India is playing a highly risky game of brinkmanship in Kashmir. Its recent deployment of forces along the line of control (LoC), the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, and the extremely provocative rhetoric from Delhi have brought the region closer to a nuclear war than ever before.
Less than three weeks after the horrid events of September 11, the Department of Defense published its Quadrennial Review, an official document that discusses in detail U.S. defense strategies. The review is the work of senior Pentagon officials–both military and civilian–who conferred extensively with the president. This key military document asserts that “the U.S. leadership is premised on sustaining an international system that is respectful of the rule of law.” But with recent developments in U.S. nuclear weapons policy, as in other policy arenas, the Bush administration has set an agenda that flagrantly ignores international law.
The Rio Grande/Río Bravo no longer reaches the Gulf of Mexico—it’s blocked by a sandbar that is the result of several years of low flow in the river. This development is symbolic of the dire state of the entire transboundary river basin. The river’s troubles are now manifesting themselves in an increasingly acrimonious dispute between the United States and Mexico.