The New Nation - Internet Edition

Dr. M. S. Haq

Past (I mean, not too distant a past), as well as recent developments and current challenges such as and as appropriate: flexibilities shown by North Korea when it come to dismantling their nuclear facilities against the backdrop of certain benefits, for example; a kind of slight change - apparent, though - in the attitude of Iran towards its contemporary position on matters pertaining to the country's suspected engagement in say, the production of nuclear armament, in-process or otherwise; problems associated with the US-India nuke deal; suspected involvements of Iraq in nuclear weapon making during the regime of late President Saddam; reported internet security violations, whether or not relating to nuke matters; rumors concerning the possession of nuclear weapons by terrorists; reported incidents associated with nuclear powered missiles and the US air force personnel; and Russia's opposition, in part or otherwise, to the US's defense strategies for the former USSR; represent some of the known faces of nuke related events or realities or both in respective world countries and faces that have or could have nuke related consequences, among other things.

But the questions remain, for example:

Are those real faces of for example, events and developments mentioned above? Or, the big picture is something else?

Who is planning to use nuclear weapons - against whom and why? Who will be the beneficiaries? How will they be benefited?

Is there any planning going on presently to discredit the US by making it the first country in the world to use nuclear weapons (after Hiroshima, per se) through the foreseeable future without say, its (the US's) first hand knowledge about the matter and without its intention to do as such? What was the real motive behind the recent US air force incident? Who was or were behind it? Who are and would be beneficiaries - both planned and actual? Is that the part of efforts towards bringing down the US from its present day number one position in the domain of global power? How safe are the US's defense facilities, installations, management, systems and mechanisms, including inter alia those associated with say, nuclear weapons, from hands of terrorists - both in and ex-country, from ex or in-country agents or from others?

Do there exist - at present - secret routes for say, the movement of nuclear processes, nuclear raw materials, nuclear engineering, nuclear technologies and nuclear products between and among certain nuclear powers and undeclared or would be nuclear powers? If such routes exist and if for example, Iraq had achieved nuclear capacities and capabilities prior to the fall of Saddam's regime, then it would not be100 percent illogical probably to assume now: those things might have taken one or more than one of those routes for safe custody or for further processing, or otherwise? Is there any link between above movements and the present day behaviors of for example, North Korea and Iran or the nuke related advancement made by those countries?

Or, it may be that, the present day routes are, among other things, a reasonable plus need, as well as time based expansion and extension of previous routes that had led to, among other things, the birth of new generation nuclear powers (I mean, countries) in Asia and elsewhere - both known and unknown - in recent times.

What are the present day nature, scope and role of corruption (used in a wider sense) when it comes to nuclear deals and transactions? What is the present day magnitude of corruption in those areas? How is corruption affecting the effort by world countries including inter alia the US and organizations including inter alia IAEA of the UN towards containing nuclear expansion or nuclear extension or both (used in a negative sense) at national, regional and other levels?

What is the present day status of breakthroughs in nuclear weapon development? Do fusion processes have any role to play in the development of new generation nuclear weapons? I am a little bit concerned here because water is the basic raw material for fusion processes and water is, in a sense, relatively cheaper, among other things.

Is Iran buying time for perfecting its nuclear technology before it could convince the world that it has become one of the nuclear powers?

In light of above and other considerations in pertinent areas, it now appears to me, Asia is becoming gradually a densely populated nuclear power zone with China, Russia, India and Pakistan as existing nuke powers and with the possible inclusion of Iran into the zone as an additional nuke power in the near future (kindly note: we are talking here about only the known nuke powers in Asia at this point in time). In the midst of above and other developments, it is interesting to note here: Asia region is not immune from, among other things, poverty, poor governance, corruption, terrorism and extremism, relative to time, space and other variable though. A brief analysis of those and other related factors would reveal inter alia: the region could pose a real threat to global peace and security in the foreseeable future if challenges in pertinent areas are not attended to properly - it could not only affect the growth potential of the region but that of the world at large.

The last world: the US and other world countries should explore possibilities such as: How best and quickest they could harness growing potentials of Asia region in pursuits of promoting and sustaining global peace, security, progress and prosperity? How best and quickest they including development partners (including inter alia World Bank) could help liberate the region from, as applicable, poverty, poor governance, terrorism and extremism? How best and quickest the US and other world countries, the UN and for that matter IAEA, and others could be instrumental in the realization of commitments made by world countries at various forums about nuke and other matters. How best and quickest, the US will be able to liberate itself from risks, vulnerabilities and threats associated with its security, progress and prosperity. A stronger US is needed, at least at this point in time, for serving the greater interest of world people and countries, per se. World people must find out, among other things, the big picture behind the on going nuke drama?