July 17—On April 22, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned in her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that Pakistan was in danger of falling into terrorist hands: “I think that we cannot underscore enough the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by continuing advances, now within hours of Islamabad, that are being made by a loosely confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state, a nuclear-armed state.” 

One year later, while the Obama Administration continued its mindless Afgha [ … ]

At the time this report is being written, the crisis in Kyrgyzstan, in the heart of Central Asia, remains full-blown.  Although the first fury of violence that engulfed southern Kyrgyzstan in mid-June — leaving behind as many as 2,000 dead and forcing at least 100,000 ethnic Uzbeks to flee to bordering Uzbekistan — is over, major cities in the Kyrgyz part of the Ferghana Valley have not yet returned to normal, and the forces involved in orchestrating the violence are still very active.

The riot that broke out on June 10 in Osh was neither spontaneous nor ethnic by nature. The crim [ … ]

(Translated from Russian to English) 

I. GENERAL

1. Military doctrine of the Russian Federation (hereinafter - the Military Doctrine) is a major strategic planning documents of the Russian Federation and is a system officially adopted by the State of views on preparations for the armed defense and armed protection of the Russian Federation.

2. The Military Doctrine captures the main provisions of the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation in 2000, the Concept of long-term socio-economic development o [ … ]

Throughout this week Christchurch is hosting a meeting of a little known entity called the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). As many as 46 states will be represented at the meeting, which will be chaired by the New Zealand government, in response to a personal invitation from President Obama to Prime Minister John Key.

The NSG was established by the US government in 1974, in response to India’s detonation of a nuclear device, with the stated aim of ensuring “that nuclear trade for peaceful purposes does not contribu [ … ]

Less than three months ago,  Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Commander, International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and Commander, U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A), unleashed amidst loud drumbeats the Operation Moshtarak.  It was identified as the biggest battle of the eight-year war in the town of Marja situated in the Nad Ali district of Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. Highly impressionable foreign media persons said out loud that its outcome will reveal the chances of "success" for President Obama's revamped Afghan strategy. Three months since, little is heard of Operation [ … ]

In a recent article that I wrote, “British Petroleum, Imagination and Nuclear Catastrophe,” I argued we should use the occasion of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to imagine scenarios in which a nuclear catastrophe could take place.  The reason for imagining such scenarios should be obvious: to keep them from occurring. 

Here is a proposition: Continued offshore oil drilling runs the risk of future offshore oil leak catastrophes that will destroy large aquatic and shoreline habitats.  Applied to nuclear weapons, the proposition could be restated in this way: Continued rel [ … ]

Before the catastrophic British Petroleum oil gush in the Gulf of Mexico, there were environmentalists who warned that offshore drilling was fraught with risk - risk of exactly the type of environmental damage that is occurring. They were mocked by people who chanted slogans such as "Drill, baby, drill." Now it is clear that the "Drill, baby, drill" crowd was foolish and greedy. The economic wellbeing of people in and around the Gulf coast has been badly damaged and, for some, destroyed altogether. Aquatic and estuary life, in the Gulf and beyond, has fallen victim to an environmental disaste [ … ]

John Hallam

I attended the 2010 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty for the second week (May9-16) of the four - week review, having attended the 2008 Preparatory Committee, in Geneva, and the 2009 Preparatory Committee meeting in New York (which I attended as an NGO adviser to the Australian Government diplomatic team together with Prof. Tilman Ruff of ICAN). For the first week, and for the last two weeks of the conference I have therefore relied on the irreplaceable work  done by R [ … ]

After months of expected   violent confrontation between the  supporters of pro- former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a ‘coup”  in 2006 organized  by those who look after the Thai monarchy and belong to what is known as the Privy Council , and the  backers of the King’s keepers, erupted into a major conflict on May 19 when  hundreds of troops belonging to the Thai Army moved in to disperse  the protestors from an almost 3 square kilometer area in a busy business area of Bangkok using firepower. The protest [ … ]

By Michael Krepon

On July 18, 2005, President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stood on the White House grounds to announce their intention to implement a civil nuclear cooperation agreement.  To do so would require overcoming significant political obstacles in both countries and engineering major changes in the international rules of nuclear commerce.  President Bush accepted these challenges, noting that, "as a responsible state with advanced nuclear technology, India should acquire the same benefits and advantages as other such states."  For his part, Prime Minister Manmohan [ … ]