In its latest effort to highlight the danger of loose nukes – in this case, weapons-usable nuclear material – the Nuclear Threat Initiative has launched its Nuclear Materials Security Index. The intent, according to NTI co-Chairman, Chief Executive Office and public face of NTI former Senator Sam Nunn, is to provide a “country-by-country assessment of […]
On New Year’s Eve, President Barack Obama signed into law the post-9/11 practice of detaining terrorist suspects indefinitely without charge. Shock and awe waves rippled through the blogosphere in response to the move, not least because Obama had threatened to veto an earlier version of the bill. Other grumbles included its lack of temporal or […]
I’ve written a good number of times here about how I admire what the Obama Administration has achieved in the teeth of vigorous – some might say fanatical – opposition from Republicans on the Hill and elsewhere, as well as from Democrats too, mostly those beholden to the fossil fuel special interests. (Here are some […]
In an Arms Control Association issue brief published on January 4, Greg Thielmann ably makes the case for trying to resolve the Iranian nuclear dilemma by means of old-fashioned diplomacy. The ACA’s introduction to the piece forcefully gets across just how drastically and dangerously U.S.-Iranian relations have deteriorated in the last months: “At the end […]
Evidently I’m not the only one who found the genetic manipulation of the H5N1 bird flu virus quite frightening. Last Sunday, the New York Times lead editorial was devoted to “An Engineered Doomsday.” The Times takes the view that the research should never have been done at all, suggests that nothing describing it should be […]
Today is National Global Human Trafficking Awareness Day (NGHTAD), a a day of awareness and vigilance for the countless victims of human trafficking across the globe. Yet President Obama announced that this year, and every year hence forth, January will be known as National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month (White House). Therefore use this […]
It seems that the new year has begun with less of a bang and more of a whimper, as the venerable Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its symbolic Doomsday Clock a minute closer to midnight on Tuesday. The reason for the move: inadequate progress on nuclear weapons reduction and climate change. The clock was moved […]
For the second time in days the U.S. Navy has saved Iranian fishermen. As you will recall, it was earlier this month that the Navy rescued Iranian fishermen being held by Somali pirates. That incident came amid rising tensions and threats from Iran that it would close the strategic Strait of Hormuz (through which 20 […]
I can’t believe a new year has come upon us so quickly. Unsurprisingly, there are already global health issues cropping up. In perhaps the most troubling news, India has reported that there are at least 12 cases of totally drug resistant tuberculosis in the country. President Obama signed a ban on US government funding for […]
Over the past few years I have written a number of posts on the issue of gender-based discrimination resulting in infanticide, especially regarding the heartbreaking case of India’s alarming rate of ‘missing girls’. As mentioned in my posts Indian Infanticide Causing A Population Imbalance, India’s Infanticide Shame, and India’s Missing Girls, the case of infanticide […]
In an era of austerity, US defense is facing cutbacks, or to stick with the administration’s euphemism, the US military will become “leaner”. This much is clear following the release of the latest US defense review, Sustaining US Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense. Most would agree that defense spending cuts are only natural, […]
Borderline: North Korea from Emphas.is on Vimeo. Tomas Van Houtryve, an award-winning documentary photographer, is creating a book of photographs made in the shadow of North Korea. Van Houtryve’s book, due out this year, has been a long-term, painstaking project. Writes philosopher Tzvetan Todorov in the book’s foreword: Over the course of seven years, award-winning […]
Hoping to aid in Haiti’s recovery from the January 2010 earthquake, some political leaders and development officials looked at one problem deemed to be a persistent obstacle – overcrowded urban areas. The solution? Redevelopment of Haiti’s agricultural sector as a way of encouraging people to move out of cities, create a market for local food […]
The notion of asymmetric power–referring generally to the danger of lesser powers resorting to unconventional weaponry and tactics as an answer to the United States’ immense conventional military superiority–has been in vogue among American defense analysts since the first Gulf War; Gulf War II and its aftermath, with the devastating appearance of the Improvised Explosive […]
Having done the Year End Review, I’ve been looking a bit at some of the end of year/beginning of year lists lately and thought I’d share some of these. (Sorry to have been off the air for so long, but I had final papers to evaluate, had shopping to do, letters to write, helped out […]