The nominee to be John Bolton’s successor as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security is Robert Joseph, formerly Senior Director for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation and Homeland Defense on the National Security Council staff.

Joseph has a chequered hsitory and is a classic Bush appointment, as this article shows:

“In January Joseph faxed a paragraph to CIA official Alan Foley and then hammered out by telephone the now infamous line in the State of the Union address about Iraq trying to acquire uranium from Africa.”

“He was deeply involved in making sure the current Administration withdrew from the Antiballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 with Russia.” (see also John Bolton).

It’ll be interesting to see what developments are made on Joseph’s watch. It’s been little secret that “bunker busters” with low-yield nuclear warheads have been on the agenda for some while now.

And who knows, there might be a chance to test them in the field.