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White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War

IN THIS ISSUE: White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War, President Donald Trump Hopes to 'Sit Down' With Iran Over Nuclear Deal, ‘Missiles Like These Will Start the War’: North Korea Tests Showcase Growing Capability, U.S. Air Force Nuclear, Space Programs Take Hit in Border Wall Reprogramming, Can We Still Regulate Emerging Technologies?

Published on May 14, 2019

White House Reviews Military Plans Against Iran, in Echoes of Iraq War

Eric Schmitt and Julian Barnes | New York Times

At a meeting of President Trump’s top national security aides last Thursday, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan presented an updated military plan that envisions sending as many as 120,000 troops to the Middle East should Iran attack American forces or accelerate work on nuclear weapons, administration officials said. The revisions were ordered by hard-liners led by John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s national security adviser. They do not call for a land invasion of Iran, which would require vastly more troops, officials said. The development reflects the influence of Mr. Bolton, one of the administration’s most virulent Iran hawks, whose push for confrontation with Tehran was ignored more than a decade ago by President George W. Bush.

President Donald Trump Hopes to 'Sit Down' With Iran Over Nuclear Deal

Kim Hjelmgaard and Deirdre Shesgreen | USA Today

Speaking during a campaign rally in Florida, President Donald Trump raised the prospect of holding talks with Iran over the nuclear deal he withdrew the U.S. from. "I hope to be able at some point, maybe it won't happen, possibly won't, to sit down and work out a fair deal, we're not looking to hurt anybody ... we just don't want (Iran) to have nuclear weapons," Trump said Wednesday in Panama City Beach.

‘Missiles Like These Will Start the War’: North Korea Tests Showcase Growing Capability

Josh Smith | Reuters

North Korea’s second missile test on Thursday signals it is serious about developing new, short-range weapons that could be used early and effectively in any war with South Korea and the United States, analysts studying images of the latest launches say. Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw the first flight of a previously untested weapon - a relatively small, fast missile experts believe will be easier to hide, launch, and maneuver in flight. Photos released by state media on Friday showed Thursday’s test involved the same weapon. The tests have increased tensions after the last U.S.-North Korea summit collapsed in February in Hanoi with no agreement over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program. 

U.S. Air Force Nuclear, Space Programs Take Hit in Border Wall Reprogramming

Joe Gould, Aaron Mehta, and Valerie Insinna | Defense News

In the wake of the Pentagon reprogramming $1.5 billion in fiscal 2019 funds to support President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico, only the U.S. Air Force appears to be losing money appropriated for equipment updates. The funding largely comes from personnel accounts in the Air Force, Navy and Army. But the Air Force is the only service to lose funding for hardware, including nuclear and conventional weapons, surveillance aircraft updates, and space programs. Overall, the Pentagon reprogrammed $818.465 million from FY19 defense appropriations, as well as $681.535 million from FY19 overseas contingency operations accounts, or OCO, to reach that $1.5 billion total.

North Korea Demands Return of Cargo Ship Seized by U.S.

NBC News

North Korea on Tuesday called the U.S. seizure of a North Korean cargo ship involved in banned coal exports a "robbery" and demanded that the vessel be returned immediately. The North's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, carried a statement by an unidentified foreign ministry spokesman who accused the United States of betraying the spirit of a summit agreement last June between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump. Kim and Trump agreed then to a vague statement calling for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and improved bilateral ties, but a second meeting between the leaders collapsed in February over mismatched demands in sanctions relief and disarmament.

Can We Still Regulate Emerging Technologies?

Ulrich Kuhn | Valdai Club

So far, the international community has regulated emerging technologies and corresponding weapons systems with three general purposes in mind: (1) to limit or prevent unnecessary or extensive human suffering, (2) to prevent certain actors from gaining access to certain technologies, and (3) to prevent all-out, that is, nuclear, war. Historically seen, the prevention of nuclear war is the youngest broad-ranging effort to regulate war technology. (By the way, the oldest known efforts date back to the Middle Ages when Pope Innocent II in 1139 banned the use of crossbows to be employed against Christians and Catholics alike.) With the emergence of Weapons of Mass Destruction and International Humanitarian Law in the 20th century, efforts to regulate technological advancements became a norm that manifested itself in dozens of bilateral and multilateral international arrangements to limit or somewhat control nuclear, biological, chemical, missile, and other weapons and their corresponding technologies. Export controls, nonproliferation instruments as well as arms control and disarmament agreements came to be part and parcel of the international community’s tool kit to regulate military and dual-use technology. 

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