January 14th, 2007
Any persistent and buoyant insurgency, still an entirely apt description of the Taliban rebellion that Canadians are trying to help quell in southern Afghanistan, must necessarily feed off multiple roots, but the multinational counter-insurgency effort is now increasingly focused on what it regards as the dual taproots of the armed resistance. The first is the […]
Read MoreJanuary 8th, 2007
Like the proverbial bad dream that it is, missile defence once again has a lot of people losing a lot of sleep. The finger of blame swings naturally to Washington , but this time let’s not overlook Russian President Vladimir Putin. His energetic Russia-as-victim positioning not only tries to return nuclear competition to the core […]
Read MoreJanuary 5th, 2007
Iraq and Uganda model the two primary narratives that dominate analysis of the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia. The action to date has removed the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) from its short-lived control of the national capital, as well as from much of the rest of the country, and replaced it with the, till now, […]
Read MoreDecember 30th, 2006
It takes few prophetic powers to predict that the UN Security Council’s new demands and sanctions on Iran will not have the desired effect. Progress in ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program conforms to its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and to the monitoring and inspection requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) […]
Read MoreDecember 15th, 2006
While nuclear weapon states, including their non-nuclear weapon state allies (see last posting, Dec. 12) continue to plan for the long-term retention of nuclear weapons, despite their Treaty commitment to disarm,[i] a group of Nobel Peace Laureates warns that “a world with nuclear haves and have-nots is fragmented and unstable.” The declaration goes on to […]
Read MoreDecember 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, […]
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