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All this talk of the security dilemma and alternative approaches reminds me of good old States Nations and Security in first year. The security dilemma is a systemic problem, that needs a fundamental restructuring of international relations to reach any sort of solution. Clearly removing the threat of complete global annihilation by nuclear weapons is a good thing, but more is needed for international security. It's really a shift in the focus of security that is needed, from the state and military to the individual and society as the ultimate aim of security. Something along the lines of 'comprehensive security' or even 'social defence'. This individual security is the sort of thing that recent UN SecGen's have been going on about, with no more than rhetorical support from states.
It looks like he is going to be replaced by another Age journalist, Jason Koutsoukis, who has started off his new post with this article. I look forward to seeing if he can fill those shoes.
You can keep up to date with the day to day happenings at the Acronym institute site here.
And you can get a whole lot of videos/interviews from representatives and NGOs at the PrepCom here. (hopefully going to be a whole lot more as it gets underway).
I wonder if any Australian newspapers will pick much of this up?
A good collection of resources on last Septembers Israeli strike on Syria is available at FAS' secrecy blog here. Check out especially the sourcebook. FAS is pretty awesome.
A pretty interesting document on the nuclear ties between Syria and North Korea, and the recent destruction of what is claimed to be a nuclear reactor in Syria, has turned up at ArmsControlWonk.
Pretty amazing to get hold the full text of this sort of stuff.
I've added a few new interesting and relevant links to the blog for you to check out.
Paul Kerr's informative and often midly entertaining arms control blog.
THE source for info on Russian strategic forces.
The Federation for American Scientists. Which is a great resource for all sorts of things, and also has an interesting secrecy newsletter by Steven Aftergood that I would never have thought to look at until it turned up in my inbox.
And finally the Australian Medical Association for the Prevention of War. Its a great local organisation working for the elimination of nuclear weapons, and looks at all the dangers surrounding them. Im working at the moment on getting a work placement with them for the second half of this year.
The internet is a great thing.
Counterpunch has a couple of good article about Israel/Palestine which are worth a read.
Uri Avnery writes on Israel's Manifest Destiny and subconscious agenda.
"...The only game in town is the "negotiations" with the Palestinian Authority, which were a farce to start with. Like actors on the stage drinking from empty glasses, all parties pretend that there are negotiations going on. They meet, embrace, smile, pose for photographs, convene joint teams, hold press conferences, make declarations - and nothing, absolutely nothing, really happens."
And Mats Svensson writes about the creation of the Palestinian state from nothing.
"Mavivi was on the Gaza Strip three years ago in December. That was before the Israeli settlers had left Gaza, before one had carried out a free and fair election in Palestine. Since then, it has become worse for most people..."
Both good articles on the issues that the mainstream press barely touches.
The final nail in the 'lets invade Iraq' coffin, after a few other US government reports, is the latest and most exhaustive analysis of Iraqi sources on the question of Saddams alleged links with Al Qaeda. Its confirmed what most people would have assumed, that Saddams secular(ish) and popular movement fearing regime didnt have ties to the Islamic terrorist group.
The report was bound to be a little touchy, and is even being passively repressed, with copies only available by requesting it by mail. Im sure it will eventually get on to the net, but for now we've got a pdf copy of the executive summary if your interested.
UPDATE: FAS has put the whole three volumes onlin eif your interested, see it here.
Kinda reminds me of this cartoon...
Clearly the late convert Howard has some catching up to do.
Counterpunch is the best. Seriously. If you want to regularly check out one US focussed news/opinion website, this is it. A daily selection of articles from various places over the net, put together by the fantastic Alexander Cockburn along with Jeffrey StClair. A great alternative media source.
Have a look at yesterdays story Logical Lies on Bin Ladens Wealth. Where else would you find this?
PLUS: check out this article on why the US WONT go to war with Iran. Interesting yes?
(Zmag is another great source of Altenative media)
But for now, i have a quick post on the Syria-North Korea story that emerged last week. The first thing that I heard was based on this story in the Washington Post. The story claimed that Israeli and US intelligence suggested that there was some form on nuclear cooperation between Syria and North Korea on a nuclear facility. For any sane person, this should immediately be ringing alarm bells.
Joseph Cirincione's response is perfect,
"This story is nonsense. The Washington Post story should have been headlined "White House Officials Try to Push North Korea-Syria Connection." This is a political story, not a threat story. The mainstream media seems to have learned nothing from the run-up to war in Iraq. It is a sad commentary on how selective leaks from administration officials who have repeatedly misled the press are still treated as if they were absolute truth."
For a look at Syria's nuclear program thats based on facts, go here.
For a look at links between this program and the recent Israeli strikes on Syria, go to Arms Control Wonk, or Science and Global Security.
It all sort of links back to the two front war thesis argued by Marko Beljac in this piece at Online Opinion, which is now sounding way too plausible.
A quick double post today.
First of all, the recent Australia-Russia Uranium export deal. It's available here, and if you want to know how it's all looking so far to me, the best analysis I have come across so far is this piece by Marko Beljac. Watch this space for more if you want to move past the anti-Russian/Putin rhetoric (Alright I get it, Putins not a nice guy!) that dominates the discussion so far.
Second, I found a good article on the status of the US economy by Paul Craig Roberts at Counterpunch. It is slightly alarming if only for the reson of the massive numbers involved...
"The US trade deficit with Europe was $142,538,000,000. With Canada the deficit was $75,085,000,000. With Latin America it was $112,579,000,000 (of which $67,303,000,000 was with Mexico). The deficit with Asia and Pacific was $409,765,000,000 (of which $233,087,000,000 was with China and $90,966,000,000 was with Japan). With the Middle East the deficit was $36,112,000,000, and with Africa the US trade deficit was $62,192,000,000"
An even scarier facet of this is that the Australian economy under Howard/Costello is rapidly pursuing this US path. Australia is also more and more resembling a third world economy as resources become our prime commodity. Plus, remember that foreign debt is still rising, and the only reason that there is no government debt is beacuse they sold off our assets to pay it (Telstra etc...). So, if you must vote for Howard this November, please don't do it because hes a "good ecnomic manager" (actually...dont do it at all).
I guess there is a small linkage between the topics: probably the main reason Australia is selling Uranium to Russia is motivated by commercial considerations, rather than any real regard for non-proliferation.
Today is the sixth anniversary of the Septemebr 11 attacks. I think what is important to remember is not only the victims of this attack, but the fact that the only thing special about this attack was who the victims were. Mass murder like that happens all over the world every day, its just that the US isnt often the target. If we are really serious about stopping terrorism, we should stop supporting the governments who commit the vast majority of it.
Theres a good article at Counterpunch on Osama Bin Laden's new video (read the transcript here). Considering how Osama is portayed and what most of us would have seen in the media coverage of it (wow, he dyed his beard), he had some interesting things to say.
Update to the Update: It is the real deal. Also, the Iran blog died... RIP. Update: INFCIRC/711 is Iran's view of the Agreement, not the Agreement itself, so the IAEA could see things differently...
The Iran-IAEA agreement has been released, INFCIRC/711.
The US has already begun dismissing it as insignificant.
I have a huge blog in process at the moment on Iran, but it is struggling to write itself. Hopefully post again soon.
Hopefully anyone wishing to start up a nuclear power industry in Australia wil read an article like this.
The Senates Radioactive Rip-Off.
