Strategic Simplicity Podcast

Pranay Vaddi
  • 5.0 (9)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Trying to explain new and old, arcane and obscure international security issues in a conversational format. strategicsimplicity.substack.com

  1. 6D AGO

    Recapping New START expiration

    Austin, Matthew, Vipin, and I discuss New START expiration, new information revealed by the U.S. government regarding PRC nuclear test activities, and ideas for U.S. arms control policy efforts moving forward after the government’s rollout of post-New START priorities last Friday. Under Secretary of State Dinanno’s speech before the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (link) National Academies report on Technical Issues related to CTBT (including clandestine test activities) (link) Strategic Simplicity is a collection of content provided for free by experts, many of whom worked with one another in a variety of jobs. The written or podcast content is solely for education purposes, and in no way reflects the views of the U.S. government, MIT, or other entities. Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    52 min

  2. JAN 28

    Part III of our series on New START

    To close out (for now…) our three part series on New START and its pending expiration, Rebeccah Heinrichs and Frank Miller join Vipin, Austin, and I to explain why they think the United States should let the agreement expire without a continuation of the central numerical limits, as Russia has proposed. Our conversation touched upon Russia’s behavior in implementing the treaty, compliance record, the relevance of New START-like limits given the dilemmas facing the United States, the study of nuclear weapons policy and deterrence and the role arms control plays in this domain, and advice for new students and professionals looking to contribute to the field. As always, please feel free to leave us comments and questions and we’ll look to address them in an upcoming podcast. Background reading: Frank Miller and Eric Edelman, “No New START: Renewing the U.S.-Russian Deal Won’t Solve Today’s Nuclear Dilemmas.” Foreign Affairs. Frank Miller and Eric Edelman, “Time to End the Last U.S.-Russia Nuclear Treaty.” The Bulwark. Rebeccah Heinrichs, “New Start and Trump’s Nuclear Test.” WSJ. Strategic Simplicity is a collection of content provided for free by experts, many of whom worked with one another in a variety of jobs. In no way does written or podcast content reflect the views of the U.S. government, MIT, or other entities. Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    58 min

  3. JAN 24

    Part II of our three part series on New START

    Arms control diplomacy is, like many other areas of government policy-making, hard to understand without experiencing directly. How defense strategy, political science, technology, and area studies combine with personalities, time pressure, and interagency tensions is difficult to describe - but these elements collide together in a highly concentrated fashion during an arms control negotiation. Greg Dwyer and Mike Albertson both served on the New START delegation at different points in their careers, and shared their experiences in part II of our New START series. Both spent time early in their careers “backbenching” the treaty negotiations in Geneva, and then carried leadership responsibilities on behalf of their agencies as part of the regular New START delegation that would travel to Geneva to engage in implementation discussions with Russian counterparts in the Bilateral Consultative Commission, a body created by the Treaty to ensure both parties had a venue to raise and address implementation and compliance questions. We all worked together on New START, so there is a fair amount of reminiscing in this episode, but Greg and Mike also provide a detailed glimpse into the work that goes on behind the scenes in arms control negotiation and implementation. I hope young professionals wondering what it’s like to work in this field take particular interest in this episode. As always, please feel free to send comments or question our way here or in the subscriber chat. Background reading (stuff I haven’t shared in previous posts, but seem pertinent to New START expiration). * I really hope DoW doesn’t get rid of this resource - a searchable treaty text with can help you go down a few of the rabbit holes we referenced during the podcast. * a 2024 RAND report on post-New START options. * Erin Dumbacher’s recent CFR post on managing Putin’s offer to maintain New START limits. * Frank Jones’ book “Obama on the Bomb,” covering New START and arms control efforts during the Obama administration. Strategic Simplicity is a collection of content provided for free by experts, many of whom worked with one another in a variety of jobs. In no way does written or podcast content reflect the views of the U.S. government, MIT, or other entities. Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    1h 9m
  4. Part I on New START Expiration with Rose Gottemoeller

    JAN 19

    Part I on New START Expiration with Rose Gottemoeller

    Rose and I covered the landscape related to New START and more: * Her experience as chief negotiator - managing Russian interlocutors, an interagency delegation in Geneva as well as the one back home, * the role of the President and other very senior officials in arms control negotiations, * New START and “reset” politics, * why “drive by” negotiations stink, * Putin’s offer to keep New START limits for one more year, * missile defense, * the recent Congressional Strategic Posture Commission Report and bipartisanship in nuclear policy and arms control, * and much more. Recent and Upcoming work by Rose: * Dec. 10, 2025, Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, “Arms Race 2.0.“ * Dec. 2025, Arms Control Association. “Getting the Most Out of New START Before It Expires“ * July 30, 2025, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “Nuclear arms control enters uncharted territory. It needs tools—both old and new.“ * May 2021, “Negotiating the New START Treaty.” * Coming April 2026, “Security through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons, and US-Russia Relations after the Cold War.” Also, this isn’t a new topic for Strategic Simplicity - we’ve devoted some time to New START on the podcast, in various posts and articles covering President Putin’s offer, U.S. nuclear force posture after New START, and U.S. arms control policy. Take a look: * Pods: * Posts: Pranay Vaddi, “Beware Russia Bearing Arms Control Gifts,’ RUSI. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    57 min

  5. JAN 10

    Shibboleths or Not? Introducing Matthew Sharp to the Pod

    Before the holiday break, Vipin contributed a new post to the Strategic Stability Substack (I know, two in one year, how can he keep up this lightning pace) titled “Four Shibboleths of Nuclear Strategy.” In the post, Vipin asks whether we should take for granted four strong, consistent ideas that appear in nuclear policy debates: (1) strategic stability is “good,” (2) arms races are “bad,” (3) escalation is uncontrollable, and (4) deterrence is the threat that leaves something to chance (trying to surmise what Schelling really meant). This post highlighted some important questions about how we discuss nuclear policy: do the terms we use still hold the same relevance today as they did when they were first created, do we even operate from the same definitions as one another, and how have changes in the world changed how we think about policy underlying these principles? And to demonstrate how good of a sport he truly is, Vipin not only brought a new senior fellow on board at MIT’s Center for Nuclear Security Policy, but one who immediately wrote a substack post in response to Vipin’s “Four Shibboleths.” Matthew Sharp joins the group following a long career in government, with stops at the Department of State, NSC, and U.S. Mission to Vienna where he worked on IAEA issues. Matthew described the journey his brain took as he thought about Vipin’s post, elaborating on how he thinks about the risk of increased numbers via either horizontal or vertical proliferation, and shares his own view of the importance of strategic stability as a goal, and valuable if thought of as reaching a stable equilibrium. We saved a little time to talk about South Korea’s interest in nuclear submarines - what operational value nuclear-powered submarines can provide, and what kinds of activities South Korea may need to begin in cooperation with the IAEA, drawing upon Matthew’s past experience working on AUKUS implementation. We spent our last few minutes tackling a mailbag/chat question regarding the science behind nuclear winter and its place in nuclear policy discussions and international debate. Things to read: Sharon Squassoni in The Bulletin: “How nuclear submarines could pave the way for nuclear weapons in South Korea“ Brent Sadler for Heritage: “The Optimum Pathway for Building Nuclear Submarines With South Korea and Japan” James Scouras, Lauren Ice, Megan Proper at JHU/APL: “Whatever Happened to Nuclear Winter?” Strategic Simplicity is an independent publication. The views expressed in articles and podcasts belong to the participants only, and do not represent the United States government, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or any other institution. Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    1h 6m

  6. 12/23/2025

    Retrench, Defend, Compete - Charlie Glaser's new book on U.S.-China relations and each country's interests in Taiwan

    Charlie Glaser joins the podcast to discuss his new book, “Retrench, Defend, Compete: Securing America’s Future Against a Rising China.” We talked about his recommendations for U.S.-China policy, including his case for ending U.S. security commitments to Taiwan (though not ending peacetime security assistance) to reduce the potential for a destructive war with China, while strengthening it’s relationships with South Korean and Japan to deter Chinese aggression against the formal U.S. allies. Naturally, we discuss nuclear strategy, the balance of U.S. and PRC interests in the region, and Charlie’s motivations for writing this book (and advice for others thinking about how to contribute to ongoing debates over China security policy). See the Cornell Press summary for Charlie’s book here. Strategic Simplicity is an independent publication. The views expressed in articles and podcasts belong to the participants only, and do not represent the United States government, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, or any other institution. Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    1h 9m

  7. 12/12/2025

    Introducing the 2025 Project Atom Report with Heather Williams

    Heather and I discussed the 2025 CSIS PONI Project Atom Report, entitled “Escalation Management in Acute and Protracted Conflicts in the Indo-Pacific.“ Project Atom brings several authors together to propose alternative strategies for managing escalation with China. Authors provided submissions examining diplomatic risk management, conventional deterrence, regional nuclear deterrence, allies perspectives, and political stakes in a U.S.-China conflict. We veered into a wider discussion of nuclear dynamics between the United States and China, where the report submissions touched on regional nuclear capabilities which may be important for U.S. escalation management approaches, and how this could all play in NPT diplomacy. The entire report is well worth your time. Take a look here: * 2025 Project Atom report. You can also watch the launch event from this past week on the CSIS website. We’ll be back next week with an episode introducing Charlie Glaser’s new book, “Retrench, Defend, Compete.“ Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    1h 6m

  8. 12/06/2025

    Tong Zhao helps unpack China's new arms control white paper

    I was really lucky to have Tong Zhao, a Senior Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace, spend his late Friday afternoon with me to walk through the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs new white paper on arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation. Our discussion spanned nuclear doctrine, posture shifts, multilateral arms control, and advice for early career professionals interested in U.S.-China nuclear dynamics. We discuss some of the key terms of art that appear in the document and what they may mean in the contexts of China’s transforming nuclear arsenal: ‘strike only after being struck first,’ ‘rapid response,’ ‘lean and effective,’ and ‘strategic early warning.’ Tong also helps explain the difference between ‘no first use’ and no ‘threat’ of first use - the latter being absent from China’s NFU policy and relevant to the future attempts to deter non-nuclear attacks (or, depending on your perspective in a conflict, coerce adversaries). We discuss the permanence, or lack thereof, of NFU in the midst of a crisis. Tong lists several questions experts and policy makers should make to gain greater clarification from Chinese interlocutors on China’s nuclear policies. Tong describes China’s confidence in a more “ideal” deterrence strategy, buoyed by confidence in its conventional military advantage in theater as well as broader, favorable shifts in the geopolitical balance of power including a reduced U.S. prioritization of ideological confrontation, and why that may mean China doesn’t feel much pressure to reach nuclear parity with the United States, which does and will maintain a stronger nuclear arsenal. Unfortunately, a dynamic where PRC leadership feels they’re achieving military advantage aims also alleviates any pressure to engage in constructive arms control discussions with the United States. Finally, we touch on China’s behavior and priorities in multilateral arms control fora and Tong provides advice for new professionals interested in building expertise as a practitioner or researcher in U.S.-China strategic relations and arms control. There is a lot left to cover in this white paper, but hopefully this episode serves as a primer on the core nuclear policy elements. Show notes: Here are a few documents, projects, or topics we discussed during the podcast. * Brookings Analysis of the CCP Fourth Party Plenum, 15th Five Year Plan * Arms Control Association “The Potential of the P5 Process.” Former Acting Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, Tom Countryman. * Carnegie Endowment “Miniaturization and Modernization: The Untold Story of China’s Nuclear Weapons.” Tong is hosting Dr. Hui Zhang to discuss his new book on China’s nuclear warhead development at an event on Tuesday, December 9 at 10:00 AM EST. Register here. * Foreign Policy. “Is China Changing its Nuclear Launch Strategy?” Tong Zhao. Intro/outro music licensed by Soundstripe: “The Iron Curtain” by Wicked Cinema. Recording and edits through Riverside.fm. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com

    1h 4m
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5
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9 Ratings

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Trying to explain new and old, arcane and obscure international security issues in a conversational format. strategicsimplicity.substack.com

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