Rapid Fire April 5, 2013: Nuclear Options, from Britain to North Korea

• British Prime Minister David Cameron is not ruling out defense budget cuts after 2015 (video embedded below), but he’s arguing that the country is getting significant equipment upgrades for the money, and that the nuclear deterrent should be preserved. The left-wing Guardian editorializes that as fierce as North Korea’s rhetoric may be, they are not a real threat to the UK and thus Cameron should offer a better rationale to justify Britain’s nuclear capabilities. It’s true today, but the proper time horizon for such decisions is measured in decades, not within this week’s news cycle.

• Peter Hayes and Roger Cavazos at the Nautilus Institute think North Korea can and should be engaged as a rational actor, if only to clarify their intentions. It might turn out to be wishful thinking, but they have a point: just because all parties don’t want to escalate tensions into a war, doesn’t mean events won’t spiral out of control, especially as backing off is hardly a viable option from the American perspective.