# Recent Readings

**[An Old Threat Made New](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2015/04/nuclear_weapons_suddenly_matter_more_than_ever_how_these_weapons_of_mass.html)**

Anne Applebaum argues that though most people don't worry about threat of nuclear war anymore, Russia's nuclear weapons are the reason the West isn't even able to sell Ukraine _defensive_ weapons.

> There is no need to resurrect the Cold War, but the resurrection of the word _deterrence_ might not be such a bad idea, if only to make the madmen think twice before they carry out nuclear exercises or secretly enrich some plutonium. Ninety-nine percent of nuclear strategy is a stupid psychological game, which no one plays with enthusiasm. But if you refuse to play it at all, then you lose.

(I actually think there's a possible world in which a country is an important and significant military force despite having no nuclear weapons, but since this doesn't apply to the actual world, this is a difficult theory to test.)

**[Why I Converted to Islam](http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/3/why-i-converted-to-islam.html)**

"I was born Lew Alcindor. Now I’m Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."

**[Follow the White Ball](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/03/30/follow-the-white-ball)**

"The torments of Ronnie O’Sullivan, snooker’s greatest player."