Monday, August 3, 2026 Strategy, technology, media, and social systems

I Think

Sorin Adam Matei

Analysis, research, maps, and essays from Sorin Adam Matei.

Pakistan – “The Ally From Hell” – moves nuclear warheads in unmarked vans, exposes them to jihadi highjack (Atlantic Monthly article)

The coat of arms of Pakistan displays the nati...
Pakistani coat of arms Image via Wikipedia

The Altantic Monthly publishes a terrifyingly insightful article about Pakistan’s nuclear shell game. According to it,  what keeps the Pakistani leaders up at night  is a highly unlikely US air strike, not a predictable (by past incidents) Jihadi suicide rush on the Pakistani nuclear capabilities. To avoid the remote possibility of a US attack, Pakistanis keep moving their warheads around the country. To make triple sure that the US spies never know when and how this is happening, transportation is done by unmarked, ordinary vans with light protection. In doing so, the Pakistani leadership ignores the very real possibility that one of the many fundamentalist organizations that plague the largest and only Muslim nuclear power might get wind of such a foolish move and seize the opportunity and the quarry. In other words words:

[T]he Pakistani government is willing to make its nuclear weapons more vulnerable to theft by jihadists simply to hide them from the United States, the country that funds much of its military budget.

Via www.theatlantic.com

NPR nterview with Jeffrey Goldberg about Pakistan’s nuclear shell game

Join the discussion

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *