The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, will speak about promoting nonproliferation at the Japan Society in New York on May 31st. Details below. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, MAY 26, 2011 Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary-General to the United Nations, to Speak on Promoting Nonproliferation NEW YORK— Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General, will speak on Tuesday at the conference: […]
The World Economic Forum spoke to over 500 companies from around the world May 4-6, 2011 about Africa’s huge economic growth potential. The forum opened with a call for Africa to rethink its global role. “You can no longer talk about the old Africa,” said South African President Jacob G. Zuma. “We need to develop […]
The next meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is slated to meet next month with its current chair, the Netherlands, at the helm. At that meeting, the USG and Indian governments are hoping to get the other members to agree to making India a permanent member. They currently have observer status. I could not […]
Tom Friedman has it right in yesterday’s column. He writes: “To the Palestinians I would say: You believe the Israelis are stiffing you because they think they have you in box. If you resort to violence, they will brand you terrorists. And if you don’t resort to violence, the Israelis will just pocket the peace […]
There has been much discussion and grandiose speech-making on the Middle East this week. First Obama gave a “big” address on the Arab Spring, and he even touched on the Israel-Palestinian peace process too. Then Bibi Netanyahu arrived in town for meetings with Obama and to give a speech to a joint session of Congress […]
There is, of course, much commentary already on Obama’s Middle East speech. Here are some assorted thoughts from me. First, Obama stated unequivocal support for democracy, asserting that U.S. policy is to “support a set of universal rights” that includes “the right to choose your own leaders—whether you live in Baghdad or Damascus; Sanaa or […]
When I first began in the field we like to call “Nukes and Spooks”, I was one of very few women in a sea of old white guys. (Sorry old white guys. We love ya, but there are just too many of you) I was a loud-mouthed, black clothes-wearing, not-so reformed goth girl from New […]
Nicholas Kristof’s recent op-ed in the New York Times highlighted Richard Holbrooke’s concern for the declining relationship between the US and Pakistan and, essentially, pronounced the need for America not to forsake Pakistan, as tumultuous as relations may be. Pakistan, without question, is grappling with a litany of issues: rampant poverty and natural disasters; protection of minorities […]
It was an exciting day yesterday at Opinio Juris, as State Department Legal Adviser, Harold Koh, in a blog post, laid out the U.S. Government’s official legal justification for killing bin Laden. Was it really that exciting though? Koh reiterated the rationale he gave in a speech last year to justify targeted killing. Then he […]
Just as I was finishing the Kissinger/Nixon ‘Detente’ chapter of John Lewis Gaddis’ “Strategies of Containment“, I came across this excerpt from Henry Kissinger’s new book “On China”. Kissinger, whose strategic leadership comes across very well in Gaddis’ book, dishes about his secret trip to Beijing in 1971 to lay the ground work for American […]
On this day in 1974, India detonated a low-yield device (8 kilotons) under the Rajasthan desert at Pokhran. Code-named “Smiling Buddha”, the “peaceful nuclear explosion (PNE)” was also the first confirmed nuclear test by a country outside the P5 nuke states codified by the NPT. India famously developed and executed the test weapon from materials […]
Twilight on the corniche in Beirut in February The chatter in the news and on Twitter today is about President Obama’s big speech on the Middle East at the State Department tomorrow. What will he say? There is no question this is a serious opportunity to get the Arab Spring back on track. It has veered […]
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