China’s objection to the early release of a UN report on North Korea’s compliance with UN sanctions stemmed from its misplaced confidence in international diplomacy.
Most of the countries in West Asia have expressed an interest in developing nuclear energy. For them their growing demand of electricity owing to the increasing population, growing industries, their eternal reliance on the desalinated water and environmental protection are the major drivers of their decision to produce nuclear energy. Importantly, they would like to use nuclear energy for domestic consumption and supply oil and gas to earn more revenues.
Nuclear energy is undergoing a global renaissance. While nuclear energy has been contributing between 14 and 16 per cent of the total electricity in the world in recent years, most of the countries that are operating nuclear power reactors are expanding and/or reviving their nuclear energy development programmes, including countries such as the US and the UK. At the same time, several new countries and regions, many of which are rich in other energy resources, are also opting for nuclear energy.
Nuclear energy, as we know it, was unleashed by nature at Oklo in Gabon, Africa, when uranium formed rings on its mountains billion of years ago. Natural uranium contains at least three per cent uranium. This uranium formed rings around the mountain and acted as fuel rods in a reactor. When rain water was run across the fuel rod, it acted as a reactor. The Oklo phenomenon was discovered only in 1972. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) saw fit to run an international conference on the subject.
This paper argues that the CSC does not confer any benefit to India and that it may in fact prove to be detrimental to Indian interests and why it should, therefore, not be signed.
The latest IAEA report dated September 6, 2010 to the Board of Governors, delineating Iran’s compliance or otherwise with the provisions and requirements of the IAEA and UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, indicates that contentious issues have not been resolved. As sanctions tighten, the US, China and Russia have urged Iran to fully cooperate with the IAEA.
In the event of a test, it’s a safe bet that several factors will play into determining U.S. response. This response will be constrained by the strength of the U.S.-India relationship. Further, due to India's deepening nuclear ties with the rest of the world, any U.S. response may have only a modest impact on India.
The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) emphasis two realities, first the challenge of nuclear terrorism and proliferation; and second, it affirms the end of the Cold War rivalries. But the “resetting” of relationship with Moscow had created an enemy vacuum for the U.S. To fill this gap, North Korea has been constructed as an enemy which justifies the continuity of the “nuclear umbrella” in the Northeast Asian region. But as an asymmetrical, surrogate enemy it is actually the pretext to maintain ‘critical bases’ in Northeast Asia which functions as hubs for U.S. global military power projection.
Will the recent US Treasury sanctions and impending Congress sanctions on Iran influence Indian companies from doing business with the Islamic Republic?
The RevCon, after abundant manoeuvring and political one-upmanship, finalised quite ‘consensually’ a much diluted and defeatist document that promises to ensure that disarmament remains a dream.
