Posted By IISS at 29/10/2009 11:58:44
The poor state of the United States’ infrastructure was under the spotlight again today, after 2,000-kilogramme steel components snapped off the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, forcing the highly trafficked bridge’s closure.
Strong winds caused a 1-metre-wide steel crossbeam and two steel tie rods to snap off the bridge’s eastern span. They fell onto the upper deck, damaging three vehicles and injuring one motorist. More than 280,000 commuters are now having to take alternative routes.
But this is not the only US bridge in less than optimal condition. The I-35 in Minneapolis killed 13 people when it collapsed in August 2007, and the American Society of Civil Engineers has given the nation’s bridges an overall C grade.
In its 2009 Strategic Survey, the IISS crunched some data into a state-by-state map examining the condition of the nation’s bridges. Which have the worst? Where is an accident likely to occur next? Click here
As Pakistan prepares for a military
offensive in Waziristan, here are the stark figures: four major
terrorist attacks in the country in eight days have killed 120 people. They have raised fears in some quarters for the
stability of the Pakistani state. But Professor Anatol Lieven, speaking on 12 October at the IISS, said that, while the attacks were obviously dreadful and tragic, it was important to distinguish between terrorism and the greater existential threat of insurgency – such as the Taliban rebellion that the Pakistan army had
fought recently in Swat and other districts of the country’s North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
Professor Lieven, the Chair of International Relations and Terrorism Studies at King’s College London, echoed recent statements by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that militants were challenging the Pakistan government’s authority but were unlikely to overthrow it.
However, he was less sanguine than Secretary Clinton about the security of Pakistan’s arsenal. Referring to Saturday’s Taliban raid on the army HQ in the capital of Punjab province, he said: ‘I hope the attack in Rawalpindi will be a wake-up call to the Pakistani security forces to increase the security of their nukes.’
Professor Lieven was speaking at the IISS having spent several weeks this summer interviewing locals in Islamabad, Peshawar, Swat and Buner.
