President Trump and the risks of nuclear war: How command and control works when the military wakes up the president vs. when the president wakes up the military. From the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, John Mecklin on reconsidering the nuclear demigod called Mr. President. “He is sovereign who decides”, in the words of the Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt, and the American president’s bomb power is one of the purest illustrations, at least on paper, of Schmitt’s argument. Should Congress take away Trump’s authority to pre-emptively launch a nuclear strike? Lawmakers fear President Trump’s authority to launch nuclear weapons. From the Congressional Research Service, a report on the North Korean nuclear challenge: Military options and issues for Congress. Take the president’s finger off the nuclear button: It’s an awesome responsibility no single person should have.
Trump can’t start a nuclear war by himself, but there's not much stopping him. Trump’s nuclear threats aren’t going over well with military officials. Guy in charge of all the nukes: Relax, I’m not gonna let Trump nuke just anything. Anthony J. Colangelo (SMU): The Duty to Disobey Illegal Nuclear Strike Orders. If Trump launches Armageddon, is that “illegal”? If Trump wants to use nuclear weapons, whether it’s “legal” won’t matter. Bruce Ackerman on how to stop Trump blowing it up. The real danger of Trump’s nuclear policy isn’t Armageddon: The president may not stumble into a nuclear war, but he's setting the stage for a new era of proliferation.
