In The News

A Silver Lining to the US-India Nuclear Deal

Pavel Podvig October 21, 2008
India conducted nuclear research outside the limits of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and analysts disagree whether a deal between the US and India, allowing for trade and cooperation on civilian nuclear materials, hampers or strengthens that international treaty. “Without a doubt, the U.S.-India nuclear deal presents a serious challenge to the NPT,” writes physicist...

North Korea: Life After Kim

Shim Jae Hoon September 26, 2008
Uncertainty and infighting await nations that lack a strategy for leadership succession. The Kim family has ruled North Korea since it declared independence in 1948, but Kim Jong Il has not groomed his children for leadership. So speculation centers on them along with Kim’s fourth wife, Kim Ok, who visited Washington during the waning days of the Clinton administration. Analysts anticipate an...

Time to Strengthen the IAEA

Ernesto Zedillo August 7, 2008
The International Atomic Energy Agency established an 18-member commission chaired by Ernesto Zedillo, director of the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization, to reflect on how the nuclear future might unfold, what the world is likely to demand of the IAEA, and what steps must be taken to allow the agency to fill those needs. The result of the commission’s deliberation was presented to the...

Revisiting the “Axis of Evil” – Part III

Shen Dingli August 5, 2008
For more than a half a century, nuclear powers have built enormous stockpiles of weapons in the hope that it would deter military challenges. The same nations have also strenuously tried to prevent others from breaking into the five-member club of nuclear-weapons power. This three-part series examines the US effort at containing three suspected aspirants, called the “Axis of Evil” by President...

Revisiting the “Axis of Evil” – Part II

Scott Snyder July 31, 2008
North Korea was a thorn in the side of the US long before President George Bush labeled the nation as a member of an “axis of evil,” along with Iraq and Iran, in his January 2002 State of the Union address. This three-part series analyzes the US approach to Iran and North Korea, and in the second article, Asia analyst Scott Snyder reviews the history of North Korea’s antics and crises since 1992...

Revisiting the “Axis of Evil” – Part I

Dilip Hiro July 29, 2008
In his January 2002 State of the Union address, US President George Bush identified the new enemies of the United States and the world. He pointed to Iraq, Iran and North Korea: “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.” Little more...

Indian Poise

July 24, 2008
India’s coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh survived a crucial vote of confidence – and that paves the way for final approval of a US-India civil nuclear energy pact. The deal – which still requires approval from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nuclear Suppliers Group and US Congress – has raised some concerns, both domestic and among neighbors, about India’s...