USA and Canada

Photo: Brzezinski at the Munich Security Conference, 2014. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The Cold War Warrior Brzezinski Sometimes was Very Wrong

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - In a maudlin sort of way there is a funny story that Zbigniew Brzezinski, who died on May 26, sometimes told. It was when he was national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter. It was his job to take any calls from the military on a suspected incoming nuclear attack. In a matter of seconds he had to evaluate it and decide whether to tell the president, even if he was asleep. It did in fact happen on one occasion.

He was awakened in the middle of the night to be told that it looked like a Soviet pre-emptive nuclear attack was on its way. He told the general that he would give him 5 minutes to double-check his information. (The warning time before impact was around 20 minutes.) After 4 minutes the general called [JP1] back and said it had been a false alarm. Afterwards [JP2] Brzezinski was asked if he had woken his wife. “No”, he said. “If she was going to die, better it was in her sleep.”

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 30 May 2017

Veterans For Peace Mobilise To Resist Militarism

By Brian Trautman*

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) - The United States is the most militarized and jingoistic nation on earth. Its foreign policy is guided by imperialist militarism, neoliberal capitalism and racial xenophobia. For more than sixteen years now, three presidential administrations have carried out a so-called “War on Terror” (GWOT), a perpetual state of war that is waged globally, under the depraved reasoning that “the world is a battlefield,” to quote investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill.

As demonstrated by the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the GWOT is conducted through conventional warfare. More often, however, it is executed through covert or “dirty” wars, against groups and individuals in many other nations.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 25 May 2017

Photo: A step closer to fusion energy. Credit: DOE

U.S. Prepares To Confront Nuclear Ban Treaty With Smart Bombs

Analysis by Rick Wayman*

WASHINGTON, D.C: (IDN) - On May 23, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a press release celebrating President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget. DOE specifically lauded the proposed “$10.2 billion for Weapons Activities to maintain and enhance the safety, security, and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons enterprise.”

Less than 24 hours earlier, Ambassador Elayne Whyte of Costa Rica released a draft of a treaty banning nuclear weapons. Ambassador Whyte is President of the United Nations Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination. Over 130 nations have participated in the ban treaty negotiations thus far. A final treaty text is expected by early July.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 24 May 2017

Trump 2018 Budget Proposes Hike in Arms Spending

WASHINGTON, D.C.(IDN | NAPF) – The U.S. Department of Energy released Trump’s Fiscal Year 2018 budget request on May 23. The budget includes a $54 billion increase in defence spending, including $10.2 billion for supposed “Weapons activities to maintain and enhance the safety, security and effectiveness of our nuclear weapons enterprise.” Details of exactly what is included in the $10.2 billion increase have not yet been released.

While the overall budget includes significant increases to defence spending, it also includes significant cuts to scientific research, medical research, disease prevention and health insurance for children of the working poor. The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) current funding would be cut by more than 30 percent. Planned Parenthood would not receive any Health and Human Services Funding.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 24 May 2017

Photo: President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrive to the Murabba Palace, escorted by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, Saturday evening, May 20, 2017, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to attend a banquet in their honor. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

Donald Trump Does Not Know Leadership

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Donald Trump is the antithesis of leadership. Walking into the cauldron of the Middle East and denouncing Iran when it had just – almost at the same moment – re-elected as president a man who presided over the deal that de-fanged his country’s nuclear program and whose support is badly needed in fashioning an end to the Syrian war, stabilising Iraq and beheading ISIS was a show of how not to make friends and win people over.

In Saudi Arabia he seemed to act as if enormous amounts of military hardware would be enough to convince its leadership that he was a changed man – as a presidential candidate he had said many harsh words about the country. I doubt if the Saudi Arabians were so quickly convinced that he is a sophisticated leader capable of untangling the criss-crossing of alliances and interests that bedevil parts of the Middle East. The lack of loud applause when he gave his “big” speech tells it all.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 23 May 2017

Photo: President Reagan says goodbye to Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev after the last meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, on 12 October 1986. Credit: White House Photo Office.

Towards Peace by Pursuing Live and Let Live Policies

By Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) - Foreign policies – an integral part of any national strategy – command the highest priority of all nations.

Since World War II, several foreign policies of super powers did not yield expected results even though all policies and concomitant interventions came with guarantees of peace, prosperity and democracy that never materialized.

As we know, the policies in the Far East led to devastation of Vietnam, North Korea and Laos, the policy of containment of communism, and the 45-year Cold War Policy ended the East European bloc and dismantled the Soviet Union, and the policies of pre-emptive strikes and of regime change destroyed the lives of millions of people in the Middle East.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 22 May 2017

In Memoriam: Remembering Ernest Corea

BERLIN | WASHINGTON | COLOMBO - Ernest Corea, one of Sri Lanka’s most distinguished journalists and diplomats died on May 11, 2017 after a long illness. Throughout his career, he worked to maintain a free and independent press, advocated for the interests of the Sri Lankan people, and worked to improve conditions for the poor worldwide. He was awarded the Deshabandu Class 1 National Day honour for meritorious diplomatic service.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; HUMAN RIGHTS; Press Freedom; 12 May 2017

It's High Time Trump Made Friends with Russia

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Does anyone, however well-informed, know what President Donald Trump thinks about President Vladimir Putin? I hazard a guess that he is still more pro than anti, only he doesn’t quite know where to begin.

It’s time overdue that they met and hammered out on the anvil what their mutual interests are.

Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have left a legacy that makes it hard for Trump to manoeuvre. They have trampled not so much on Putin but on Russia’s core interests. When Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, and later Putin himself were lobbying for what the last Soviet leader, Mikhael Gorbachev, had called a “common European house” they were taking heed of a Russian mood to drive through a new entente.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 09 May 2017

Nuclear Risks in North East Asia Call For A Mutual Pullback

By Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs

This is the text of a statement issued on May 4 by Pugwash President Jayantha Dhanapala, Secretary General Paolo Cotta-Ramusino, Executive Committee Chair Steve Miller, Council Mark Suh and Executive Committee's Tatsujiro Suzuki. - The Editor

KANDY, Sri Lanka (IDN-INPS) - The mounting confrontation with North Korea is raising grave dangers. Both sides have made potentially escalatory moves. Indeed, the combination of harsh rhetoric and threatening military actions has produced a situation that has been characterized by some in the United States as a Cuban missile crisis in slow motion. As was true in 1962, there is an unusual sense that events can slip out of control, that disastrous outcomes could result from the dynamics now underway in Northeast Asia.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 04 May 2017

Three Months of Donald Trump: More of the Same

Analysis by Marcelo Colussi*

GUATEMALA CITY (IDN) – More than three months have passed since the inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the world's leading capitalist power: the United States of America. Nothing has changed. If someone had thought that something could change with his arrival at the White House, they were mistaken from beginning to end. Why should anything change?

The rhetoric used by the tycoon during his presidential campaign could certainly have led one to imagine – mistakenly – some change of scenario. Given the current crisis experienced by the US economy, his programme appeared to be – at least in words – a promise to revive a downcast national industry.