The Iranian president is set to meet with his Kazakh counterpart tomorrow to discuss fishing rights in the Caspian Sea and regional security. In what I gather to be a closely related event, in recent weeks, the Kazakhs have offered to host, according to the Wall Street Journal, “the international “nuclear fuel bank” where nations that renounce nuclear weapons can purchase fissile fuel for nuclear energy reactors, a senior White House official said Sunday.” President Obama is seriously considering the offer.
If a nuclear fuel bank exists, states do not have to develop nuclear enrichment capacities to utilize nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is one of the few countries to have real legitamacy in this sphere, as they voluntarily gave up their nuclear arsenal after the break-up of the Soviet Union. While it is not quite a neutral country, and shares a huge border with Russia, President Obama could use this as a bargaining chip for Russia to cooperate with his arms control agenda.
Iran and Kazakhstan have extensive ties and are planning to build a railroad connecting their countries. I’m curious how the proceedings will go tomorrow. On another note, I watched Beloe Solntse Pystini (White Sun of the Desert) again yesterday and was reminded how much I like it. I recommend it to anyone who has not seen it. Remember, Vostok- delo tonkoe.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
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In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
