WMD & Proliferation

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Postscript,
Michael O'Hanlon

The Obama administration's cancellation of a missile-defense network in Europe is not a sign of misguided weakness, but rather the result of a prudent reexamination of U.S. priorities. But what will come in its place?

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Letter From,
Ronen Bergman

The Israeli public and the country's intelligence experts have two different views of the threat posed by the Iranian nuclear program. Which will win out, and what is Washington's influence?

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Snapshot,
Frank Procida

The debate in Washington about Iran's nuclear program has lost all sense of proportion. A nuclear-armed Iran would be a threat, but largely to the regime in Tehran.

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Snapshot,
Victor D. Cha

What North Korea hoped to gain from its failed missile launch -- and how Washington can avoid falling into its negotiating trap.

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Essay, Mar/Apr 2009
Rachel L. Loeffler

Financial sanctions have become a key tool of U.S. foreign policy. Measures taken against Iran and North Korea make clear that this new financial statecraft can be effective, but true success will require persuading global banks to accept a shared sense of risk.

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Comment, Mar/Apr 2008
Andrei Lankov

Despite international calls for reform, the North Korean government is doing its best to maintain the domestic status quo -- and with good reason, at least from its perspective. Still, change is coming in very slow motion thanks to international aid and illegal exchanges with the outside world, which are eroding Pyongyang's legitimacy.

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Essay, Jan/Feb 2008
Michael Levi

Nuclear terrorism poses a grave threat to global security, but seeking silver bullets to counter it does not make sense. Instead of pursuing a perfect defense, U.S. policymakers should create an integrated defensive system that takes advantage of the terrorists' weaknesses and disrupts their plots at every stage, thereby chipping away at their overall chances of success.

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Essay, Sep/Oct 2007
Michael J. Mazarr

The outcome of the North Korean nuclear saga has been held up as an example of the Bush administration defying its bellicose reputation and using multilateralism and diplomacy to defuse a crisis. But in fact, the story is one of extremely poor policymaking and a persistent failure to devise a coherent strategy -- with the result that North Korea has managed to dramatically expand its nuclear capability.

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Essay, Sep/Oct 2007
Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky

The Bush administration has adopted a misguided and dangerous nuclear posture. Instead of recycling antiquated doctrines and building a new generation of warheads, the United States should drastically reduce its nuclear arsenal, strengthen the international nonproliferation regime, and move toward the eventual elimination of nuclear weapons.

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Review Essay, Jul/Aug 2007
James Surowiecki

Indur Goklany's The Improving State of the World offers a healthy corrective to the pervasive view that everything is getting worse. But its facile suggestion that further advances are all but inevitable misreads the true causes of progress.

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