December 13th, 2006
While the United Nations Security Council struggles to achieve the verifiable disavowal of nuclear weapons by Iran and North Korea, Europe and North America are busy championing nuclear weapons as the ultimate security trump card and the preeminent emblem of political gravitas, thereby building a political/security context that is increasingly hostile to non-proliferation. At the […]
Read MoreNovember 29th, 2006
Somewhere on the road to Kandahar it has apparently been revealed to NATO that its future is inextricably linked to success or failure in Afghanistan – begging the question of whose definition of success applies.[i] If NATO’s political and military leaders choose to characterize their alliance as so fragile and wanting in purpose that its […]
Read MoreNovember 20th, 2006
India and Pakistan have in recent days both carried out tests of nuclear-capable ballistic missiles.[1] The tests are in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1172. Following the May 1998 nuclear weapons tests by India and Pakistan, an indignant Security Council reflected the global mood when it unanimously passed Resolution 1172 (June 6, 1998) […]
Read MoreNovember 3rd, 2006
The “third way” posting on Afghanistan (October 17) describes the polarized debate on the question of Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan: “The Prime Minister leads the charge for staying the course. Canada is at war, he says, and we don’t cut and run – we will stay in this war until the job is done. […]
Read MoreNovember 1st, 2006
When the Colombian Air Force begins later this month accepting delivery of a fleet of new Super Tucano aircraft intended to help it prosecute counter-insurgency operations in its decades-long civil war, Colombia will in effect be importing engines from Canada, machine guns from Belgium, rangefinders from the United States, avionics from Israel, radios from Germany, […]
Read MoreOctober 28th, 2006
The main elements of a satisfactory end to the North Korean nuclear crisis have been in place for more than a decade. North Korea receives economic assistance, especially energy assistance such as fuel oil or electricity. Nuclear supplier states promise to explore assisting it in building a light water nuclear power plant. North Korea’s sovereignty […]
Read MoreOctober 17th, 2006
With Canada in a sustained ground war for the first time since Korea, it is not surprising that the debate over our role in Afghanistan has become thoroughly polarized. The Prime Minister leads the charge for staying the course. Canada is at war, he says, and we don’t cut and run – we will stay […]
Read MoreOctober 12th, 2006
At least one western constituency is celebrating Kim Jong-il’s nuclear test – the folks who toil in the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the beltway publicists who promote their cause in the public square. The morning after the test, David Frum, the former Bush speech writer and current fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, […]
Read MoreSeptember 27th, 2006
When Prime Minister Harper told the Economic Club of New York (Sept. 20/06)[i] that “Canada intends to be a player” in international peace and security efforts, he quickly turned to what was of more interest to his audience, and of greater concern to his government, namely security arrangements in North America. He noted the recent […]
Read MoreSeptember 13th, 2006
Talking to the Taliban For a state to negotiate with its bitter enemies is hardly a new concept, but when that was recently suggested for Afghanistan and the Taliban, commentators from Rex Murphy[i]to theWestern Standard[ii]managed only to ridicule the idea. The Globe and Mail editorialized that “if there were a realistic prospect that all sides […]
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