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On August 25, India's Defense Minister authorized production of 300 short-range, nuclear-capable Prithvi missiles. The decision was taken in response to a reported August 15 test by Pakistan of the Ghauri III, an intermediate-range, nuclear-capable ballistic missile.
Time and again, US officials have stated that they do not want America to become the policeman of the world. Yet the one institution that can help the United States from being placed in that role-the United Nations-has been treated shabbily by the United States. The United States must re-affirm the UN’s mission with concrete action, beginning with the payment of long-overdue UN dues.
Syria conducted a successful test of the 600 kilometer-range Scud-D missile on September 23, according to Israeli officials. The Scud-D, which Syria acquired from North Korea, is capable of carrying conventional, nuclear, chemical and biological warheads.
Sea-based national missile defense systems have become the most discussed and least understood of all proposed missile defense projects. Proponents assert that Aegis destroyers and cruisers can quickly and inexpensively provide a highly-effective defense against both intermediate- and intercontinental-range ballistic missiles. In fact, sea-based national defense systems face major technological uncertainties, cannot be deployed for at least a decade and could prove prohibitively expensive.
President Clinton has delayed any decision regarding deployment of national missile defenses (NMD) until the next President takes office.
A new report by three leading nuclear
experts urges more aggressive efforts to reduce the threat of nuclear
instability in Russia. The report's central recommendation is that the
United States immediately and significantly increase the resources devoted
to current efforts to secure and consolidate nuclear weapon materials
in the sprawling Russian nuclear complex.
The Kursk submarine disaster has grabbed world attention, but there is one question no one is asking: Why are these ships going to sea at all?" Jon Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Non-Proliferation Project explores this question in an editorial published in the Christian Science Monitor on August 28, 2000. He argues that "[w]ith the Cold War over, the rationale for keeping such systems at sea is gone, and the risk that the next accident will involve a ship carrying nuclear weapons is unacceptably high."
The Pentagon's top test official says that the Clinton administration's national missile defense system is behind schedule and years from possible deployment.