Introducing The New Nuclear Pandemic

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service

Americans should be more concerned by the proliferation of nuclear weapons from North Korea to other states or non-state actors, rather than focus on a direct N.Korean nuclear attack on the Western World.

Such was the conclusion of former Secretary of Defense William Perry when addressing the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) on U.S nuclear weapons policy today.

“When we are concerned about proliferation, for example from N.Korea to Iran, we are concerned with the possibility that nuclear terrorists might be a bomb... The greater danger is that the bomb or the fissile material leak from one of these countries.” said Perry.

On Monday, N.Korea announced that it had successfully detonated and underground nuclear bomb, and on Tuesday, it launched two short-range ballistic missiles. As a result, the Obama administration may be facing an unexpected turn in the nuclear debate.

The topic is gaining momentum as talks between the U.S and Russia on the renewal of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start) are feared to be unsuccessful.

That N.Korea has nuclear capabilities and is testing missiles has fanned the flames on the necessity to reconsider the reduction in the Department of Defense FY2010 budget.

Perry was joined by Brent Scowcroft, former assistant to the President for National Security Affairs who explained that “a great danger in nuclear terrorism lies with the civilian nuclear power and the loose fissile material that comes with that.”

Scowcroft appealed to the security dilemma to provide a link between N.Korea or Iran acquiring a nuclear power and nuclear terrorism.

“If we don’t put a cap on proliferation now, we could easily face 30 or 40 countries with that capability, That is not a better world,” said Scowcroft, adding that “If [Iran and N.Korea] are free to enrich uranium to weapons grade, then you have others who want to do it just for protection or whatever and then you have a tremendous danger of terrorists getting hold of fissile material and then its relatively easy.”

The U.S government had already started to deal with this problem under the Bush junior administration, as Perry explains: “For one thing I support the initiative of the previous administration called the Proliferation Security initiative (PSI) and the recent moves to strengthen this initiative.”

Former President George.W. Bush said that PSI’s aim is "to keep the world's most destructive weapons away from our shores and out of the hands of our common enemies."

The initiative is limited to controlling alien ships in one’s waters to search for weapons. Airways are however not part of the PSI.

North Korean Threat Not So Imminent?

By Celia Canon- Talk Radio News Service.

Analysts for the Brookings Institution gathered to assess the North Korean threat on America and its allies in reaction to N.Korea's recent underground nuclear bomb detonation and the launch of two short-range missiles.

The think tank was pressed into discussing the matter following North-Korea’s acceleration in its military activity.

Pyongyang had already caught the international community’s attention in October 2007 by unsuccessfully testing a nuclear weapon.

However the threat posed by the North Asian state has reached new heights after N.Korea announced that it had conducted underground nuclear tests on Monday, followed by two short-range missiles (a ground-to-ship missile and a ground-to-air missile) launched from an east-coast base on Tuesday.

Michael O’Hanlon, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution warned that although “Their options are limited,” threats must be taken seriously, they must be mitigated.

Richard Bush, a Senior Fellow and Director for the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies, confirmed that “They have a problem though, and that is that deterrence is not yet credible; their missiles don’t fly far enough and accurately enough, the weapons design is not yet perfect and so they need to test, that's the only way they can demonstrate to others that they have the capability to inflict harm on the United States and on Japan.”

If the production of the missiles is one leap closer to achieving significant nuclear capabilities, O’Hanlon explained that “The real issue is the size of the weapon and how deliverable it would be by the North Koreans, if they were to choose to deliver it some day.”

Additionally, “[The missile] has to survive the stresses of missile flight, which are no trivial,” said O’Hanlon.

However, according to the analysts, this does not mean that a threat is nonexistent but rather that the U.S should not be concerned by missiles coming from North Korea directly.

O’Hanlon said “I would say the most worrisome question is the sale of nuclear material because if they attack South Korea, their regime will end.”

O’Hanlon concluded that “The only thing they can plausibly get way with is the sale.”

Obama, Brown Weigh Financial Overhaul

The latest incarnation of the “special relationship” between the United States and Great Britain was on display Tuesday, as President Obama welcomed British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to the White House for a two-day visit.

Obama said ties between Washington and London were strong and would stay that way, calling it “a
a bond that will not break.” He said it was critical to the security and economic well being of both nations.

For his part, Brown said “It’s a partnership of purpose that is driven forward now by the need for us all to work together in unity to deal with the world economic problems.”

Those problems – which have engulfed the global economy – dominated the meeting between the two men, their first since Obama’s inauguration. White House officials said the two leaders have begun to outline a new set of financial regulations that they hope will help stabilize the global economy. Brown, in fact, has called for a new Bretton Woods agreement, referring to the 1944 conference that established global monetary and financial order after World War II.

The meeting laid the stage for next month’s Group of 20 Summit meeting, which Brown will host in London. The G20 is comprised of financial ministers and central bankers from 19 countries and the European Union.

STRAINED TIES DENIED

Reports the two men would hold a formal joint news conference were unfounded, causing some correspondents to wonder if somehow Brown was being slighted – pointing out that President Bush always held news conferences with Brown and his predecessor, Tony Blair. A top White House aide denied it, and Obama appeared to address the issue directly saying “I’d like to think our relationship is terrific.”

RUSSIA AND IRAN

Meantime, Obama knocked down a New York Times report saying he had offered an explicit deal to Russia in which the United States would halt the deployment of an anti-missile shield in Poland in return for Kremlin help in getting Iran to stop its “commitment to nuclear weapons."

Obama admitted sending Russian President Dimitri Medvedev a letter, but said the Times “didn’t accurately characterize” it.

The president said the letter, which was “very lengthy,” dealt with a broad range of issues of concern to both Washington and Moscow, including Afghanistan, terrorism. He added there was nothing in the letter that he hadn’t spoken of publicly, “which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed towards not Russia but Iran. That has always been the concern, that you had potentially a missile from Iran that threatened either the United States or Europe."

Russia has deep business ties with Iran, including Kremlin assistance in building two nuclear reactors for Iran at Bushehr; Moscow is also weighing the sale of its sophisticated S-300 surface-to-air missile to Tehran. A Russian newspaper reported in February that the sale is on hold, at least until the G20 meeting in London, when Obama and Medvedev will meet for the first time.


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Russia dominates Central Asia through oil policies

Dr. Stephen Blank, Professor at the U.S. Army War College, speaks about Russia's domination of Central Asia's oil markets through the use of pipelines.

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Oil a political tool for Russia

On Monday the American Foreign Policy Council held a conference on the United States’ foreign policy towards Russia. Steven Pifer of the Brookings Institute said that Russia is engaging in a policy which is meant to keep the West out of the former soviet states, while reasserting its own power and expanding its sphere of influence.

Oil is the principle tool Russia has for accomplishing these goals, according to US Army War College Professor Stephen Blank. Blank called oil a “Swiss army knife” for advancing Russia’s interests, and said that Russia’s protected and subsidized energy market has risen to power because of pipeline control. He continued by saying that Russia’s move to own pipelines and distribution centers is a plan to dominate Europe through “forced dependence” on Russian gas and oil. Dr. Blank recommended that the U.S. and the E.U. reduce their respective dependence on Russian oil, and that the E.U. strive for internal political unity.

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service