In The News

US Takes Place of Saddam as Saudi 'Threat'

Roula Khalaf October 20, 2002
As the US moves toward military action against Iraq, many people in Saudi Arabia are adamantly opposed to Saudi assistance of the US. Dismissing the idea that the US wishes to spread democracy, ordinary Saudis see an anti-Muslim and pro-Israel agenda in America's every move in the region. Indeed, some would rather see a Middle East with Saddam Hussein in power than an American "puppet...

Our Good Friends

October 20, 2002
On October 17, the day that Commander-in-chief of United States central command, Gen Tommy R. Franks, arrived in Islamabad to witness a much-awaited resumption of US-Pakistan joint military exercises, the New York Times quoted US intelligence sources to claim that Pakistan helped North Korea's clandestine nuclear weapon program. Pakistani denial notwithstanding, the story has had a...

A Bombshell That's Actually an Olive Branch

Leon V. Sigal October 18, 2002
North Korea is seeking better relations with its neighbors and the US, not trying to start an international conflict. Although the country has breached the 1994 agreement to end its nuclear weapons program, what North Korean leaders want is more international acceptance. The record on North Korea suggests that Pyongyang will cooperate when the US stays true to its word and will retaliate when...

Urgent Worries About Pakistani Nuclear Material

Nayan Chanda October 18, 2002
Following the North Korean admission that it has a secret nuclear weapons program, analysts are searching for the source of North Korean technological advance. A New York Times report on October 18 ("quoted intelligence sources to say that technology to create weapons-grade uranium, appears to have been part of a barter deal in which North Korea supplied Pakistan with missiles in the late...

N Korea 'Admits' Nuclear Weapons Programme

Andrew Ward October 17, 2002
Confronted with US evidence, North Korea has admitted to developing a nuclear weapons program. The country's admission shows a blatant disregard of a 1994 agreement in which it promised to halt nuclear weapons research, and the issue poses a serious set-back for the global effort to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The admission also sheds doubt on the sincerity of...

The Big Idea: A Doctrine Passes

Jane Mayer October 7, 2002
President George W. Bush's doctrine of preemptive self-defence has got a big thumbs down from an iconic figure of American diplomacy. Commenting on the Bush doctrine in an interview with the New Yorker magazine, George Kennan , the author of the policy of containment and doctrine of deterrence, said "I could see justification only if the absence of it would involve a major and imminent...

The Big Idea: A Doctrine Passes

Jane Mayer October 7, 2002
President George W. Bush's doctrine of preemptive self-defence has got a big thumbs down from an iconic figure of American diplomacy. Commenting on the Bush doctrine in an interview with the New Yorker magazine, George Kennan , the author of the policy of containment and doctrine of deterrence, said "I could see justification only if the absence of it would involve a major and imminent...