In The News

Sting Reveals Security Gap at Nuclear Agency

Kathleen Day July 21, 2007
Protecting nuclear materials is a challenging task even for the most security-conscious of nations. Investigators from the US Government Accountability Office managed to avoid scrutiny by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and purchase moisture-density gauges that contain radioactive materials. Counterfeit licenses allowed investigators to purchase unlimited amounts of radioactive material...

Japan's Nuclear Accident Should Prompt Review

July 21, 2007
A 6.8-magnitude earthquake damaged a Japanese nuclear power plant, and reports of leaks could slow the rush to develop nuclear-power sources around the world. Many governments plan some nuclear capability as a substitute for declining oil supplies. “Accidents of the kind that occurred in Japan are all too likely to take place in Iran, which has seen seven major earthquakes in as many years and is...

The Middle East’s Five Crises

Joris Voorhoeve July 16, 2007
The unrest in the Middle East may seem overwhelming, but the key to stability rests in five areas, according to Joris Voorhoeve, former defense minister for the Netherlands – the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and the overall conflict between extremists and the government. Practical solutions are possible for each area: With Iraq troubled by...

Immigration, Populations, Climate Change, Ideologies

J. Russell Tyldesley July 6, 2007
Conflict over immigration, economic growth, climate change, territorial claims, limited energy or water supplies all increase as the world grows more crowded. Such conflicts would be easier to resolve if population growth slowed, argues J. Russell Tyldesley. The world’s population now stands at more than 6.5 billion, as compared with 1.5 billion in 1900, 2.5 billion in 1950, with more than 9...

Doctors Who Kill

Regina Dwyer July 6, 2007
As reports emerge about physicians accused of planting and setting car bombs in the UK, the world grapples for reasons why. Doctors are only human, writes Regina Dwyer, a retired physician, in an essay for the International Herald Tribune. She suggests that a physician intent on terrorism could find rationalizations with the concept of triage, comfort with death and even the situational nature of...

The Rising and Falling Power of Hydrocarbon States

Dilip Hiro July 3, 2007
The global economy runs on oil. Unequal distribution of oil throughout the world bestows power on the few states with ample supplies. Venezuela is one example of a nation that uses oil as leverage in foreign affairs: Besides consolidating his popular base at home, President Hugo Chavez has helped debt-ridden countries in that region, openly mocks the US and signed an arms-procurement deal with...

Brilliant Student, Doctor – and Now a Terror Suspect

Ian Herbert July 3, 2007
Physicians worldwide have long shared the motto, “First, do no harm.” Reports suggesting that the suspects in failed car bombings throughout the UK are physicians from the Middle East, Australia and India are unsettling – and make the job of combating terrorism all that more difficult. Analysts have long assumed that soft-power tools, education and economic development, take time, but worked...