Number of results to display per page
Search Results
632. Whole World on Fire: Organizations, Knowledge Nuclear Devastation
- Author:
- Lynn Eden
- Publication Date:
- 11-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for International Studies, University of Southern California
- Abstract:
- Whole World on Fire is about a puzzle that is morbid, arcane, and consequential. Morbid, because it involves the devastation caused by nuclear weapons. Arcane, because it involves secret and obscure calculations by a government bureaucracy tucked away deep within U.S. military intelligence. And consequential, because it involves decisions at the highest level of government about using nuclear weapons.
- Topic:
- Conflict Prevention, International Relations, Government, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- United States
633. Civil-Military Relations and Security Institutions in the Southern Cone: The Sources of Argentine-Brazilian Nuclear Cooperation
- Author:
- Arturo Sotomayor
- Publication Date:
- 11-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas
- Abstract:
- This paper analyzes the conditions in which the governments of Argentina and Brazil founded security institutions in the early 1990s, while they were democratizing. Civilian leaders in both countries established institutions and sought international participation deliberately to achieve civilian control and gain leverage over the military establishment, whom they sorely distrusted. The need to stabilize civil-military relations at home was therefore the prime motivating force behind the emergence of security institutions in the Southern Cone. Three mechanisms were at work: omnibalancing, policy handling, and managing uncertainty. These mechanisms are derived from three different schools of thought: realism, organizational-bureaucratic models, and theories of domestic political institutions. Besides explaining the sources of nuclear bilateral cooperation, this argument also serves as a critique of two prominent theories in international relations that attempt to explain cooperation and peaceful relations among democracies: neoliberal institutionalism and democratic peace theory.
- Topic:
- Security, Government, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Argentina, and South America
634. A Possible Path to Change in US-Iran Relations
- Author:
- Mark Edmond Clark
- Publication Date:
- 12-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Columbia International Affairs Online
- Abstract:
- In 1999, I visited Belgrade one month before the start of Operation ALLIED FORCE as a guest of the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hear the perspectives of key officials on the possibility of a conflict between Yugoslavia and NATO. I heard a singular perspective that NATO would not use force and threats to do so were used only to get the regime of Slobodan Milosevic to respond to diplomatic efforts by the US and EU. There was simply a refusal to recognize that the threat of attack from NATO was real.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iran, Middle East, and Yugoslavia
635. Considering China as a Potential Member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group
- Author:
- Andrew Prosser
- Publication Date:
- 05-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Defense Information
- Abstract:
- In January 2004, China formally requested to join the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), an informal multilateral export control regime that aims to contribute to the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons through the coordination and implementation of guidelines which govern transfers of nuclear material and technology. The NSG's membership comprises the principal nuclear supplier states in Europe and the Americas, as well as Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, South Africa, and a number of former Eastern Bloc states, including Russia. The group's decisions, including those concerning the admission of new members, are made on a consensus basis, but the informal nature of the organization means that its decisions cannot be construed as legally binding upon its member countries.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- Japan, China, Asia, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand
636. The World's Nuclear Arsenals
- Author:
- Ali Chaudhry and Andrew George
- Publication Date:
- 07-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Defense Information
- Abstract:
- Though the exact size of China's nuclear arsenal is unknown, current best estimates are that China has about 280 strategic weapons, and a smaller number — about 120 — of tactical weapons. The weapons are based on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and strategic bombers, with a naval component under research.
- Topic:
- Security, Arms Control and Proliferation, Nuclear Weapons, and Science and Technology
- Political Geography:
- China
637. North Korea's Nuclear Ambition: Causes and Consequences
- Author:
- Mustafa Kibaroglu
- Publication Date:
- 03-2004
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Institution:
- Uluslararasi Iliskiler
- Abstract:
- Because of the inferiority complex first against Japan, then against the United States, the North Korean leadership embarked upon nuclear weapons development program from the inception of their state. Due to the tangible and comprehensive support provided by the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China in the field of nuclear science and technology, North Korea has seemingly passed a significant threshold on the way to become a de facto nuclear weapons state. As of 2004, it is widely believed that North Korea has already extracted enough plutonium for a couple of nuclear warheads. Combined with its 1,350 kilometer-range ballistic missile capability, North Korea stands as one of the most significant threats to regional and global security and stability. In the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks on the United States, Russia and China have greatly reduced their support to North Korea and intensified their efforts to mend the differences between that country and the US, just like Japan and South Korea did for long, with a view to not to pave the way to the escalation of a crisis on the Korean Peninsula.
- Topic:
- Nuclear Weapons and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, China, Asia, South Korea, North Korea, Soviet Union, and Korean Peninsula
638. Getting to “Yes” on Missile Defense: The Need to Rebalance U.S. Priorities & The Prospects for Transatlantic Cooperation
- Author:
- Jeffrey P. Bialos and Stuart L. Koehl
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Center for Transatlantic Relations
- Abstract:
- At the end of the day, missile defense is and should be here to stay as a key element of U.S., and in all likelihood, European defense strategy for the twenty-first century. The threats are real and there is an emerging consensus about creating defenses against it. While the “macro” issues of ABM withdrawal and initial fielding of the U.S. midcourse segment are behind us, there are very legitimate issues that warrant debate on both sides of the Atlantic. We now need to focus on making the right choices to provide a better balance of capabilities between various strategic, regional, force protection, and homeland security needs. Moreover, U.S.-European engagement on missile defense is potentially, but not inevitably, a win-win proposition—binding alliance partners together geo-politically, creating a layered, multi-national plug and play “system of system” architecture, and enhancing our ability to fight wars together. And, an enhanced coalition war fighting capability is likely to have beneficial spillover effects on the broader Transatlantic relationship; it is axiomatic that countries that fight wars together tend to have congruent interests in a range of areas. But for this to happen, Europe needs to begin to seriously consider its missile defense needs soon and apply resources to the task and the United States needs to resolve the underlying technology transfer issues and questions of roles and responsibilities. Thus, with hard work and good will, multi-national cooperation between the United States and its allies offers “win-win” from the standpoint of strengthening the alliance and our mutual security.
- Topic:
- Defense Policy, Nuclear Weapons, Military Strategy, Weapons, and Missile Defense
- Political Geography:
- United States, China, and Europe
639. The North Korean Nuclear Crisis: Four-plus-two - an idea whose time has come
- Author:
- Peter Van Ness
- Publication Date:
- 11-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Australian National University Department of International Relations
- Abstract:
- The six-party negotiations on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK) nuclear programs, held in Beijing in August 2003, concluded with nothing more than the expectation that the six participating nations would meet again—no time or place was announced. Meanwhile, North Korea threatened to escalate tensions further by testing a nuclear device, while the US remained undecided about how to proceed.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Security, and Nuclear Weapons
- Political Geography:
- United States, Asia, and North Korea
640. Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: A Progress Update
- Author:
- Matthew Bunn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- In the past year, there has been notable progress in ensuring that stockpiles of the essential ingredients of nuclear weapons around the world are secured from theft and transfer to terrorists. But there remains a dangerous gap between the pace of progress and the scope and urgency of the threat – a gap that, if left unfilled, could lead to unparalleled catastrophe. We must close the gap – to take action now that, within a few years, could reduce the danger that terrorists might turn the heart of a U.S. city into a new Hiroshima to a fraction of what it is today. This paper is intended to outline the continuing threat; summarize the progress made in addressing it in the past year, and the gaps that still remain; and recommend steps to close the gap between threat and response. The terrorists who have sworn to kill Americans wherever they can be found have undertaken an intensive effort to get a nuclear bomb, or the materials and expertise needed to make one. We need to be racing as fast as we can to stop them before they succeed. This paper is about steps to win that race.
- Topic:
- Security, Nuclear Weapons, Terrorism, and Weapons of Mass Destruction
- Political Geography:
- United States, America, and Hiroshima