Louis René Beres
Where Are We Heading?: Journeys from “First Man” to the “Last”
“The dust from which the first man was created was gathered in all four corners of the earth.”
– Talmud
Reforming International Law
In the midst of Russia’s escalating crimes against Ukraine, the United States and other nations have one...
Capping Existential Nuclear Crisis In Ukraine
US President Joe Biden has been criticized for opposing a no-fly-zone over Ukraine. Though decent people everywhere are horrified by the mounting war crimes being committed by Russian President Vladimir Putin – crimes of...
Israeli Nuclear Deterrence Against Broad Spectrum Attacks: Strategic and Legal Considerations
“Deterrence is not just a matter of military capabilities. It has a great deal to do with perceptions of credibility.”
– Herman Kahn, Thinking About the Unthinkable in the 1980s (1984)
Abstract: Theoretic assessments of Israel’s nuclear strategy –...
“The Worst Does Sometime Happen”: Avoiding a Nuclear War Over Ukraine
Abstract: Earlier, as part of Russia’s escalating aggression against Ukraine – an aggression that now includes armed attack on a nuclear power plant – President Vladimir Putin placed his nuclear forces on high alert. Correspondingly, the United States should...
Folly Redux?: The Deeper Meanings of a Second Trump Presidency
Credo quia absurdum. “I believe because it is absurd.”
-Tertullian
Macrocosm and Microcosm
One thing is certain. If Donald J. Trump should decide to run again, various condemnations and justifications would instantly spring forth from absolutely every...
Preventing Nuclear War in the Middle East: Science, System and “Vision”
“A scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts forward statements, or systems of statements, and tests them step by step.”-Karl R. Popper -The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959)
For the moment, informed global concerns about nuclear war avoidance...
International Law in the “State of Nature”: A Contradiction in Terms
“Where there is no Common Power, there is no Law….”
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, Chapter XIII
The “State of Nature” as “State of War”
From its modern beginnings in the seventeenth century – more precisely, since the Peace of Westphalia in...
Perils of Belligerent Nationalism: The Urgent Obligations of Planetary Community
“…the worst are full of passionate intensity, while the best lack all conviction.”-William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
By definition, former President Donald J. Trump’s doctrinal emphasis on “America First” signified a rejection of human community...
Avoiding Nuclear War in the “State of Nature”: America’s Responsibility
“So the nature of war consists not in actual fighting, but in the known disposition thereto, during all the time there is no assurance to the contrary.”-Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, 1651
The “time” to which the seventeenth century...
Existential Perils From Iran: Israel’s Options in Law and Strategy
Abstract: Eleventh-hour diplomacy notwithstanding, few tangible barriers remain in the way of an Iranian nuclear capability. If Israel should decide that it no longer maintains any reasonable self-defense alternative to launching selective military attacks against...