The media is missing the real story on the peninsula. If that gives Koreans space to lead, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Is Korea’s Cold War About to End?
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Missiles
The Politics of Iran’s Space Program
Iran’s recent successful launch of a second satellite into orbit has drawn considerable attention around the world. As in the past, Iran’s announcement of the launch of its domestically built satellite into space received mixed reactions in the West. Some mainstream U.S. media treated the announcement with skepticism and ridicule. “Before you cancel that European vacation or start building a bomb shelter, it’s worth taking Iran’s boasts with a grain of salt,” one commentator wrotein Wired. “While Iran has cooked up some indigenous weaponry over the years, its desire to puff out its chest and pronounce immunity from the effects of international sanctions has led to some absurd exaggerations and outright lies.”
Missile Defense: Pie in the Sky
What to do with a defense instrument that does not work in practice, agitates neighboring regional powers, and costs a lot of money in times of economic crisis? Common sense would suggest you abandon it. NATO, however, has a different idea. As part of the NATO Strategic Concept Review to be finalized at the end of November at the Lisbon Summit, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has proposed to adopt missile defense as a mission.
60 Second Expert: Cuba and Congress — Who Will Change First?
After nearly half a century of frozen relations with Cuba, Congress is considering steps that could create thousands of American jobs and establish a valuable cultural exchange between the two countries. On June 30, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act (HR 4645) narrowly passed the House Agriculture Committee by a 25-20 vote. If enacted, this bill would finally allow Americans to travel to Cuba and reduce restrictions on agricultural exports to the island. Although it must still pass the House Financial Services Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee before reaching the House floor, this event is noteworthy because unlike similar measures that have died in committees, HR 4645 was actually brought to a vote.
A More Expensive Bill for North Korea
This essay is part of a strategic dialogue on North Korea that includes this article by John Feffer. The authors respond to each other here.
Ten Years After
It has taken America’s leaders a long time to learn the lessons of nuclear weapons. President Harry Truman, who took the decision to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki called the atomic bomb the “greatest thing in history.” Almost 20 years later, with America having lost its nuclear monopoly, trapped in a desperate growing arms race with the Soviet Union, and having survived a crisis that threatened nuclear war, President John F. Kennedy described the bomb as having turned the world into a prison in which man awaits his execution. Fast forward another two decades, under pressure from peace movements, President Ronald Reagan agreed with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev that the superpowers should eliminate all nuclear weapons.