In The News

A Global Strategy for Fighting Terrorism

Kofi A. Annan March 15, 2005
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposes a series of five strategies to fight global terror in this article, which is adapted from a public address in Madrid, Spain. The "five D's" include "dissuading" discontented groups from engaging in terrorist tactics; "denying" terrorists the weapons of attack, including nuclear arsenal; "deterring" states from...

Crafting Intelligence: Iraq, North Korea, and the Road to War

Selig Harrison March 8, 2005
As the North Korea nuclear problem continues to unfold, the need for credible intelligence becomes even more urgent. And to avoid another Iraq-type situation – an overextended US military, thousands of deaths, transatlantic ill will – the American public should be wary of the Bush administration's use of intelligence, writes Selig Harrison. According to Harrison, the administration...

China Doubts US Data on North Korean Nuclear Work

Joseph Kahn March 7, 2005
As diplomatic jousting over East Asian security continues, the United States received a public blow from China. Questioning the accuracy of US intelligence on North Korea's nuclear arsenal, a Chinese official essentially communicated Beijing's unwillingness to pressure its neighbor. The Bush administration had appealed previously to China, North Korea's only significant ally, to...

A Question in Blix

Mohamed Sid-Ahmed March 4, 2005
Developed nations no longer monopolize weapons of mass destruction; nor are rogue states the most troubling new nuclear threats. The secrets of producing nuclear weapons have been spilled, and the cost of their production has fallen, making them available to non-state actors – namely, terrorists. Against this backdrop, UN weapons expert Hans Blix answers a difficult question: "Given that...

Japan Dips its Toe in the Taiwan Strait

Wenran Jiang March 2, 2005
China might not be an "outpost of tyranny," but the new Bush foreign policy team again considers the Asian giant a strategic competitor, writes political scientist Wenran Jiang. Concerns over China's military development and heightened aggressiveness towards Taiwan have led the United States to reassess its previous conclusion that China posed no serious threat to the global...

The Rise of a New Axis?

Leonard S. Spector February 11, 2005
North Korea is at it again. On the eve of a new round of diplomatic talks on its troubling nuclear program, Pyongyang has upped the ante: Announcing that it has already manufactured 'nukes,' the government suddenly suspended its participation in negotiations. This revelation comes in the wake of US reports that North Korea secretly shipped nuclear material to Libya, a shipment which...

Pyongyang Damps Hope for Nuclear Deal

Anna Fifield February 11, 2005
By announcing that it has already manufactured nuclear weapons and that it would withdraw from multilateral negotiations on its disarmament, North Korea surprised its dialogue partners and the world. The US, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and South Korean governments, as well as foreign policy analysts, are busy trying to figure out what message Pyongyang is trying to deliver. The US State Department...