REGIONAL SECURITY ISSUES LATEST STATEMENTS, BRIEFINGS, AND HEARINGS
Here are more links relevant to Regional Security Issues, including congressional hearings, testimonies, and policy briefs
Global Governance 2025: At a Critical Juncture.
Office of the Director of National Intelligence, September 2010
The shift to a multipolar world is complicating the prospects for effective global governance over the next 10 years. The expanding economic clout of emerging powers increases their political influence well beyond their borders. Power is not only shifting from established powers to rising countries and, to some extent, the developing world, but also toward nonstate actors. Diverse perspectives and suspicions about global governance, which is seen as a Western concept, will add to the difficulties of effectively mastering the growing number of challenges.
http://www.foia.cia.gov/2025/2025_Global_Governance.pdf (82 pages)
Missile Defense.
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Frank A. Rose, 2010 Multinational BMD Conference and Exhibition, September 27, 2010
Iran too has rejected our outstretched hand. It has continued work on its nuclear and missile programs despite international condemnation in the form of legally binding Chapter 41 United Nations Security Council Resolutions. It has now deployed approximately 1,000 short and medium-range missiles that are a threat to our friends and allies the Middle East and Europe. It continues to develop more advanced missiles such as the two-stage solid-propellant Ashura medium-range ballistic missile and has recently displayed a large space launch vehicle that could form the basis of an ICBM.
http://www.state.gov/t/vci/rls/147952.htm
Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Countries, 2002-2009.
Congressional Research Service, September 10, 2010
Developing nations continue to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by weapons suppliers. During the years 2002-2009, the value of arms transfer agreements with developing nations comprised 68.3% of all such agreements worldwide. More recently, arms transfer agreements with developing nations constituted 72.8% of all such agreements globally from 2006-2009, and 78.4% of these agreements in 2009.
The value of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations in 2009 was nearly $45.1 billion. This was a decline from $48.8 billion in 2008. In 2009, the value of all arms deliveries to developing nations was nearly $17 billion, the lowest total in these deliveries values for the entire 2002-2009 period (in constant 2009 dollars).
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/147273.pdf (89 pages)
U.S. Strategy for Countering Jihadist Websites.
Hearing before a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, September 29, 2010
Witnesses:
- - Christopher Boucek, Ph.D., Associate, Middle East Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- - Mr. Mansour Al-Hadj, Director, Reform in the Arab and Muslim World Project, The Middle East Media Research Institute
- - Gregory S. McNeal, J.D., Associate Professor of Law, Pepperdine University
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/hearing_notice.asp?id=1207 (Hearing page)
http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/schedule.asp (Scroll down for transcripts)
WMD: Chemical, Biological and Radiological.
Partly annotated bibliography by the Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center, October 2010
Contents:
Internet Resources
Books
Documents
Periodicals
http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/CBR2010.htm
The National Security Council: An Organizational Assessment
Congressional Research Service (via Secrecy News), November 1, 2010
Over the years, however, the NSC staff has emerged as a major factor in the formulation (and at times in the implementation) of national security policy. Similarly, the head of the NSC staff, the National Security Adviser, has played important, and occasionally highly public, roles in policymaking. This report traces the evolution of the NSC from its creation to the present.
The organization and influence of the NSC have varied significantly from one Administration to another, from a highly structured and formal system to loose-knit teams of experts. It is universally acknowledged that the NSC staff should be organized to meet the particular goals and work habits of an incumbent President. The history of the NSC provides ample evidence of the advantages and disadvantages of different types of policymaking structures.
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/150195.pdf
Iran Sanctions.
Congressional Research Service, October 7, 2010
In the 111th Congress, the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010 (H.R. 2194, P.L. 111-195) adds as ISA violations selling refined gasoline to Iran; providing shipping insurance or other services to help Iran import gasoline; or supplying equipment to or performing the construction of oil refineries in Iran. This law also adds a broad range of other measures further restricting the already limited amount of U.S. trade with Iran and restricting some high technology trade with countries that allow WMD-useful technology to reach Iran. The enactment of this law followed the June 9, 2010, adoption of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1929, which imposes a ban on sales of heavy weapons to Iran and sanctions many additional Iranian entities affiliated with its Revolutionary Guard, but does not mandate sanctions on Iran's energy or broad financial sector. European Union sanctions, imposed July 27, 2010, align the EU with the U.S. position, to a large extent, by prohibiting EU involvement in Iran's energy sector and restricting trade financing and banking relationships with Iran, among other measures. National measures announced by Japan and South Korea in early September 2010-both are large buyers of Iranian energy-impose restrictions similar to those of the EU.
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/150199.pdf
Hezbollah: Background and Issues for Congress.
Congressional Research Service, October 8, 2010
Given these positions, most observers believe that prospects for accommodation and engagement between the United States and Hezbollah are slim, even as the group's close relationships with Syria and Iran, its pivotal role in Lebanese politics, and reinvigorated U.S. engagement in regional peace efforts increase Hezbollah's potential influence over stated U.S. national security objectives. The Obama Administration is requesting $246 million in FY2011 foreign assistance to continue a multi-year program specifically designed to increase the central authority of the Lebanese state and deter the use of force by non-state actors. Since FY2006, the United States has provided more than $1.35 billion in assistance for Lebanon.
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/150207.pdf (34 pages)
The New START Treaty: Central Limits and Key Provisions.
Congressional Research Service, updated September 20, 2010
The Obama Administration and outside analysts argue that New START will strengthen strategic stability and enhance U.S. national security. They contend that New START will contribute to U.S. nuclear nonproliferation goals by convincing other nations that the United States is serious
about its obligations under the NPT. This might convince more nations to cooperate with the United States in pressuring nations who are seeking their own nuclear weapons. Critics, however, question whether the treaty serves U.S. national security interests, as Russia was likely to reduce its forces with or without an arms control agreement and because the United States and Russia no longer need arms control treaties to manage their relationship. Some also
consider the U.S.-Russian arms control process to be a distraction from the more important issues on the nonproliferation agenda.
http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/150174.pdf (34 pages)
Updated: November 10, 2010.
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