The commander of Russia’s strategic bomber force, Lt. Gen. Igor Khvorov, said March 5 that his forces could easily disrupt or destroy any missile defense infrastructure in Poland and the Czech Republic — where the United States is preparing to set up parts of a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system. Khvorov was hardly the first [...]

read more....

PARIS: The simple background explanation for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coldness to the United States is provided by the results of a poll conducted at the end of last year by the independent EU-Russia Center in Brussels (headed by the former British Liberal Party leader Paddy Ashdown), which was published Feb. 22. It found that [...]

read more....

As the United States hosts North Korea for talks about normalizing a tempestuous relationship, questions swirl around Washington’s suddenly softer approach to Pyongyang. After years of refusing bilateral talks with the Hermit Kingdom—one of the three members of the “Axis of Evil”—the Bush administration appears to have switched tactics. Christopher Hill, the State Department’s senior [...]

read more....

Claremont Institute Senior Fellow Mark Helprin writes on the growing threat from Chinese ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, in the March 4 edition of the Washington Post. Helprin notes China’s steady and disciplined rise in military power, and that despite recent friendly overtones, China’s long term intentions may sharply differ from those of the [...]

read more....

While Communist China has justified its military expenditure by comparing it with that spent by other nations, most notably the United States, Dr Monk said this comparison is inappropriate, given the different geopolitical roles the two countries play. “The United States has long played an enormous role in guaranteeing the security of much of the [...]

read more....

Iran has made no secret of major ambitions for its space program. In 2005, the government said it had allocated $500 million for space projects in the next five years. Also in 2005, Iran launched its first commercial satellite, Sina-1, into orbit from a Russian rocket. But Iran’s potential ability to move swiftly from rockets [...]

read more....

NATO’s rising power and the increased role the military will play in shaping the foreign policy of countries around the world will figure prominently in Russia’s new military doctrine, the Security Council said Monday.
The new doctrine, which will replace a strategic blueprint adopted in 2000, will also take into account advances in military technologies.
Read More…

read more....

But it’s not really the numbers that matter here; it’s the lack of information behind the numbers. Whether it was China’s intention or not, Negroponte clearly felt sandbagged as he left Beijing. And, together with the anti-satellite missile, that makes it twice in three months that U.S. officials have felt that way. “It’s important in [...]

read more....

Nuclear threats see more citizens expanding underground protection.
When Israeli millionaire Vivian Rakib and her husband were house-hunting a few years back, she had a definite list of must-haves, including a clear view of the Mediterranean Ocean.
But today, the most important feature of her sprawling, $23-million mansion in this posh suburb of Tel Aviv lies three [...]

read more....

Back in February, the director-general of the Israel Electric Corporation, Uri Ben-Nun, said that the Israeli Atomic Energy Commission is “mulling the construction of a nuclear power plant in Israel.”
It may be surprising that Israel has never built a civilian nuclear power plant, since it has long been assumed to have a sophisticated nuclear weapons [...]

read more....

A senior Russian journalist who embarrassed the country’s military establishment with a series of exclusive stories has been found dead outside his apartment in mysterious circumstances. The body of Ivan Safronov, 51-year-old defense correspondent for the newspaper Kommersant, was discovered on Friday. He allegedly fell from a fifth-floor window.
Read More…
Russian Reporter Received Threats
MOSCOW — A [...]

read more....

Washington, Mar 06: The United States warned China on Monday that its announced military spending boost was “inconsistent” with peaceful growth and hinted that Beijing was understating its defense expenditures.
“This kind of spending not only concerns us but raises concerns among China’s neighbors. This is inconsistent with China’s policy of peaceful development,” said White House [...]

read more....

Taiwan has test-fired a cruise missile capable of hitting Shanghai or Hong Kong, a Taiwanese newspaper reports.
The missile was secretly tested early last month, the United Daily News quoted a military source as saying.
The news comes days after China announced a major hike in military spending and the Taiwanese president gave a strong pro-independence speech. [...]

read more....