese nationals.

This would take out entire fields at the knees, which is perhaps the point.

Generous Gift to the CUNY Graduate Center Endows New Biography Fellowship The family of Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Martin J. Sherwin establishes a fellowship for nuclear age biography at the Leon Levy Center for Biography.

A new fellowship for historians looking to profile key figures of the nuclear age, named for the remarkable nuclear historian Marty Sherwin:
www.gc.cuny.edu/news/generou...