One of the most rewarding aspects of government service is the opportunity to meet amazing, highly qualified and well-respected experts and leaders, and work alongside them in some of the most stressful circumstances. Celeste Wallander is one of those expert-leaders to these three nuclear musketeers (Team Title WIP, and no, this isn’t a new nuclear weapon idea that Austin came up with.). She is currently the Executive Director of Penn Washington, the University of Pennsylvania’s office in Washington D.C. Prior to that, she served in multiple roles in government at the Department of Defense and White House, including most recently as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs and a stint as Senior Director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Security Council under President Obama.

We tried to cover recent news on the Russia and Europe front in this episode, starting with drone/aircraft incursions into NATO member airspace, President Trump’s comments at the United Nations General Assembly this week regarding Ukraine’s ability to win…

Trump, in major shift, suggests Ukraine can win back territory long held by Russia

…and European leaders reaction to those remarks:

Top EU diplomat warns Trump that Europe can’t shoulder Ukraine war burden alone

Tusk issues stark reality check about Trump’s pro-Ukraine pivot

We close our planned discussion with a conversation about President Zelensky’s statement that “the world was living through the most destructive arms race in human history” and stakes of various parties in the Ukraine conflict.

We save a few minutes at the end to talk about Putin’s recent offer regarding New START, which I wrote about here earlier this week. I also want to offer perspectives other than my own, provided by friends in the nuclear community, which you should also read:

Jon Wolfsthal: “Why President Trump should put off the new nuclear arms race for one more year“ The Bulletin.

Matt Bunn: “Putin just gave Trump the opportunity to maintain nuclear restraint. Will he seize it?“ The Bulletin.

Austin Long: “No Zombie Nuclear Treaties.” Strategic Simplicity.

Hope you enjoy the podcast and have a joyous weekend. We’ll be back next week with 2 episodes.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit strategicsimplicity.substack.com