International Security & Defense

154 Items

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla, speaks during roundtable discussion

AP/Marta Lavandier

Analysis & Opinions - The Conversation

A US Ambassador Working for Cuba? Charges Against Former Diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha Spotlight Havana's Importance in the World of Spying

| Dec. 15, 2023

Calder Walton writes that if proved, Victor Manuel Rocha's espionage would place him among the longest-serving spies in modern times. Allowing him to operate as a spy in the senior echelons of the U.S. government for so long would represent a staggering U.S. security failure.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, center right, and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabollahian, left, attend a joint news conference

Yury Kochetkov/Pool Photo via AP

Policy Brief - European Council on Foreign Relations

Alone Together: How the War in Ukraine Shapes the Russian-Iranian Relationship

| Sep. 06, 2023

This policy brief explains how Russia and Iran have sought to upgrade their partnership through greater diplomatic support for pushing back on Western hegemony, mutual provision of key weapons systems, and sharing of expertise on evading sanctions.

Vladimir Putin

Wikimedia CC/Kremlin.ru

Audio - Today Explained

The New Cold War

| Sep. 05, 2023

The Cold War started earlier than we think — and maybe never ended at all. Historian Calder Walton says understanding the US-Soviet conflict prepares us for this era of tensions with Russia and China.

"Fat Man" nuclear bomb

AP, File

Analysis & Opinions - The Conversation

How the Soviets Stole Nuclear Secrets and Targeted Oppenheimer, the 'Father of the Atomic Bomb'

| July 24, 2023

Calder Walton writes that Soviet espionage inside the Manhattan Project would change history. By the end of World War II, Stalin's spies had delivered the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Kremlin. This accelerated Moscow's bomb project. When the Soviets detonated their first atomic weapon in August 1949, it was a replica of the weapon built at Los Alamos and dropped by the Americans on Nagasaki.