North Korea's nuclear test |
On 9 October 2006, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test. By crossing this threshold, Pyongyang openly defied the US and China and placed the tattered non-proliferation regime at increased risk. While agreement was reached on 31 October to resume the long-stalled Six-Party Talks, Pyongyang seems intent principally on deflecting international pressure and conciliating China. An internally divided Bush administration is unlikely to engage the North on terms set out by Pyongyang. Regional capitals have only begun to weigh the longer-term implications of a nuclear-armed North Korea, and the possibility of heightened confrontation and a broader crisis still looms large. |
NATO's Afghan mission |
Lieutenant General David Richards, the Briton heading the NATO force in Afghanistan, said in October that the winter should be spent winning over the 70% of Afghans who, if they saw no prospect of security and the means to feed their families, might swing behind the Taliban. If this effort did not succeed the next year would prove even more of a trial for NATO. The general’s statement illustrates what is at stake for Western leaders as they prepare to gather in Riga for the 28–29 November NATO summit. By stepping up its commitment in Afghanistan, the alliance has, in effect, staked much of its future on being able to build a state where previously there had hardly been a government. |
The United Nations |
The unanimous endorsement by the Security Council of Ban Ki Moon to succeed Kofi Annan as the eighth secretary-general of the United Nations was the culmination of an impressive election campaign but an uneventful race. Given the arcane and opaque selection process for the post, and Ban’s elliptical policy pronouncements, observers are left with few clues as to the new secretary-general. But much more can be said about Annan’s legacy and the challenges that Ban will inevitably face. |
The new US National Space Policy |
On 6 October 2006, the White House quietly released an unclassified version of the first new statement of US National Space Policy (NSP) in a decade. There is little substantive difference between the Bush administration’s NSP and that produced under the Clinton administration in 1996. Both acknowledge the need for the robust defence of American space-based assets. And yet there is a distinct contrast in tone between the two: whereas the Clinton administration emphasised space as an arena of multilateral cooperation, the Bush administration appears to anticipate a legal and material assault on US freedom to conduct operations in space. |
Japanese diplomacy |
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been in office just under six weeks but has already been pitched into vigorous diplomacy, drawing mild praise at home and abroad. He has shown a willingness to rein in his hawkish instincts and indicated a new sense of flexibility and moderation that has helped to stabilise Japan’s foreign policy. But there are other indications to suggest that his administration will be capable of pursuing a more radical trajectory. |
