USA and Canada

Photo: An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base on May 3, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. William Collette)

US Launches Minuteman III Missile Test in Cloud of Secrecy

NEW YORK (IDN) – With little prior notice from military officials, the U.S. launched a Minuteman III Ballistic Missile on April 25 morning at approximately 5:26 a.m. from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Civilians and residents living near the base, who regularly receive ample notice of missile tests, were left in the dark this time as the missile raced through the early morning sky, according to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

The U.S conducts three or four ICBM tests each year. These are the same class of missiles for which the U.S. has been highly critical of the North Koreans for developing and testing, the Santa Barbara based Foundation said.

: Ramesh Jaura; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 25 April 2018

'Fire and Fury' in Danger of Becoming Trump's 'Mantra'

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – A speech of General George Patton, a famous World War 2 warrior, has an uncanny resemblance to the philosophy of Donald Trump. “All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a loser – Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win – all the time. That’s why Americans have never lost, not ever will lose a war, for the very thought of losing is hateful to Americans.”

Then came the Korean War (a stalemate), Vietnam (a loss), Afghanistan (mired in unconquerable mountains), Iraq 2 (a quagmire).

: Jonathan Power; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 24 April 2018

Photo: China and Russia are reportedly challenging US military dominance. China's AVIC AG600, code named Kunlong, also known as TA-600, is the largest amphibious aircraft currently flying. CC BY-SA 4.0

Back to the Past with Trump’s National Security Strategy – Part 4

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the fourth of a four-part article looking at the approach to Russia and China in the national security strategy of the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump. The article is a follow-up to the five-part article by the same author on ‘US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions’ published earlier by IDN

ROME (IDN) – Under Putin, Russia has acquired the ability to strengthen ties with some former Soviet republics (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan) and in order to prevent entry into NATO and the European Union it has embarked on a war with Georgia (facilitated by the adventurism of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili) and promoted and supported the secessionism of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, also annexing the Crimea.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 19 April 2018

Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, June 2017. CC BY 4.0

Back to the Past with Trump’s National Security Strategy – Part 3

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the third of a four-part article looking at the approach to Russia and China in the national security strategy of the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump. The article is a follow-up to the five-part article by the same author on ‘US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions’ published earlier by IDN

ROME (IDN) – Various versions of the NSS show the oscillations in relations between the United States and Russia, but until the beginning of Putin's third presidential term (marked by a strong domestic dispute) and the civil war in Ukraine, on the whole the prevailing trend after every crisis (Kosovo in 1999, the "coloured revolutions" in Georgia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan between 2003 and 2005, the war between Russia and Georgia in 2008) was in the direction of improving relations between the two states.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 18 April 2018

Photo: The panel during the South Centre debate (from left to right): Andrew Cornford, Observatoire de la Finance, Geneva; YV Reddy, South Centre Board Member; Martin Khor, South Centre; Yilmaz Akyuz, South Centre; Hervé Hannoun and Peter Dittus, co-authors of Revolution Required. Credit: South Centre.

G7 Fiscal, Monetary Policies Are Ticking Time Bombs

By D. Ravi Kanth

This article was published in No. 211, 18 April 2018 in SOUTHNEWS, a service of the South Centre to provide information and news on topical issues from a South perspective. It was originally carried by the South-North Development Monitor (SUNS) #8663 on 17 April 2018. – The Editor

GENEVA (IDN-INPS) – Major developed countries led by the United States are "sleep walking towards war" by implementing unsustainable fiscal and monetary policies since the 2008 financial crisis, with the destructive consequences to be borne by the developing countries, two former senior officials of the Bank for International Settlements have warned.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Peace & Justice; 18 April 2018

Photo: Nicaraguan Contra Rebels who were among the various U.S.-backed and funded right-wing rebel groups that were active from 1979 to the early 1990s in opposition to the socialist Sandinista Junta of National Reconstruction government in Nicaragua. CC BY-SA 3.0

Back to the Past with Trump’s National Security Strategy – Part 2

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the second of a four-part article looking at the approach to Russia and China in the national security strategy of the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump. The article is a follow-up to the five-part article by the same author on ‘US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions’ published earlier by IDN. – The Editor.

ROME (IDN) – Obviously, it is not difficult to list the many cases in which the United States has worked against democratically-elected governments or supported dictatorships: during the Cold War, political liberalisation in peripheral or developing countries was subordinated to the "containment of communism" and limited by the risk that it would trigger processes of social and political mobilisation that would bring parties favourable to the Soviet Union or China to power. Practical Wilsonianism has been rather selective.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 17 April 2018

Photo: President Trump explaining a 'New National Security Strategy for a New Era' on December 18, 2017. Credit: whitehouse.gov

Back to the Past with Trump’s National Security Strategy – Part 1

Viewpoint by Michele Nobile*

This is the first of a four-part article looking at the approach to Russia and China in the national security strategy of the United States under the administration of President Donald Trump. The article is a follow-up to the five-part article by the same author on ‘US Foreign Policy and Trump's Contradictions’ published earlier by IDN. – The Editor.

ROME (IDN) – At the end of 2017, the administration of US President Donald Trump published its National Security Strategy (NSS), the report that the president of the United States is required to present annually to Congress. It is legitimate to ask what interest a document such as an NSS can have since it certainly contains no military action plans, not even in general terms.

: Phil Harris; OPINION; 17 April 2018

Photo: A family flees an active conflict neighbourhood in eastern Ghouta, Syria, using a cart to carry their belongings. Credit: UNICEF/Amer Al Shami.

Experts Slam Syria, Slate Trump and Favour a UN Mechanism

By J C Suresh

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN) – The Trump administration's latest missile strikes in response to Syrian chemical weapons use is not embedded within a broader U.S. strategy to deter further chemical weapons use, protect Syrian civilians caught in the horrible Syrian civil war, and bring a political resolution to the seven-year misery of the people of Syria, according to Tom Countryman and Daryl G. Kimball, Chair and Executive Director of the Arms Control Association (ACA).

They are "deeply concerned" that the U.S., UK, and French military operation was taken without specific authorization by the U.S. Congress, and with (apparently) little consultation with Congress.

: J C Suresh; THE WORLD; Middle East; 14 April 2018

Photo: President Donald Trump with Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, on March 14, 2017, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. Credit: Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead.

U.S. Congress Should Prevent Saudis from Going Nuclear

By Kingston Reif, Daryl G. Kimball and Kelsey Davenport

Kingston Reif is Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy and Daryl G. Kimball is Executive Director of the Arms Control Association. Kelsey Davenport is the Association's Director for Nonproliferation Policy. This article appeared as Issue Brief on April 5, 2018 with the caption 'The Risks of Nuclear Cooperation with Saudi Arabia and the Role of Congress'. It is being reproduced with permission from the Association. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Curbing the spread of nuclear weapons and the technologies to make them has long been and remains strongly in the U.S. national security interest, especially in the troubled Middle East.

: Arms Control Association; OPINION; 07 April 2018

Trump Ends Deportation Protection for Liberians in the U.S.

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | MONROVIA (IDN) – Liberians living in the U.S. since a devastating civil war that took 250,000 lives from 1989 until 1997 are now in the crosshairs of the current Trump administration which has terminated their protected status with effect from March 31, 2019.

Some five thousand Liberians have been eligible for either Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) since March 1991, allowing them to remain in the United States. But the total number of Liberians in the U.S. is estimated at 100,000.