Daniel Salisbury

How can Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) continue to successfully operate despite Western embargo?

Read as @dbsalisbury.bsky.social explores how Russia has adopted a multi-pronged embargo response, including illicit procurement & strategic international partnerships.

www.kcl.ac.uk/warstudies/a...

Try getting that past the local HOA 😂

Atomic Backfires The existential risks posed to the world by nuclear weapons are growing. Efforts to halt nuclear proliferation, manage crises, promote arms control, and buil...

3/8

You can read more about the book here (mitpress.mit.edu/978026205185...) & see early reader comments from Vipin Narang, @malfridbh.bsky.social, & Keir Lieber. Now to the content!

2/8

Editors: me, @gdavidarceneaux.bsky.social, Ariel Petrovics.

Powerhouse contributors: Dave Allison, Tyler Bowen, @dbsalisbury.bsky.social, Binn Cho, Kristin Ven Bruusgaard, Sarah Bidgood, @jjjcameron.bsky.social, @professorrdg.bsky.social, Eliza Gheorghe, Ulrich Kühn, @laurensukin.bsky.social.

1/8

Later this year from @mitpress.bsky.social in @belfercenter.bsky.social's Studies in International Security book series-- Atomic Backfires: When Nuclear Policies Fail.

This is a sobering edited volume on how efforts to reduce nuclear weapons dangers may sometimes wind up exacerbating them.

🎧 Tune in to the latest episode of #TheArmsControlPoseur by
#IISS featuring Dr @bollfrass.bsky.social, Dr Jingdong Yuan, Dr @dbsalisbury.bsky.social & @nktpnd.bsky.social on North Korea’s nuclear posture & what’s next for diplomacy. 🧵👇

🔗 tinyurl.com/2ja3b34z

#EUNPDC #NonProliferation #ArmsControl

Featuring Dr @bollfrass.bsky.social, Dr Jingdong Yuan, Dr @dbsalisbury.bsky.social & @nktpnd.bsky.social.

They unpack North Korea’s nuclear rise, failed diplomacy & arms control risks.

👉http://tinyurl.com/2ja3b34z

#EUNPDC #NuclearWeapons #NonProliferation #ArmsControl

KGB Literati: Spy Fiction and State Security in the Soviet Union

The first public talk on my forthcoming book #KGB LITERATI will be at Stanford University on May 2.

Everyone has heard about Western spies-turned-writers, such as Fleming, Greene, or Le Carré, but who were their Soviet equivalents?

Come and find out!
events.stanford.edu/event/kgb-li...

S4.E3 Better know a nuke: The United Kingdom How has the nuclear weapons programme of the United Kingdom evolved from its origins during World War II to its strategic choices during the Cold War? With the current international order in disarray,

🎙️ New Podcast Episode: How has the 🇬🇧’s nuclear programme evolved? Listen to The #ArmsControlPoseur as Dr.@bollfrass.bsky.social, @mgmessmer.bsky.social, @dbsalisbury.bsky.social & Sebastian Brixey-Williams explore the UK’s nuclear past & future.

🔗 Listen now: tinyurl.com/bd2uzrv8

Great to see this in print w/ @nknewsorg.bsky.social: what was the UK’s role in North Korea’s development of military hovercraft? A story I’ve pursued in archives and on the UK’s south coast over a couple of years: www.nknews.org/share/5842ec10

Great to see this in print w/ @nknewsorg.bsky.social: what was the UK’s role in North Korea’s development of military hovercraft? A story I’ve pursued in archives and on the UK’s south coast over a couple of years: www.nknews.org/share/5842ec10

Exclusive: My Book Cover Revealed!

KGB LITERATI: Spy Fiction and State Security in the Soviet Union (University of Toronto Press, 2025) #spies #writers #KGB

Great to see our latest journal article published in
@twqgw.bsky.social ! In the paper Aaron Arnold and I conceptualize the shift in DPRK sanctions evasion towards "remote sanctions busting". The article is available free for the next 3 months on the TWQ website: twq.elliott.gwu.edu/files/2024/1...

In my latest piece for @nknewsorg.bsky.social I consider what North Korean WMD secrets that might emerge from Syria following Assad's fall?

www.nknews.org/pro/how-assa...

How North Korean diplomats illicitly acquired US helicopters for the Kim regime | NK News The North Korean Embassy in Berlin has been the site of sanctions evasion controversy in recent years, hosting a hostel found to have breached sanctions by paying rent of 38,000 euros a month to the D...

Great to share my latest historical piece for @nknewsorg.bsky.social — the story of how the DPRK used its embassy in East Berlin to illicitly procure 86 Hughes Helicopters in the mid-1980s. www.nknews.org/2024/11/how-...

Countering a technological Berlin tunnel: North Korean operatives, helicopters and intelligence in the Cold War illicit arms trade, 1981-1986 This article considers the relationship between intelligence and the arms trade by examining North Korea’s procurement of 86 Hughes helicopters in the 1980s. Using recently declassified documents, ...

The piece draws on declassified British government files — the more detailed story is one I wrote up in an article in Intelligence and National Security journal a couple of years ago: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

How North Korean diplomats illicitly acquired US helicopters for the Kim regime | NK News The North Korean Embassy in Berlin has been the site of sanctions evasion controversy in recent years, hosting a hostel found to have breached sanctions by paying rent of 38,000 euros a month to the D...

Great to share my latest historical piece for @nknewsorg.bsky.social — the story of how the DPRK used its embassy in East Berlin to illicitly procure 86 Hughes Helicopters in the mid-1980s. www.nknews.org/2024/11/how-...

Annual Conference | NASIH Information about our upcoming annual conference

The Society for Intelligence History (SIH) is up and running here on BlueSky. We provide connections for scholars and practitioners interested in all things intelligence and historical.

Please check out our Feb. 25 conference here: www.intelligencehistory.org/conferences

UK war tech sent to Russia by Insta model's firm, documents seen by BBC show - BBC News £1.6m of British kit shipped to companies tied to Russian military despite sanctions, customs documents claim.

Could make a movie with this cast of characters - Instagram model denies transferring precision optics to Russia to aid war effort.

Totally missed this September 2024 press release where the US State Department called out RT for arms dealing and illicit procurement. Seemingly got crowd-funding efforts, but also importing goods in small quantities to avoid unwanted scrutiny. www.state.gov/alerting-the...

Flight of the Concorde? North Korea’s brief flirtation with supersonic airliners | NK News For all its advancements in ballistic missile technology, North Korea is hardly known for excellence in the realm of commercial air travel, maintaining a ragtag fleet of aging Soviet jets that are onl...

Excited to share this piece based on archival material I found last summer— North Korea expressed an interest in buying two Concordes in the mid-1970s — the full obscure story now on NK News: www.nknews.org/2024/05/flig...

An excellent piece of reporting - 20% of US-origin parts now heading to Russia via the Maldives. Even the smallest jurisdictions can act as transhipment hubs.

Weapons in Space A new and provocative take on the formerly classified history of accelerating superpower military competition in space in the late Cold War and beyond.In Mar...

My book Weapons in Space: Technology, Politics, and the Rise and Fall of the Strategic Defense Initiative is officially published today!

mitpress.mit.edu/978026254736...

Now 2,300 photos in albums including:

-Trinity Site (2018)
-Titan II Missile Museum (2017)
-Los Alamos & Sandia Ads
-Defense Industry ads

MORE SOON!

flickr.com/nuclearanthro

Enable my work:

patreon.com/nuclearanthro
paypal.me/nuclearanthro

#PhDLife

Thanks for sharing- need to use Bsky more!

The most interesting document I found - the "preliminary purchase agreement".

Flight of the Concorde? North Korea’s brief flirtation with supersonic airliners | NK News For all its advancements in ballistic missile technology, North Korea is hardly known for excellence in the realm of commercial air travel, maintaining a ragtag fleet of aging Soviet jets that are onl...

Excited to share this piece based on archival material I found last summer— North Korea expressed an interest in buying two Concordes in the mid-1970s — the full obscure story now on NK News: www.nknews.org/2024/05/flig...

The Sanctions-Busting Architects: Moscow’s Preparations for the West’s Sanctions Moscow’s long practice and tolerance of illicit activities makes Russia well placed to bust Western sanctions. Two years on from Putin’s illegal invasion, what more can be done?

"[C]losing loopholes that facilitate smuggling, money laundering, and transnational crime will help sanctions to bite across the board."
Aaron Arnold and @dbsalisbury.bsky.social examine where the West should focus its sanctions efforts two years into the Ukraine War.

Particularly excited to share this piece — a review of technology-themed beers for the holidays! Bringing together two areas of interest (dare I say expertise even!) @bindinghook — thanks to the team, a lot of fun to write!

Check out the Binding Hook hoppy holidays guide to technology-themed beers for the season’s pour decisions by @dbsalisbury.bsky.social bindinghook.com/articles-bin...