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Author

Jon Wolfsthal

Jon Wolfsthal is the U.S. nuclear policy fellow at Pax Sapiens, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for New American Security, and a former senior director at the National Security Council.

All Articles

July 22, 2026

Trump’s Nuclear Deal With Saudi Arabia Looks More Like a Favor

The agreement includes a number of worrying U.S. concessions, raising concerns that Saudi Arabia is taking advantage of its close financial ties to the Trump family.

February 28, 2026

Trump Just Made the World Much More Dangerous

By waging war on Iran, the president is making it more likely that other countries develop nuclear weapons—to protect themselves from the U.S.

October 11, 2022

We Never Learned the Key Lesson From the Cuban Missile Crisis

Putin says he’ll do whatever it takes in Ukraine. Biden is warning of “Armageddon.” Sixty years after the U.S.–Soviet standoff over Cuba, why is nuclear war still an ever-present worry?

July 2, 2019

Is Anyone Surprised Iran Has Returned to Enrichment?

The predictable result of the Trump administration's incoherent foreign policy

June 12, 2018

What Just Happened?

No, really: Does anyone know what the agreement Trump just signed in Singapore is supposed to mean?

May 24, 2018

Trump Plays Hard to Get

This is probably not the end of North Korea nuclear talks.

May 8, 2018

Anatomy of a Lousy Decision

Here's exactly what the U.S. loses as Trump scraps the Iran nuclear deal.

April 21, 2018

If It Seems Too Good to Be True...

North Korea's announcement that it will be shutting down its nuclear tests is great news. But there's one giant caveat here.

December 14, 2017

How Trump is increasing the risk of nuclear war