Icepicks and Nukes

David de Sola is a journalist and graduate student based in Washington D.C. where he is pursuing an M.A. in Security Studies at Georgetown University. He has covered local, U.S. and international news, ranging from the 2004 presidential election to the CIA leak investigation to the tenth anniversary of the Hong Kong handover to WikiLeaks. He has worked at CNN, 60 Minutes and Reuters, and been published in the Huffington Post and The Atlantic. Originally from El Salvador, he has a B.A. in history from Tufts University and a M.A. in journalism from the University of Southern California.

Disclaimer: Any opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not reflect those of his current or former employers, or of any other institution or organization he may have been affiliated with in the past or at present. Retweets on the Twitter account do not constitute or imply an endorsement of the views expressed in said tweet.

What does the name “Icepicks and Nukes” mean? Where does it come from?
The name is based on the following quote by economist Thomas Schelling, taken from his seminal work “Arms and Influence”:

“Against defenseless people there is not much that
nuclear weapons can do that cannot be done with an ice pick.”