The DEFCON Warning System™

Ongoing GeoIntel and Analysis in the theater of nuclear war. DEFCON Level assessment issued for public notification. Established 1984.

Russia

China and Russia’s ‘Space War’: Where Is The US?

Space-based threats from China and Russia have grown exponentially in recent years, according to a new report on the issue by the

IAEA chief raises alarm over nuclear safety at Russian-controlled plant in Ukraine

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director-general says the level of safety at Europe’s largest nuclear plant, currently under Russian occupation in Ukraine,

Would Putin’s Russia Really Nuke Ukraine?

n Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine, could he conduct a nuclear strike on a Ukrainian city? Unfortunately, but unquestionably, the

West, Russia mull nuclear steps in a ‘more dangerous’ world

Russia’s assault on Ukraine and its veiled threats of using nuclear arms have policymakers, past and present, thinking the unthinkable: How should

NATO realizing Russia may not stop with Ukraine

Hours after Russian missiles first struck Ukrainian cities on Feb. 24, German naval commander Terje Schmitt-Eliassen received notice to sail five warships

Putin’s Brutal War Shows the Dilemmas of Nuclear Deterrence

Even without having been used yet, nuclear weapons have shaped the war in Ukraine—and its outcomes will shape our views of nuclear

US doesn’t ‘seem prepared’ for possibility that Putin uses nuclear weapons: expert

The United States’ reactionary moves to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine suggest that it does not have an adequate plan in place to

Putin Still a Rational Man Who Won’t Use Nuclear Weapons, Top Experts Say

Despite the prevalence of opinions that Vladimir Putin has lost his mind, nuclear weapons experts continue to see the Russian president as

Stalled and frustrated, Putin will likely ‘double down’ in the coming weeks, CIA says

CIA Director William Burns said Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has fallen far short of Vladimir Putin’s expectations and that he

“I’ve studied the possible trajectories of the Russia-Ukraine war. None are good”

Wars sometimes start easily, but it is a tenet of strategy that they are always unpredictable and extremely hard to end. Putin’s

Russia ‘has gone all in’: Does Putin have a way out of his war in Ukraine?

Ukraine is still standing. That may be a surprise to Russia as its invasion grinds toward a third destructive week. Not only

The Ukraine power plant fire was contained. But nuclear experts fear what’s to come in Russia’s war.

For a small tribe of veteran atomic experts who helped secure the Soviet Union’s nuclear energy and missiles as it started to