The news last week that six Arab states are beginning efforts to acquire nuclear technology — although the technology is ostensibly for civil power generation — is stark evidence that non-proliferation efforts around the world must not be neglected. The world has been focused on the Oct. 9 North Korean nuclear test and the Iranian nuclear program and its regional consequences. But the threat of nuclear proliferation is not limited to Asia and the Middle East. South America also poses a threat. South American allies Argentina and Brazil abandoned their relatively advanced nuclear weapons programs, signed the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) [...]
Africa is on the verge of yet another major war. For the past four months, Somalia has been battered by an internal conflict between an Islamic movement and a secular government. In recent weeks, troops from neighboring Ethiopia and Eritrea have entered the country. Thousands of refugees have been fleeing across the Somali-Kenyan border, threatening to overwhelm the Kenyan government. The escalating war in Somalia, coming on top of the conflicts in Sudan and the Congo, underscores the need for the United States to develop an improved means for managing African security issues. For many years, American strategists have argued [...]
Nicaragua’s former left-wing dictator Daniel Ortega appears set to win his fourth attempt to be the democratically elected president of his country, which is still trying to recover from the ravages of a long civil war. The latest opinion polls show he could win election on the first ballot, on Nov. 5. A poll published Oct. 18 by the daily El Nuevo Diario showed the former Sandinista rebel commander has 37.5 percent support against 20.1 percent for his closest rival, former Vice President Jose Rizo, of the Liberal Party. Under Nicaraguan election law, the leader of the first-round ballot is [...]
