Accusations abound that the West’s intervention in Libya is all about oil. Qaddafi has painted Western intervention as imperialist from the start of no-fly zone talks. “The colonialist countries are hatching a plot to humiliate the Libyan people, reduce them to slavery and control the oil,” he has said. But the Left is exploring this […]
It has been 12 days since Japan was rocked by a devastating earthquake and tsunami, wiping out entire towns off the map and shifted the island nation eight feet. Since last Friday’s disaster was unleashed, aftershocks continued to shake residents through the weekend, some larger than the earthquake which nearly placed Haiti in ruins last […]
Today, March 22, 2011 is World Water Day, which is held each year to place global attention on the importance of clean and sustainable access to water, including the management of freshwater resources. World Water Day was established to celebrate freshwater, following the recommendation of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). […]
President Obama did what should always be done: namely, he used the sanction of International law by seeking a UN resolution to enforce a No-Fly Zone. By building MULTI-lateral support with all the stakeholders
by Sarwar Kashmeri As revolutions sweep the Middle East and leaders supported by the United States for decades are swept away, how should America respond? What lessons can the revolutionaries learn from the American revolution? Is military intervention in Libya warranted? Atlantic Council senior fellow Sarwar Kashmeri posed these questions to Washington Post associate […]
Radioactive iodine and cesium was found in spinach and milk as well as other food products in the region of the Fukushima nuclear power plants on Saturday. The World Health Organization has called the situation serious, and the Japanese government is taking precautions, such as banning shipments of certain produce from Fukushima and neighboring prefectures […]
Political collateral damage inflicted by the West’s military action against Libya includes the destruction of two serious misconceptions long cherished by numerous experts in Washington. The first is the idea that in the rapidly changing world of the 21st century Europe is no longer strategically important to the United States; the second the fallacious belief […]
This morning the Internet is abuzz with news that musician Wyclef Jean was shot in Haiti the night before historic presidential elections. The drama follows the return of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide from exile in South Africa just days before the polls. Reports indicate Jean, who has thrown his international clout behind front runner […]
We landed in Beirut’s international airport at 11:30pm. It was raining. We needed two things: local currency and a taxi. Luckily, it appeared that there were upwards of thirty drivers who would have loved to take us to our hotel. Unaccustomed to haggling, we accepted a steep fare from the most persistent driver. Off we […]
The FT has had some excellent coverage of the nuclear disaster in Japan. Obviously, as I’ve mentioned here, and has been bruited about all over the world, the Fukushima Daiichi nightmare has implications for nuclear power all over the world. The FT has provided a very useful “atomic atlas” to show where the world’s existing […]
The Scottish Parliament approved a plan late last week to build a £40 million tidal power development in the Sound of Islay, which separates the islands of Islay and Jura in the Western Isles. The installation is part of the Scottish government’s drive to generate 80% of Scotland’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. John […]
This week has not been about nuclear weapons or arms control, but about controlling three wildly malfunctioning units at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, damaged following last Friday’s devastating 9.0 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. The operators of the plant in Sendai, just near the epicenter of the huge quake, found themselves racing against […]
There is an op-ed in today’s NYT from a Japanese astrophysicist, Satoru Ikeuchi. He recalls the words of a predecessor in Japanese science: “The more civilization progresses, the greater the violence of nature’s wrath.” I am not a Luddite, by any stretch of imagination. I firmly believe, however, in using the power of reason, and […]
Yesterday an international coalition began Operation Odyssey Dawn against Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces. The organizational structure set up to conduct operations is Joint Task Force (JTF) Odyssey Dawn. The JTF commander is U.S. Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear who is directing operations from the command ship USS Mount Whitney. Twenty four additional ships from Italy, […]
The Japanese government and international food aid organizations are working hard to provide relief to the people in Japan’s northeast who were affected by last week’s earthquake and tsunami. The twin natural disasters and crisis at the Fukishima nuclear plants have set off “panic buying” of food, both in areas most directly affected and those […]