Archive for February 3rd, 2010

(PDF) – Two actual or potential conflict situations around the world deteriorated and two improved in January 2010. In Haiti, up to 200,000 people are feared dead and several hundred thousand displaced after a devastating earthquake struck the country on 12 January. The situation also deteriorated in Nigeria, where a fresh outbreak of violence between… »

President Barack Obama on Wednesday will outline a government strategy to boost development of U.S. biofuels and address their environmental challenges. The strategy will be laid out in a report by the Biofuels Interagency Working Group, a body the president established to help spur investment in biofuels and make the industry more environmentally… »

Washington has submitted to Damascus the name of its proposed new ambassador to Syria, the first in since 2005, the country’s foreign minister said, in the latest step toward improving ties between the two nations. Washington withdrew its last ambassador to Damascus in 2005 following the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which many… »

(PDF) – Current global trends indicate that ballistic missile systems are becoming more flexible, mobile, survivable, reliable, and accurate, while also increasing in range. A number of states are also working to increase the protection of their ballistic missiles from pre-launch attack and to increase their effectiveness in penetrating missile defenses. Several states are also… »

(PDF) – L’industria della difesa italiana rappresenta uno dei comparti industriali più importanti del paese, collocandosi al settimo posto nel mondo tra i produttori di sistemi d’arma complessi (al quarto posto in Europa) e tra i primi esportatori (tre miliardi di euro nel… »

Attempts to push Africa to adopt a market economic policy framework by Western countries through the World Bank, IMF and their allied international agencies goes against the spirit of free choice enshrined in free market systems. To fully enjoy the benefits of a market economic system, Africa must divorce herself from the forced marriage to… »

Un estudio centrado en cómo las elites financieras de Brasil y China perciben la rivalidad entre el dólar y el euro en la lucha por convertirse en la moneda internacional del sistema. Las más de 40 entrevistas realizadas indican que estas elites están descontentas con el dólar, pero también dejan claro que el euro, por… »

A general overview of the special nature of France’s strategic posture, covering the three major factors that drive it—security interests, values and responsibilities—and considering the country’s current strategic… »

U.S. troops and their Afghan and NATO allies are planning their biggest joint offensive since the start of the Afghan war, targeting a town in the volatile south that is believed to be the biggest Taliban stronghold and a hub of the militants’ lucrative opium trade, officers said…. »

Stakeholders and other interested parties in the Nabucco project are expressing concern over the project’s apparent stagnation, and calling for urgent consultations to revitalize the project. Nabucco is simply marking time in the absence of a coordinating mechanism between producer, transit, and consumer countries, and without hands-on leadership from the European Union during the transition… »

The United States is exploring the idea of expanding the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), a supply line for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan, by adding a Chinese branch. The Chinese route would be used to transport “gear and vehicles,” Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dowd, US Central Command’s director of logistics… »

Ukraine has detained a Russian intelligence officer and expelled four others, breaking up what it said Tuesday was a spy ring that intended to steal military and state secrets. The announcement came less than a week before a presidential runoff election in Ukraine and might stir new tensions between Ukraine and Russia, which have had… »

The Financial Times views Israel as the key cause of problems in the Middle East, according to a study published by a London-based media monitoring organization this week. A study published by Just Journalism accuses the international business newspaper’s editorial coverage of ignoring the Iranian threat, downplaying other issues and viewing Israel as primarily responsible… »

The Obama administration yesterday unveiled a spending plan that would increase funding for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration to $11.2 billion in the next fiscal year. The agency, a semiautonomous branch of the Energy Department, would receive a 13.4-percent budget increase in fiscal 2011 to maintain the country’s nuclear stockpile and conduct nonproliferation activities… »

Japanese newspaper reports that Pyongyang helping Damascus manufacture maraging steel, which is used in missile skins, ballistic warheads, and gas centrifuges. Iran denies connection to North Korean weapons plane stopped in Thailand last… »

Iran said on Wednesday it had launched a Kavoshgar-3 rocket capable of carrying a satellite — a move that may add to Western concern about Tehran’s nuclear… »

Such a deal, which the French Defense Ministry said is under negotiation, would mark the Russian military’s first major arms purchase abroad in modern history. It would also be a seminal moment for France and the West. The sale would be the largest and most sophisticated by a NATO country to Russia and would dramatize… »

The number of people needing food aid in south Sudan has quadrupled in a year to more than four million, the UN’s World Food Programme… »

American business leaders in a range of different industries are ringing the alarm. China has made rule changes that “pose an immediate danger to U.S. companies,” 19 American trade groups and companies wrote in a Jan. 26 letter to cabinet members in Washington. “Systematic efforts by China to develop policies that build their domestic enterprises… »

On the surface, it would seem unlikely that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who presides over a politically feeble government and is highly dependent on the United States military presence and economic assistance, would defy the United States on the issue of peace negotiations with the leadership of the Taliban insurgency. But a long-simmering conflict between… »

A recent move by North Korean officials to rejigger the nation’s economic system has introduced a new level of misery to everyday life. In the last month, the price of rice rose tenfold at private markets, and residents often had to wait in line for hours in subzero temperatures to buy food. At the heart… »

As African leaders meet this week at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, they will consider, among other issues, a proposal by Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade, to resettle Haitians who have been displaced by last month’s devastating earthquake. Wade urged African nations to do more to accept the more than 1 million Haitians… »

U.S. President Barack Obama had worse failures to address in his Jan. 27 State of the Union message, but a few days before he owned up to the most foolish miscalculation that his administration had made in its first year in power. In an interview with Time magazine, he confessed that he had not understood… »

In the short term, the effects of Google’s confrontational tactic will be negative as the Chinese government will almost certainly impose tighter restrictions on the flow of information; Beijing understands clearly the risks of allowing Google to set a precedent by encouraging others to challenge its political control. Sadly, despite Google’s stand, it has received… »

In a 71-minute State of the Union address, President Obama managed no more than 101 perfunctory words about Iraq. Throughout its term, the administration has recoiled from discussing Iraq’s geostrategic significance and especially America’s relation to it. Yet while Iraq is being exorcised from our debate, its reality is bound to obtrude on our consciousness…. »

Officially, the only legal weapons in Lebanon are shotguns meant for hunting birds. And although much of the population was heavily armed during the 1975 to 1990 civil war, the various factions agreed to disarm their heavy weapons stockpiles, with the notable exception of Hizbollah. But little was done about light weapons – assault rifles,… »

Al Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen has emerged as the “foremost concern” for U.S. spy agencies since the group was tied to two attacks in the United States last year, according to a sweeping assessment of the global terrorism threat issued Tuesday by the nation’s top intelligence… »

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said her government might pay a hefty sum — again — for stolen banking details on potential German tax cheats. Her attitude has riled the Swiss, who consider private banking to be a sacred business… »

Afghan President Hamid Karzai flew to Saudi Arabia Tuesday to seek help from Saudi Arabia, one of the few governments that hold any potential sway over the… »