John Mecklin
BulletinOfTheAtomic
Santa Barbara, CA, United States
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Past articles by John:
Interview: Steve Fetter on the meaning of Putin's New START announcement
For perspective on what the suspension of Russian participation in the New START arms control agreement does and doesn’t mean for US-Russia relations, Bulletin editor in chief John Mecklin spoke with University of Maryland policy expert Steve Fetter. → Read More
Mikhail Gorbachev, in his words and the words of others
On the death of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, here are links to Bulletin articles—written by Gorbachev and others—that hint at the enormity of the change he and US counterparts brought to international relations as the Cold War ended and the world seemed, suddenly, far safer than it had been. At least for a while. → Read More
The Diablo Canyon nuclear plant: assessing the seismic risks of extended operation
If California decides to support license renewal of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, a portion of the “transition costs” that the Energy Department and the state may provide to keep the plant operating should be allocated to reducing its vulnerability to earthquakes. The risk is not negligible, and the potential costs of an earthquake-induced accident could, by our estimate, cause more… → Read More
Searching for the meaning of the search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
In an unprecedented turn, FBI agents seized 11 caches of classified documents—some of them at extremely high levels of classification—from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. A federal court unsealed a search warrant and related documents on Friday indicating that the search of Mar-a-Lago was predicated on the possibility that three laws had been violated: the Espionage… → Read More
Rockets fired at Ukrainian nuclear power plant; Ukraine and Russia blame each other
Ukraine claimed that Russia had fired rockets on Saturday at a spent fuel storage area at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, risking what the country’s nuclear power company called a “nuclear disaster.” A Russian official claimed the attack had come from Ukraine. → Read More
This is an official New York City video about how to survive a nuclear attack. Please do not freak out.
New York City's new public service announcement on nuclear preparedness raised and in some cases singed eyebrows across the media ecosphere. But the video PSA is actually pretty matter of fact, telling New Yorkers the three things they should do in case of nuclear attack: get inside, stay inside, and stay tuned to media and governmental updates. → Read More
Good, bad, ugly, relieved: Reactions to the Supreme Court decision on the EPA and climate change
The future of US efforts to fight climate change was clouded significantly Thursday when the US Supreme Court ruled to limit the EPA’s powers to broadly regulate power plant greenhouse gas emissions. The country’s political divisions were reflected in reactions to the 6-3 decision, Republicans praising it, sometimes in fulsome terms, and many quarters on the political left decrying it. → Read More
Siegfried Hecker: Putin has destroyed the world nuclear order. How should the democracies respond?
In this interview, renowned nuclear security and policy expert Sig Hecker explains the enormous damage that Russian President Vladimir Putin has done to the world nuclear order via his decision to invade Ukraine. That decision marks, Hecker contends, a turning point in world nuclear affairs as momentous as the dissolution of the Soviet Union. → Read More
Introduction: How to dial back a disinformation dystopia
In this introduction to the May 2021 issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, editor in chief John Mecklin asked a range of experts for their thoughts on how to begin to limit the worst effects of internet-based mis- and disinformation on public discourse and public policy. → Read More
An intelligence forecast and the Doomsday Clock coincide. For better or worse.
The overall thrust of the “Global Trends” report echoes with rather remarkable fidelity what the Bulletin's Science and Security Board wrote in January: “Given the pandemic experience, no one can reasonably say he or she was not warned.... It is time for all to take the actions needed to—quite literally—save the world." → Read More
How Earth Day began and why it still matters, in seven minutes
A short film by the Outrider Foundation is a pretty good Wayback Machine for reliving the founding ethos of the Earth Day movement and explaining why the movement remains relevant current-day climate change activists. → Read More
Coronavirus overview: How political ideology and governmental incompetence can kill you
America First and its Russian and Chinese analogs may be temporarily profitable in terms of domestic political benefit for sloganeering national leaders. As the coronavirus pandemic is making clear, however, nationalistic ideologies can be dangerous to human health, sometimes on a vast scale. → Read More
Nuclear science reveals sobering truth about faked Scotch whisky
Scientists with only the pursuit of truth in mind have proven—through meticulous radio-carbon dating and no tasting at all—that half the bottles of expensive aged Scotch whisky they tested weren’t as old as purported. → Read More
Calming the Persian Gulf: The experts on resolving the US-Iran standoff
Top experts from a variety of countries and with a variety of points of view offer their best and most realistic advice on how the US-Iran impasse might be broken, so a war that neither the United States nor Iran seems eager to begin can be averted. → Read More
Calming the Persian Gulf: The experts on resolving the US-Iran standoff
Top experts from a variety of countries and with a variety of points of view offer their best and most realistic advice on how the US-Iran impasse might be broken, so a war that neither the United States nor Iran seems eager to begin can be averted. → Read More
An existential threat scorecard for the Democratic presidential debates
The first Democratic debates of the 2020 US presidential race are upon us. Don't watch without our existential threat debate scorecard, so you can keep track of who does and doesn’t want to talk about the most daunting dangers the next president and the world will face. → Read More
The 10-minute interview: Ariane Tabatabai on tensions over the embattled Iran nuclear deal
A short interview with Bulletin columnist and Rand Corporation Iran expert Ariane Tabatabai about the meaning of Iranian President Rouhani’s announcement that his country would stop complying with some elements of the Iran nuclear agreement. → Read More
Anniversary of a new Armageddon
It’s a new year, and a new situation on the Korea Peninsula. Now, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has just finished a visit in China with that country’s leaders, apparently in anticipation of a second “summit” with the United States’ Donald Trump. The North and South Koreans continue to negotiate toward better relations. And neither Trump … Continued → Read More
Jon Wolfsthal on the link between nuclear strategy and the nuclear modernization budget
In this interview with Bulletin editor-in-chief John Mecklin, nuclear arms control and nonproliferation expert Jon Wolfsthal provides his wide-ranging views on how the new Congress might deal with US plans for a $1 trillion-plus modernization of its nuclear arsenal. → Read More
The Khashoggi murder raises questions about a Saudi Bomb
In a story that migrated off the New York Times’ home page far too quickly, David Sanger and William Broad asked a searingly important question that has yet to seize the world imagination: Can Saudi Arabian leaders be trusted with the means to create nuclear weapons? → Read More