DOCSLIB.ORG

CPC Outreach Journal #919

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
CPC Outreach Journal #919 Issue No. 919, 27 June 2011 Articles & Other Documents: Featured Article: Congress Continues to Struggle with WMD, Bioterror Legislation 1. Iran to Conduct Missile Drills Today 2. N. Korea's HEU Stocks May Exceed its Plutonium Stockpile in 3 Years 3. N.Korea 'Getting Ready to Build a Nuclear Warhead' 4. Prime Minister Julia Gillard to Call for Global Disarmament, Destroy Atomic Weapons in US, Britain 5. Pakistan, India Seek to Lower Nuclear Fears 6. Melt Seen in Frozen Pak-India Ties 7. India Expects Partners to Fulfill Nuclear Commitments 8. Pak Not Capable of Keeping N-Arms Safe: Top Nuclear Physicist 9. Bulava Launches to Resume June 28 - Source 10. Hugo Chavez in 'Critical' Condition in Cuban Hospital 11. Congress Continues to Struggle with WMD, Bioterror Legislation 12. Fire Threatens Los Alamos National Laboratory 13. FBI Says Terrorism Cases on Upswing 14. War on Terror and Judicial Collapse in Pakistan – Analysis 15. Nuclear Proliferation in Southwest Asia 16. U.S. and North Korea: The Land of Lousy Options 17. Deterrent and Defense against a Nuclear Iran 18. Iran Carves Out an AfPak Hub Welcome to the CPC Outreach Journal. As part of USAF Counterproliferation Center’s mission to counter weapons of mass destruction through education and research, we’re providing our government and civilian community a source for timely counterproliferation information. This information includes articles, papers and other documents addressing issues pertinent to US military response options for dealing with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats and countermeasures. It’s our hope this information resource will help enhance your counterproliferation issue awareness. Established in 1998, the USAF/CPC provides education and research to present and future leaders of the Air Force, as well as to members of other branches of the armed services and Department of Defense. Our purpose is to help those agencies better prepare to counter the threat from weapons of mass destruction. Please feel free to visit our web site at http://cpc.au.af.mil/ for in-depth information and specific points of contact. The following articles, papers or documents do not necessarily reflect official endorsement of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or other US government agencies. Reproduction for private use or commercial gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. All rights are reserved. Issue No. 919, 27 June 2011 The following articles, papers or documents do not necessarily reflect official endorsement of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or other US government agencies. Reproduction for private use or commercial gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. All rights are reserved. United States Air Force Counterproliferation Research & Education | Maxwell AFB, Montgomery AL | Phone: 334.953.7538 | Fax: 334.953.7530 FARS News Agency – Iran Monday, June 27, 2011 Iran to Conduct Missile Drills Today TEHRAN (FNA) - A senior Iranian commander announced that the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) Aerospace unit plans to start massive missile wargames on Monday. IRGC Aerospace Force Commander Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh said that the exercises, codenamed Great Prophet-6, are to start on Monday. "Short-, medium- and long-range missiles will be fired, specially the Khalij-Fars, Sejil, Fateh, Ghiam, and Shahab-1 and -2 missiles," he said. The General, whose force carries out wargames each year in the Persian Gulf region, said the latest exercises were "a message of peace and friendship to the countries of the region". Hajizadeh did not mention how long the maneuvers will last. Iran has made giant progress in missile-production technology during the last decade. Late in May, the Iranian Defense Ministry supplied large numbers of 'Qiyam (Rise) 1' high-precision ballistic missiles to the IRGC Aerospace Force. At the ceremony, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said that mass-production of Qiyam 1 missiles indicated Tehran's self-sufficiency in producing different types of missiles. Referring to the detailed features and specifications of the newly mass-produced ballistic missile, Vahidi said that Qiyam 1 is the country's first finless missile. The minister added that the very special design of the missile makes its detection by radars and air defense systems difficult. He said that omission of the fins from the design has increased the velocity of the missile and shortened the launch time. In February, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari announced that the IRGC has started mass-production of a recently-developed smart anti-ship ballistic missile. "The IRGC's smart ballistic missiles are now in mass-production and this type of missiles can hit and destroy targets with high-precision," Jafari told reporters in a news conference here in Tehran in February. "These new missiles enjoys supersonic speed and cannot be tracked or intercepted by enemy," the commander said, adding that missiles can hit targets 300km away with high-precision. The Iranian Defense Ministry in October delivered the third generation of home-made Fateh-110 high-precision ballistic missiles to the IRGC Aerospace Force. http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9004060295 (Return to Articles and Documents List) Arirang News – South Korea June 27, 2011 N. Korea's HEU Stocks May Exceed its Plutonium Stockpile in 3 Years A nuclear expert in the United States projects North Korea will obtain over 40 kilograms of high enriched uranium in three years. Issue No. 919, 27 June 2011 United States Air Force Counterproliferation Research & Education | Maxwell AFB, Montgomery AL | Phone: 334.953.7538 | Fax: 334.953.7530 Olli Heinonen, former Deputy Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency posted on 38 North, a website devoted to North Korean issues that Pyongyang would be capable of producing 1.8 tons of low enriched uranium if all 2-thousand centrifuge machines at its enrichment facility in Yongbyon were operated at full capacity. He said an additional 8-hundred centrifuges would be able to convert the low enriched uranium to 40 kilograms of high enriched uranium, which would be enough to make one or two new nuclear bombs. Heinonen added that if North Korea was left on its own, its high enriched uranium stocks could exceed its current plutonium stockpile after three years. Pyeongyang is estimated to have between 25 to 40 kilograms of plutonium stocks. http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=117471&code=Ne2&category=2 (Return to Articles and Documents List) Chosun Ilbo – South Korea N.Korea 'Getting Ready to Build a Nuclear Warhead' June 27, 2011 North Korea probably has "a rudimentary design for a nuclear warhead for a ballistic missile," a British expert claims. Joseph Bermudez, an analyst for Jane's Information Group and editor of the KPA Journal, told Radio Australia last Friday, "From what we can tell, North Korea, since it began its ballistic missile program, has desired to put a nuclear warhead on it." The North has not tested a missile with a nuclear warhead on it, but Bermudez was at any rate skeptical whether it would work. North Korea is "on the threshold of conducting a successful space launch of a satellite," Bermudez said, "If they do develop an ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile], it would allow them to strike at the continent of the United States eventually. Would it be militarily significant? Probably not, in the sense that Western powers think so, but politically it would be a tremendous game change." He said images provided by Digital Globe "show that there is an extensive above-ground infrastructure, but they also show entrances to underground facilities around the production facilities and the bases themselves are primarily underground facilities. I've combined this information with defectors' views and information released by intelligence agencies to come to an understanding that the underground facilities of the North Korean ballistic missile infrastructure are probably equal to what we see above ground." http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/06/27/2011062701058.html (Return to Articles and Documents List) Daily Telegraph – Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard to Call for Global Disarmament, Destroy Atomic Weapons in US, Britain By Simon Benson, National Political Editor, The Daily Telegraph June 27, 2011 JULIA Gillard will call for a parliamentary vote on a motion calling for nuclear armed countries - including our closest allies in the US and Britain - to destroy their atomic weapons. It would be the first time the Australian parliament had adopted a resolution calling for global disarmament. Ms Gillard has agreed to sponsor a motion into the parliament after pressure from Labor MPs on a parliamentary Committee on Treaties. Issue No. 919, 27 June 2011 United States Air Force Counterproliferation Research & Education | Maxwell AFB, Montgomery AL | Phone: 334.953.7538 | Fax: 334.953.7530 She will call for Opposition Leader Tony Abbott to support the motion, which was supported by Greens members of the committee. In a letter from Ms Gillard to the committee on June 15, the Prime Minister confirmed the government would adopt recommendation 21 of its Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament report. The resolution calls for an immediate cut to all nuclear arsenals, starting with a ban on enrichment and the production of fissile material. It is believed it was the second time the committee had written to Ms Gillard, after she ignored the first request earlier this year. In one letter, it was suggested that if the Prime Minister did not want to do it, Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd might move the resolution instead. Ms Gillard finally responded this week, confirming that she would agree to introduce the motion. "I am pleased to advise that the government intends to facilitate a motion in support of the abolition of nuclear weapons being considered in parliament," Ms Gillard said.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Israel, Iran and Project Daniel a Six-Year Retrospective
    ISRAEL, IRAN AND PROJECT DANIEL A SIX-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE Louis René Beres, 1 Chair of Project Daniel The views expressed in this six-year retrospective are those of Professor Louis René Beres, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any other members of Project Daniel, or of any government. In the increasingly urgent matter of Iranian nuclearization, one core question emerges: Has Israel already run out of time? Exactly six years ago, our small group of Israeli and American strategists issued an informed and authoritative set of recommendations. Today, some of these recommendations (first made public in May 2004/see below) may have become problematic, but they are also by no means less valid or less valuable. Rather, they still warrant very close and careful study, especially as a new American president now enters the White House. Here, then, is both the brief history and the intellectual substance of Project Daniel. Israel’s Strategic Future: The Final Report of Project Daniel was first presented by hand to then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on January 16, 20032. The underlying rationale of this report was the plausible presumption that Israel needed a coherent plan for dealing with particular existential threats, and that we (“The Group”) were well-positioned to design such a plan. We began our 1 The Project Daniel Group: Professor Louis René Beres, Chair, USA; Naaman Belkind, Former Assistant to the Deputy Minister of Defense for Special Means, Israel; MK, Maj. Gen. (Res.), Israeli Air Force, Professor Isaac Ben-Israel, Israel; Dr. Rand H. Fishbein, Former Professional Staff Member, US Senate Appropriations Committee and Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to US Senator Daniel K.
    [Show full text]
  • War of Words Or a Regional Disaster: the (Il)Legality of Israeli and Iranian Military Options Behnam Gharagozli
    Hastings International and Comparative Law Review Volume 33 Article 5 Number 1 Winter 2010 1-1-2010 War of Words or a Regional Disaster: The (Il)Legality of Israeli and Iranian Military Options Behnam Gharagozli Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_international_comparative_law_review Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Behnam Gharagozli, War of Words or a Regional Disaster: The (Il)Legality of Israeli and Iranian Military Options, 33 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 203 (2010). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol33/iss1/5 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. War of Words or a Regional Disaster? The (I1) Legality of Israeli and Iranian Military Options By BEHNAM GHARAGOZLI* Israel is a "germ of corruption" that will be "removed soon."1 - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "Two thousand kilometers." 2 -Former IDF Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz on how far Israel would go to stop Iran's nuclear program. Two thousand kilometers is the distance between Iran and Israel. I. Introduction The above two quotes are a microcosm of the current war of words between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran. As the intensity of the verbal exchanges between the two rivals grows, so does the importance of analyzing the current Israeli-Iranian enmity.
    [Show full text]
  • After Osama Bin Laden: Assassination, Terrorism, War, and International Law Louis Rene Beres
    Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 44 | Issue 1 2011 After Osama Bin Laden: Assassination, Terrorism, War, and International Law Louis Rene Beres Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Louis Rene Beres, After Osama Bin Laden: Assassination, Terrorism, War, and International Law, 44 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 93 (2011) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol44/iss1/8 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. File: Beres 2 Created on: 2/12/2012 3:26:00 PM Last Printed: 4/18/2012 3:22:00 PM AFTER OSAMA BIN LADEN: ASSASSINATION, TERRORISM, WAR, AND INTERNATIONAL LAW Professor Louis René Beres International law, always confronting multiple crises, is now in a protracted crisis itself. Regarding the struggle against terrorism, especially mass-casualty terrorism, states will increasingly require unorthodox means. In principle, at least, these means may sometimes include defensive first strikes that are known, jurisprudentially, as “anticipatory self-defense.” Such preemptive measures could range from individual “targeted killings,”1 or assassinations,2 to assorted expressions of cyber-war, to more-or-less far-reaching military strikes. In all of these cases, the determinable lawful- ness of preemption will ultimately depend, inter alia, upon the imminence and urgency of the particular danger posed.
    [Show full text]
  • Facing Myriad Enemies: Core Elements of Israeli Nuclear Deterrence Louis René Beres Professor of Political Science Purdue University
    Facing Myriad Enemies: Core Elements of Israeli Nuclear Deterrence Louis René Beres Professor of Political Science Purdue University The study of war reveals both continuities and discontinuities. Today, such study instructs that the most starkly apparent discontinuities can be discovered in our steadily enhanced powers of physical destruction, most notably nuclear weapons technologies. As for continuities, the most obvious are those unchang- ing general principles that concern offense versus defense and, as a corollary, the inevitable primacy of intellectual power. What follows is a timely examination of these war-related principles within the particular and potentially time-urgent context of Israeli nuclear deterrence. 17 Throughout history, at the end of any military conflict, the winning side will have succeeded somehow in accomplishing the triumph of “mind over mind.” Since the ancient times of Greek and Macedonian warfare, derivative considerations of “mind over matter” have been relegated to a reflective or merely epiphenomenal importance. The reason for this is that the critically core battlefield, as ancient Chinese strategist Sun-Tzu had already observed, must always be located in a reality-setting contest of human intellect.1 It follows that, for any modern state, fashioning an appropriate strategic theory or dialectic is necessarily prior to achieving any operational success on the battlefield. Theory is a net. Only those who cast can catch. In the absence of a theo- retically informed strategic doctrine, all moves on an actual battlefield will lack any sense of coherence or totality. Such moves, in fact, would likely be utterly ad hoc, more or less random, or even disjointed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East; Obstacles to a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations and Theses City College of New York 2014 The Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East; Obstacles to a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone Michael Chance CUNY City College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/296 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] The Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons in the Middle East: Obstacles to a Nuclear- Weapons-Free Zone Michael Chance May 2014 Master’s Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master’s of Arts in International Affairs (MIA) at the City College of New York Adviser: Professor Jean Krasno Abstract Every country in the Middle East – with the exception of Israel – has signed and ratified The Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and renounced its sovereign right to build or acquire nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, there have been more violations of the NPT non-proliferation norm in the Middle East than in any other region of the world. These violations have eroded the credibility of the international non-proliferation regime and represent its inability to constrain state behavior and verify compliance in the Middle East. A regional nuclear-weapon-free zone (NWFZ) has been endorsed by every country in the region but there has been little progress made toward achieving this goal. Israel is the only nuclear power in the Middle East and would have to disarm in order to establish a NWFZ.
    [Show full text]
  • Correspondence Louis René Beres Israel and the Bomb Zeev Maoz
    Correspondence Correspondence Louis René Beres Zeev Maoz Israel and the Bomb To the Editors: Israeli strategist Zeev Maoz’s controversial article, “The Mixed Blessing of Israel’s Nu- clear Policy,” calls for Israel to disband its nuclear weapons program and join with Arab states in the region to create a “nuclear weapons–free zone.”1 The article, however, ig- nores the history of Israeli-Arab relations, especially the unending Arab call for Israel’s annihilation and the indisputable record of Arab and Iranian noncompliance with inter- national legal obligations. Most ominously, this record includes Iran’s recently revealed pursuit of nuclear weapons while party to the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. How little has been learned in some academic quarters. Should Israeli leaders take seriously Maoz’s call to renounce nuclear weapons, they might as well agree to commit national suicide. Deprived of its nuclear deterrent, Israel would be at the mercy of gov- ernments that unambiguously profess genocide against a country half the size of Lake Michigan. Admittedly, it is difªcult to imagine nuclear weapons as anything other than inher- ently evil implements of destruction. Yet there are circumstances wherein possession of such weapons will be all that protects a state from catastrophic war. Moreover, be- cause nuclear weapons may deter international aggression, their possession could also protect neighboring states (friends and foes alike) from war-related or even nuclear- inºicted harm. It follows that not all members of the “nuclear club” need be a menace; rather, some may provide a distinct and indispensable beneªt to world peace and security.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel's Nuclear Strategy and America's National Security
    ABSTRACT In most cases, scholars interested in the nuclear relationship between Israeli national security and US national security consider Israel only as the recipient of American protection under Washington's "nuclear umbrella." In these orthodox examinations, there has been almost no attention directed toward those more-or-less reciprocal circumstances in which the United States could conceivably benet from Israel's nuclear strategy. The following paper by Professor Louis René Beres, with added special Postscript by U.S. General (ret.) Barry R. McCarey (1) explores various complex synergies between Israeli and American nuclear postures; and (2) concludes with suitably precise policy COVER recommendations that Washington recognize a distinctly vested American interest in safeguarding and strengthening Israel's nuclear strategy. Israel’s nuclear strategy Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security was launched in 2002 by Prof. Isaac Ben-Israel in conjunction with and America’s national the Harold Hartog School of Policy and Government and the Security Studies Program with the intention of exploring the link among security policy, technology and science. For this reason the security workshop holds annual series of conferences and conducts research. The workshop covers various topics such as international relations and strategy, missiles and guided weapons, robotics, space Louis René Beres, Ph.D. policy and security, cyberspace and cyber warfare, the interplay Emeritus Professor of International Law between society and security, nuclear energy, homeland security, Purdue University force build-up policy, government decision-making processes, and more. With a special post script by General (USA/Ret.) Barry R. McCaffrey December 2016 ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR STRATEGY AND AMERICA’S NATIONAL SECURITY DECEMBER 2016 LOUIS RENÉ BERES, PH.D.
    [Show full text]
  • Israel's Strategic Future Project Daniel
    ACPR Policy Paper No. 155 ISRAEL’S STRATEGIC FUTURE PROJECT DANIEL The Project Daniel Group Louis René Beres, Chair Professor Louis René Beres, Chair, USA; Naaman Belkind, Former Assistant to the Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense for Special Means, Israel; Maj. Gen. (Res.), Israel Air Force/Professor Isaac Ben-Israel, Israel; Dr. Rand H. Fishbein, Former Professional Staff Member, US Senate Appropriations Committee, and former Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to Senator Daniel K. Inouye, USA Dr. Adir Pridor, Lt. Col. (Ret.), Israel Air Force; Former Head of Military Analyses, RAFAEL, Israel; and Former MK./Col. (Res.), Israel Air Force, Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto, Israel. ISBN 965 716558 X Copyright © ACPR Publishers May 2004 / Sivan 5764 2 ISRAEL’S STRATEGIC FUTURE: The Final Report of Project Daniel April 2004 Foreword by Professor Louis René Beres, Chair Further to the issuance of The National Security Strategy of the United States of America on September 20, 2002, US President George W. Bush launched Operation Iraqi Freedom in March of the following year. The results of that war, still substantially unclear at the time of this writing, derive from a greatly broadened American assertion of the right of unilateral preemption. A conceptual and implemented right, it expands the binding and well-established customary prerogative of “Anticipatory Self-Defense”1 under international law. Although there have as yet been no subsequent legal codifications of this American expansion, the precedent established by the world’s only remaining Great Power is certain to impact the actual policy behavior of other states. Not surprisingly, many in the international community have criticized this new policy.
    [Show full text]
  • DECEPTIONS of a “NUCLEAR WEAPONS-FREE WORLD” Why President Barack Obama’S Good Intentions Could Bring Genocidal War to Israel
    14 April 2009 DECEPTIONS OF A “NUCLEAR WEAPONS-FREE WORLD” Why President Barack Obama’s Good Intentions Could Bring Genocidal War to Israel Louis René Beres1 In his clearly expressed preference for a world without nuclear weapons, US President Barack Obama certainly means well. To be sure, his idealized vision of such a world seems at least viscerally desirable. The issue, however, is not just the enduring and possibly irremediable security problem of strategic uncertainty and verification, but also that nuclear weapons are not inherently evil or even per se destabilizing. In many critical circumstances, as we should already have learned from basic Soviet-American peace during the Cold War, nuclear weapons can even be indispensable to the avoidance of catastrophic war. For the most part, President Obama is correct. Any further nuclear proliferation would surely be intolerable, and should therefore be contained at all costs. Nonetheless, there are some nation-states in our decentralized world system (international lawyers call it the “Westphalian” system after the major1648 peace treaty that first brought it into existence) that could never survive in the global “state of nature” without nuclear deterrence. Israel is assuredly the single most obvious case in point. Should the Jewish state ever have to face its myriad enemies without such deterrence, its already-planned annihilation by these relentless 1 LOUIS RENÉ BERES (Ph.D., Princeton, 1971) is the author of some of the earliest major books and articles on Israel’s nuclear strategy, including Apocalypse: Nuclear Catastrophe in World Politics (The University of Chicago Press, 1980), and Security or Armageddon: Israel’s Nuclear Strategy (Lexington Books, 1986).
    [Show full text]
  • A Natural Law Justification for the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War William C
    Notre Dame Law Review Volume 79 Issue 4 The Changing Laws of War: Do We Need a Article 7 New Legal Regime after September 11? 7-1-2004 The Duty to Defend Them: A Natural Law Justification for the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War William C. Bradford Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Recommended Citation William C. Bradford, The Duty to Defend Them: A Natural Law Justification for the Bush Doctrine of Preventive War, 79 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1365 (2004). Available at: http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr/vol79/iss4/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized administrator of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "THE DUTY TO DEFEND THEM":' A NATURAL LAW JUSTIFICATION FOR THE BUSH DOCTRINE OF PREVENTIVE WAR William C. Bradford* INTRODUCTION We cannot stand by and do nothing while dangers gather. 2 President George W. Bush The horrific events of September 11, 2001 heralded an Age of Terror 3 in which wicked malcreants bent on acquiring weapons of mass destruction 4 (WMD) will abjure all legal restraint 5 and deliber- * Assistant Professor of Law, Indiana University School of Law, Indianapolis; Articles Editor, Journal of National Security Law and Policy; U.S. Army, 1989-2001. I am indebted to colleagues who were gracious enough to review and comment upon earlier drafts, includingJeffAddicott, Lou Beres, Robert Chesney, Steve Dycus, Derek Jinks, Gerard Magliocca, Jordan Paust, Mike Ramsey, Lee Schinasi, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Jim Torke, Ruth Wedgwood, and George Wright.
    [Show full text]
  • Updating Israel's Nuclear Doctrine
    Changing Direction? Updating Israel’s Nuclear Doctrine Louis René Beres Regional Balance and “Deliberate Ambiguity” Operation Protective Edge invited the conclusion, yet again, that Israel’s chief security issues involve Palestinian terrorism. Although such a view is not necessarily shortsighted or mistaken, the genuinely existential issues of nuclear strategy and nuclear war must remain at the very forefront of IDF planning attention. Israel’s leaders have always understood the need for a recognizable “security equalizer.” Already in the late 1950s, then-Prime Minister David Ben Gurion fixed his hopes for national survival and self-defense on some apt form of Israeli nuclear weapons capability. More specifically, Ben Gurion calculated that just having “the bomb” would adequately assure the Jewish state’s strategic deterrent, at least with regard to possible enemy attacks employing weapons of mass destruction, and/or large scale conventional arms. Clearly, all of Ben Gurion’s successors have adhered, more or less openly, to this same line of strategic reasoning. 1 And why not? From the start, the Israeli policy of a “bomb in the basement” seemed to make eminently good sense. Everyone essentially understood that Israel possessed nuclear weapons. Why, then, should Jerusalem be gratuitously more precise? Why, too, should an evidently fragile Israel reveal more, and needlessly alienate the United States? A meaningful and convincing answer to this question, rooted in precise conceptual understanding, is that no automatic, necessary correlation can ever be made between general enemy perceptions of Israel’s nuclear Dr. Louis René Beres, former Chair of Project Daniel, is a professor of Political Science and International Law at Purdue University and the author of many books and articles on nuclear strategy and nuclear war.
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Extremism and International Legal Norms: Perfidy, Preemption, and Irrationality Louis Rene Beres
    Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 39 Issue 3 2007-2008 2008 Religious Extremism and International Legal Norms: Perfidy, Preemption, and Irrationality Louis Rene Beres Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Louis Rene Beres, Religious Extremism and International Legal Norms: Perfidy, Preemption, and Irrationality, 39 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 709 (2008) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol39/iss3/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM AND INTERNATIONAL LEGAL NORMS: PERFIDY, PREEMPTION, AND IRRATIONALITY Louis Reng Beres* The French dramatist and diplomat, Jean Giraudoux, inquires in So- dome et Gomorrhe,"C'estbeau, n 'est-ce pas, lafin du monde?"' "It is beau- tiful, isn't it, the end of the world?" Like the ironic playwright who explodes the myth of an ordered cosmos, the contemporary terrorist often sees great beauty in the ultimate form of disorder, in chaotic visions of an apocalyptic end to "heresy," "blasphemy," "apostasy," and all other forms of unbelief. For the terrorist who remains defined in many different ways by the diverse worlds of law and politics, violence is not only a sacred path to universal cleansing and redemption, it is the only path. What is more, this "path"-to continue the metaphor-is more than a means to an end.
    [Show full text]