A New Mutually Assured Destruction

Deterrence is different this time around.

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To whatever extent the U.S. and China are truly sliding toward a zero-sum Cold War-type rivalry, Beijing appears to be game at least for a good old-fashioned nuclear arms race. In July, satellite imagery analysis produced by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies appeared to show the construction of at least 120 new nuclear silos […]

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Phillip Orchard
Phillip Orchard is an analyst at Geopolitical Futures. Prior to joining the company, Mr. Orchard spent nearly six years at Stratfor, working as an editor and writing about East Asian geopolitics. He’s spent more than six years abroad, primarily in Southeast Asia and Latin America, where he’s had formative, immersive experiences with the problems arising from mass political upheaval, civil conflict and human migration. Mr. Orchard holds a master’s degree in Security, Law and Diplomacy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, where he focused on energy and national security, Chinese foreign policy, intelligence analysis, and institutional pathologies. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas. He speaks Spanish and some Thai and Lao.