Ankit Panda

All the weapons on display at North Korea’s 2025 arms expo | NK PRO North Korea has revealed a range of new weapons developments at an arms expo ongoing this week in Pyongyang, according to NK Pro analysis of state media imagery, including nuclear missiles and aerial ...

Great work here by @colinzwirko.bsky.social: All the weapons on display at North Korea’s 2025 arms expo www.nknews.org/pro/all-the-...

And will be in the Bay Area later this month!

Hi!

Up to some good in France.

Did the United States Just Commit to Defending Qatar? Extended deterrence continues to be a hot topic in 2025.

New from me: on the bizarre new executive order pledging to defend Qatar and what I see as two big problems with it panda.substack.com/p/did-the-un...

There is a certain kind of Army officer who, after the excitement of company command, finds his career stalled, and who perhaps leaves the service as a major in the National Guard filled with bitterness and resentment. He may then dream of one day being in a position to make all the superior officers who failed to appreciate his leadership qualities, his insight, his sheer fitness stand to attention and hear him lay down the law about what it is to be an officer, and threaten to fire those who do not meet his standards. In this respect, and this respect only, on that stage Pete Hegseth was living the dream. In all other respects, however, he was ridiculous...

I did not expect this kind of fire from Eliot Cohen, but he has Hegseth absolutely pegged www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Did the United States Just Commit to Defending Qatar? Extended deterrence continues to be a hot topic in 2025.

New from me: on the bizarre new executive order pledging to defend Qatar and what I see as two big problems with it panda.substack.com/p/did-the-un...

Screenshot of a Powerpoint slide. The title is "Strategic Effects." It has three bullet points: 1. The physical employment of nuclear weapons at any level requires explicit orders from the President. 2. Nuclear weapons are unique in their destructive power and psychological impact. 3. The use of nuclear weapons represents a significant escalation from conventional warfare. There is then an incongruous illustration: a screenshot of the game MISSILE COMMAND for the Atari 5200 (1982).

Wild illustration choice in this slide from training materials for ICBM launch officers, ca. 2010

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1989-1992, Volume XXXI, START I, 1989-1991 Editor: James Graham Wilson General Editor: Kathleen B. Rasmussen Department of State Washington 2025

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1989–1992, Volume XXXI, START I, 1989–1991 is out today!

Huge congratulations to @jamesgrahamwilson.bsky.social and the rest of the team at the State Department's Office of the Historian. history.state.gov/historicaldo...

Catching up on Korea Ankit Panda rejoins the pod to talk about recent developments on the Korean Peninsula

I’m back with @pranayrvaddi.bsky.social and Vipin Narang to talk about the US-Korea alliance and various North Korea things (reflecting on some recent takeaways from a trip to Seoul earlier this month). Listen here: strategicsimplicity.substack.com/p/catching-u...

Get a deal on my book, yes, but also books from @nktpnd.bsky.social, @ajwsmall.bsky.social, and others.

👇🏻

Wang Yi Holds Talks with DPRK Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui

In recent days, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met Wang Yi (PRC FM) and Li Qiang (PRC Premier) in China. Neither Chinese readout mentions "denuclearization."

Choe-Wang: www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/wjbzhd/2...

Choe-Li: www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xw/z...

Pentagon Pushes to Double Missile Production for Potential China Conflict www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

German military to invest $41B in space capabilities - Breaking Defense "Satellite networks today are an Achilles' heel of modern societies. Whoever attacks them paralyzes entire nations,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.

This is a big deal for Germany. I remember when no German politician would be willing to mention the words space and military in the same paragraph, much less the same sentence. breakingdefense.com/2025/09/germ...

It's a nice morning up here.

Good to be back in Oslo!

Book Talk: The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon | King's College London Ankit Panda will discuss his new book, The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon, and the changing landscape of nuclear security.

UK friends: I’ll be in London next month to talk about my book (among other things). Details here for Oct. 17 at King’s College London: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/book-...

You can talk to Isaac Chotiner; I have. The key is you just have to not be famous or well-regarded enough for him to want to put whatever dumb things you said in The New Yorker.

Well, that was bleak.

Woops. Didn't mean to not answer. Will try to write something up soon, but IMO, this is neither particularly helpful nor particularly harmful. I'm very skeptical that one year lets both sides get to anything resembling a true follow-on treaty.

Kim Jong Un: "If the U.S. drops its hollow obsession with denuclearization and wants to pursue peaceful coexistence with North Korea based on the recognition of reality, there is no reason for us not to sit down with the U.S." www.npr.org/2025/09/22/n...

I wonder just how far this overt hostility to public health goes before visa-free travel for US citizens becomes a real liability for countries that currently offer it.

In fact, dangling this before Trump ahead of the Alaska meeting would probably have been a better move.

Putin ready to extend nuclear arms control pact for a year The START agreement limiting active nuclear missiles and bombers expires in February, and Putin’s decision to extend it probably will be viewed favorably by Trump.

Waiting until we're ~6 months out from expiration: "Putin suggested that Russia expected the U.S. to follow Moscow’s example to collectively avoid fallout on global stability." www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

J.S. Citizenshit and Immigratior Services September 20, 2025 Memorandum TO: Associate Directors, Deputy Associate Directors, Program Office Chiefs FROM: JOSEPH B Digitaly signed by JOSEPH B EDLOW Joseph B. Edlow EDLOW Date: 2025.09.20 Director, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services **00 SUBJECT: Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, H-IB On September 19, 2025, the President issued a Proclamation, Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers, to address systemic abuse of H-1B nonimmigrant visas. Pursuant to sections 212(f) and 215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), 8 U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), the entry into the United States of aliens as nonimmigrants to perform services in a specialty occupation under section 101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b) of the INA, 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(15)(H)(i)(b), is restricted, except for those aliens whose petitions are accompanied or supplemented by a payment of $100,000. This guidance applies to H-IB employment-based petitions filed after 12:01 AM ET on September 21, 2025.| This proclamation only applies prospectively to petitions that have not yet been filed. The proclamation does not apply to aliens who: are the beneficiaries of petitions that were filed prior to the effective date of the proclamation, are the beneficiaries of currently approved petitions, or are in possession of validly issued H-1B non-immigrant visas. All officers of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services shall ensure that their decisions are consistent with this guidance. The proclamation does not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to or rom the United States. cc: David V. Roy, Chief Counsel (A) FOUO, For Official Use Only

NEW: Hours before a new entry ban is supposed to go into effect, the federal government officially acknowledges for the first time that the restrictions do NOT apply to people who currently have H-1B visas.

Link: www.uscis.gov/sites/defaul...

Pakistan says its nuclear program can be made available to Saudi Arabia under defense pact Pakistan’s defense minister says that his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed under the countries’ new defense pact.

"Pakistan’s defense minister says his nation’s nuclear program 'will be made available' to Saudi Arabia if needed under the countries’ new defense pact, marking the first specific acknowledgment that Islamabad had put the kingdom under its nuclear umbrella." apnews.com/article/paki...

Not just a crisis for journalism but for civil-military relations: can't have civilian oversight if you don't have a free press (especially with this Pentagon).

Ah. I see. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

RIP U.S. innovation.
Between gutting the H-1B program, purging US scientists from civil service, slashing research grants, and disappearing international students off the streets, our government has made a conscious decision to kill America's roll as a global leader in science and innovation.

He’s done it again; the Bagram-China nukes thing has really stuck.