In what I can only imagine to be an explicit acknowledgement of the importance of nonproliferation in the context of the renewed fervor for nuclear power – Fukushima notwithstanding – two new NGO initiatives have recently launched. The first, launched earlier this month, is courtesy of the Bipartisan Policy Center. Their new “Nuclear Initiative” will […]
This post originally appeared on August 20 on stephanbauman.com. Stephan Bauman, the author, is the CEO and President of World Relief. Tin, tungsten, and tantalum are at the heart of the loodshed that plagues Eastern Congo. Novelist Joseph Conrad referred to the exploitation of Congo’s minerals as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured […]
The TARP covered banks across the nation The US government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was such a success that it not only saved America’s financial system, with the help of the Federal Reserve, it also saved the global economy AND turned a profit for the US taxpayer. It was almost three years ago, during […]
The Federal Reserve Board With right-wing Republican presidential candidates these days either calling for the Fed to be abolished (Ron Paul) or simply calling the nation’s central bank “treasonous” (Rick Perry), thinking citizens should at least be concerned about the Fed’s activities. I defended the Fed on this blog and still do. People who should […]
The Union of South American Nations Will the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) and its monetary fund, Banco del Sur, be successful? It has been difficult for emerging markets to diversify their sources of balance of payments (BOP) support. During the 1997-98 Asian crisis, the shame such Asian nations as Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia […]
The following post is an edited version of an article that appeared in the Jerusalem Post earlier this month by Pinchas Landau, author of The Landau Report, a newsletter and consultancy service addressing the needs of foreign firms and financial institutions active in Israel and the Middle East. “Domestic fury, and fierce civil strife Shall […]
When word of the possible fall of the dictatorship of Muammar Qadhafi began spreading across the wires, the very first thought I had was this: that’s great, but who has his reputed chemical weapons and what remains of his nuclear weapons program? Sure enough, the good people at the Associated Press wondered the same thing […]
In a June 9th blog post, I wrote about the work of researchers at The Ohio State University to use the global positioning system (GPS) to detect covert nuclear tests. Pretty cool stuff. Well, the researchers, Jihye Park, Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska and adviser Ralph Von Frese have written about their work in a piece for the […]
It’s not a good sign when you can no longer differentiate between lunacy or rationality in Iranian foreign policy. The real question, though, is who is to blame. Thus is the case when we examine two foreign policy developments in Iran, both dealing with purported espionage. In the first, we saw that an Iranian court convicted Shane […]
Readers of my blog will know that I have written several times about proliferation concerns related to using lasers to enrich uranium. Its my hobbyhorse because I think it is the very kind of crucible test which will indicate if we are serious about nonproliferation or not. The Cliff Notes version is that such a […]
Now that the Administration has begun to re-fulminate over the possibility of getting the CTBT ratified, Arms Control Wonk contributor Page Van Der Linden has begun posting a multi-part series on the subject. Her aim, in her words, is to present “the treaty from the points of view of people who were around the last […]
On Monday, August 22, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, appealed for the safety of refugees in Libya. He appealed for all parties involved in the conflict to ensure that the thousands of refugees currently trapped in Tripoli and other areas are “properly protected from harm,” according to a press release from the […]
The advance of Libyan rebels into Tripoli, as arduous as it was, is only the beginning. The real test for Libyan independence will be in the steps it takes to secure the state. Foremost will be steps to incorporate all Libyans into not only a political future, but also an economic one. As the minutes […]
“The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel One hundred years hence, when historians study the factors that led to the economic decline of the United States, it is likely that they will mark the first week of August, 2011 as a crisp break in […]
In advance of the upcoming meetings of the IAEA Board of Governors and General Conference, the Agency has issued two documents for its review which are of note: one quite useful, the other likely to provoke more than a few skeptical chuckles. The first is a compilation of the Agency’s ongoing activities to fulfill its […]