Abstract
In this chapter, Thomas MacManus provides an examination of nuclear weapons in the age of Donald Trump. Through examining Trump’s reckless language and dangerous nuclear posturing toward North Korea, MacManus questions the legality of these threats as codified in international law. Moreover, MacManus discusses the legal mechanisms in the USA that provide a modicum of constraint for the deployment of nuclear weapons by the Trump regime.
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Notes
- 1.
Screenshot available with Author.
- 2.
Merriam-Webster (undated) The Real Story of ‘Fake News’, undated, https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/the-real-story-of-fake-news.
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‘Grave breaches’ of the Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocol I.
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Tactical weapons are used on the battlefield to kill enemy soldiers and destroy enemy assets.
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“Force without War” is the title of a 1978 Brookings Institution Press book by Barry Blechman and Stephen S. Kaplan.
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Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.
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See “Presidential Actions” on Whitehouse website, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/.
- 8.
Interviewed by Christopher Wallace on Fox News Sunday, recorded at Trump Tower, NYC Friday, April 1, 2016. Broadcast Sunday, April 3, 2016 (referred to in Yuhas 2016).
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A triad (3) of nuclear weapon systems on land (intercontinental ballistic missiles), sea (submarine-launched ballistic missiles), and air (nuclear-capable heavy bombers).
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Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (UK, 1964) Director: Stanley Kubrick.
- 11.
For the sake of clarity, it should be noted that the meeting concerned opioids and not that the president was on opioids (as far as the Author is aware).
- 12.
The “Martens Clause” (extract), which was first included in the Hague Convention II with Respect to the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1899. A modern version can be found in Article 1, paragraph 2, of the 1977 Additional Protocol (I) to the Geneva Conventions (1949).
- 13.
Letter dated June 20, 1995, from the Acting Legal Adviser to the Department of State, together with Written Statement of the Government of the United States of America, p. 2, http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/95/8700.pdf.
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“A rifle may be lawfully aimed at the enemy or it may be employed indiscriminately against civilians and soldiers alike. Bombs may be aimed at specific military targets or thrown at random. The indiscriminate use of the weapon will be prohibited, not the weapon as such” (Blix 1988).
- 15.
Letter dated June 19, 1995, from the Ambassador of the Russian Federation, together with Written Comments of the Government of the Russian Federation, at p. 5, http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/95/8796.pdf.
- 16.
Letter dated May 18, 1995, from the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Permanent Mission to the United Nations, at p. 1, http://www.icj-cij.org/files/case-related/95/8668.pdf.
- 17.
While running for re-election, the president made this “joke” while doing a sound check prior to his weekly radio address. For the audio file, see http://www.npr.org/news/specials/obits/reagan/audio_archive.html.
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- 22.
United Nations Security Council Meeting no. 474. Resolution Code: S/1511 (Document) Subject: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea. UNSC, June 27, 1950. https://undocs.org/S/RES/83(1950).
- 23.
2018 Gridiron Club and Foundation Dinner at Renaissance Washington Hotel on Saturday, 3 March, quoted here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2018/03/04/at-a-white-tie-media-dinner-president-trump-tries-joking-i-like-chaos/.
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MacManus, T. (2019). Trump and Nuclear Weapons. In: Kowalski, J. (eds) Reading Donald Trump. The Evolving American Presidency. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93179-1_9
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