tony mitra
09-16-2007, 07:08 PM
I am trying out this new forum. Hope it works.
While the forum is about International politics, I am selecting a topic that at first glance would appear to be domestic politics of USA. But, in my belief, this is one of the most important issue of international politics. It covers global security, combating a runaway proliferation of new nuclear weapon states, and an unendiing race for more and more nuclear weapons in the hands of more of more parties.
And, to be, the key to this global menace is in the hands of the US Government, the largest promoters of more weapons, more dangerous weapons and more deadly delivery systems.
Many Americans have pondered and written about it. I shall refer only one essay here, from the Magazine "Foreign Affairs", in their September/October 2007 issue, written by Wolfgang Panofsky, and published by the Council of Foreign Affairs (http://www.cfr.org/).
Mr. Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky is a particle physicist and Director Emeritus of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He worked on the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945 and served as a Science Policy Adviser to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter.
This is what he summarizes the essay as: The Bush administration has adopted a misguided and dangerous nuclear posture. Instead of recycling antiquated doctrines and building a new generation of warheads, the United States should drastically reduce its nuclear arsenal, strengthen the international nonproliferation regime, and move toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.
You could take a copy of the above periodical from local bookstores, or subscribe to it online and read it electronically. What the man is saying is that the Soviet Union is no more, and the world was ready to climb down the nuclear weapons ladder, if the US (the remaining sole superpower) was willing to take the lead. Instead, Washington has engaged in a dangerous and unwise direction.
In 2002 the Bush administration announced a new nuclear posture. Instead of doing what the administration had earlier claimed, that is, to realign American nuclear strategy to the new realities of the 21st century, it had decided to revamp itself to address threats that either no longer exist, or never needed nuclear weapons in response.
The writer claims that policy makers sought to establish unchallengeable nuclear primacy. These debates, coupled with parochial bureaucratic pressures from the U.S. Air Force, led to a buildup of nuclear weapons that in retrospect appears inexcusable.
And since every action in this regard can be expected to result in a reaction, both China and Russia has started revamping or speeding up their own development of dangerous nuclear arsenals to provide some check against a rising US threat. India has joined the bandwagon, as has Pakistan. Israel continues under the radar and unabated, in modernizing its own arsenal, and about renting some US arsenals. Any number of new nations have vowed to match this insane rise of nuclear proliferation.
Nuclear weapons, once invented, cannnot be un-invented. At the same time that the Bush administration has pursued this misguided nuclear doctrines, argues the writer, it has allowed international nonproliferation efforts to wither.
Mr. Wolfgang Panofsky continues : The existing nuclear weapons states, in general, and the United States, in particular, bear a substantial share of the responsibility for these disquieting developments. Washington has consistently disregarded its obligations under the NPT to minimize the role of nuclear weapons in international relations and to work in good faith toward their eventual elimination.
Well its a long essay and interested parties might read it directly from source. Meanwhile, I invite comments from the readers, what, they feel, might be done to reduce an increasing risk of a world living on the precipice, with more and more countries acquiring nuclear weapons, and USA continuing to rebuilt its own nuclear arsenal, in a never ending chain reaction.
Cheers.
While the forum is about International politics, I am selecting a topic that at first glance would appear to be domestic politics of USA. But, in my belief, this is one of the most important issue of international politics. It covers global security, combating a runaway proliferation of new nuclear weapon states, and an unendiing race for more and more nuclear weapons in the hands of more of more parties.
And, to be, the key to this global menace is in the hands of the US Government, the largest promoters of more weapons, more dangerous weapons and more deadly delivery systems.
Many Americans have pondered and written about it. I shall refer only one essay here, from the Magazine "Foreign Affairs", in their September/October 2007 issue, written by Wolfgang Panofsky, and published by the Council of Foreign Affairs (http://www.cfr.org/).
Mr. Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky is a particle physicist and Director Emeritus of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He worked on the Manhattan Project from 1943 to 1945 and served as a Science Policy Adviser to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter.
This is what he summarizes the essay as: The Bush administration has adopted a misguided and dangerous nuclear posture. Instead of recycling antiquated doctrines and building a new generation of warheads, the United States should drastically reduce its nuclear arsenal, strengthen the international nonproliferation regime, and move toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.
You could take a copy of the above periodical from local bookstores, or subscribe to it online and read it electronically. What the man is saying is that the Soviet Union is no more, and the world was ready to climb down the nuclear weapons ladder, if the US (the remaining sole superpower) was willing to take the lead. Instead, Washington has engaged in a dangerous and unwise direction.
In 2002 the Bush administration announced a new nuclear posture. Instead of doing what the administration had earlier claimed, that is, to realign American nuclear strategy to the new realities of the 21st century, it had decided to revamp itself to address threats that either no longer exist, or never needed nuclear weapons in response.
The writer claims that policy makers sought to establish unchallengeable nuclear primacy. These debates, coupled with parochial bureaucratic pressures from the U.S. Air Force, led to a buildup of nuclear weapons that in retrospect appears inexcusable.
And since every action in this regard can be expected to result in a reaction, both China and Russia has started revamping or speeding up their own development of dangerous nuclear arsenals to provide some check against a rising US threat. India has joined the bandwagon, as has Pakistan. Israel continues under the radar and unabated, in modernizing its own arsenal, and about renting some US arsenals. Any number of new nations have vowed to match this insane rise of nuclear proliferation.
Nuclear weapons, once invented, cannnot be un-invented. At the same time that the Bush administration has pursued this misguided nuclear doctrines, argues the writer, it has allowed international nonproliferation efforts to wither.
Mr. Wolfgang Panofsky continues : The existing nuclear weapons states, in general, and the United States, in particular, bear a substantial share of the responsibility for these disquieting developments. Washington has consistently disregarded its obligations under the NPT to minimize the role of nuclear weapons in international relations and to work in good faith toward their eventual elimination.
Well its a long essay and interested parties might read it directly from source. Meanwhile, I invite comments from the readers, what, they feel, might be done to reduce an increasing risk of a world living on the precipice, with more and more countries acquiring nuclear weapons, and USA continuing to rebuilt its own nuclear arsenal, in a never ending chain reaction.
Cheers.