To hear the full audio, click here and the video below.

Mr. Walter Pincus, national security reporter for The Washington Post, joined the American Security Project‘s Senior Adjunct Fellow, Frank Lowenstein, for an “in conversation” discussion. Mr Pincus spoke and answered questions on a range of subjects including: nuclear weapons, the media, the future of newspapers, politics today and politics of national security.

Mr. Pincus spoke on a wide variety of topics, the Iranian nuclear program, the state of politics in government, the future of print journalism, and nuclear weapons.

Excerpt Video:

On Iran, Mr. Pincus first stated that given the current state of politics in the United States, no agreement can be made before this year’s presidential elections, and any agreement will be viewed as a failure by the opposition to the President.

Second, the United States and Iran have to get something out of any future settlement. There cannot be a “win-lose agreement”, it must be “win-win”.

Negotiations will be difficult, Mr. Pincus continued, because the United States spent 10 years saying we are interested in regime change and the fact that the United States has a history of regime change in Iran.

Mr. Pincus concluded that because of politics, small confidence building measures will need to be pursued but the longer it takes the more the opposition will argue policy towards Iran is failing.

On politics, Mr. Pincus said, “our politics are as bad as I have ever seen,” and that this is a new era in government where PR, rather than policy, is more important.  Looking back, Mr. Pincus, discussed how Senators have transitioned from viewing themselves as Senators first and party members second, and looking at themselves as party members first and Senators second.

On the congressional oversight committees, Mr. Pincus believes that they have become political vehicles to “investigate what suits your party.”

Print journalism will survive, Mr. Pincus noted.

At The Washington Post there are more journalists and less space than there was during his early years at the newspaper.  While newspapers will survive, the central question is will the real, careful readership going to survive.  Another question revolving around journalism in this new era is how much does the public absorb, can understand the issues, and what people are saying about them.

Concluding the Q+A session, Mr. Pincus stated that while the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons is admirable, it will not become a reality and the United States will have nuclear weapons far into the future.

Nuclear weapons are not a useful offensive weapon and can only be used as a shield.

The United States’ nuclear posture is always going to be slightly overdone until a powerful president will be able to make real changes in the defense budget.

For the full audio of Mr. Pincus’s talk and Q+A, click here.

See below for the full video:

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