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| Prepared by: | Eben Kaplan |
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A Japanese Coast Guard unit participates in a PSI training exercise. (AP/Itsuo Inouye)
North Korea's recent missile tests (NYT) elicited harsh words from diplomats and alarmist headlines in newspapers. Japan introduced a UN Security Council resolution calling for sanctions, and attention focused on whether China could use its influence to bring Pyongyang to curb its arms program (Reuters). The real concern over North Korea is not its missile stockpile, but its nuclear program. In an interview with Bernard Gwertzman, CFR Fellow Michael Levi explains North Korea's nuclear capability is the "number one danger."
North Korea is not the only state with nuclear ambitions to test its ballistic missile prowess recently. India test-fired a long-range nuclear-capable missile on Sunday, but the launch failed (Stratfor). The test is not expected to upset U.S. support for a deal to share civilian nuclear technology with India. Meanwhile, Iran, whose nuclear program has been the source of much diplomatic chest-beating, is deliberating whether to accept a Western package of incentives and begin direct negotiations. The effectiveness of direct talks is discussed in this Online Debate.
Aside from the India deal, the Bush administration has been pursuing a range of measures to try to keep nuclear materials under tighter wraps. Chief among these is the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), described in this new Backgrounder, which was launched by the Bush administration three years ago. As a Washington Qarterly article explains, the PSI was designed to function in a new era (PDF) in which smugglers of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) are aided by improved technologies and expanding global trade.
Among the PSI's most notable successes was the 2003 interception of a shipment of nuclear centrifuge parts from the A.Q. Khan network to Libya. Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program, headed one of the world's most notorious proliferation operations (The Atlantic), selling nuclear technology to any nation that would buy it, including North Korea and Iran. Though Pakistani officials have declared the Khan case closed, nuclear proliferation expert Leonard Weiss told the House International Relations Committee in May that "at least some parts of the network are definitely still functioning." (PDF)
When confronting regimes with nuclear ambitions, it is comforting to have at least one success story. Shortly following the centrifuge seizure, Libya agreed to abandon all of its WMD programs. On May 15, 2006, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the United States would resume normal diplomatic relations with the longtime state sponsor of terrorism. The slow process of welcoming Libya "in from the cold" is described in this Backgrounder.
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Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.
In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
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The report of this bipartisan Task Force of distinguished leaders and experts represents a strong consensus on the importance of repairing America's immigration policy. It makes the case that maintaining America's political and economic leadership depends on attracting talented and hard-working immigrants, and on securing the country's borders in a smart, effective, and humane way.
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
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Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report
provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.
For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.
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