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American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC
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OTTAWA: A PARTNER AFTER ALL Even though a formal announcement on the issue is still pending, the Canadian government committed long ago to missile defense cooperation with Washington, according to a bombshell expose by the Edmonton Journal (January 14). The Alberta paper, citing newly declassified documents from the country’s military, reveals that – despite Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin’s recent harsh rhetoric – the Canadian government privately disclosed their desire to participate in the Bush administration’s missile defense plans to American officials in early 2004. “Canada is committed to reaching an agreement on co-operation in the ballistic missile defence of North American during the coming months... Canada sees its participation in BMD as being anchored in Norad, which has for almost 50 years been an integral part of our partnership in the defence of North America,” the Journal reports a March 2004 briefing note from the Canadian Defence Ministry to the U.S. State Department as saying. THE EXPANDING MISSILE THREAT FROM SYRIA Officials in Israel are worried over a new arms deal reportedly in the works between Russia and Syria which could supply Damascus with high-tech Russian short-range missiles, Ha’aretz (January 15) reports. According to Uzi Rubin, one of Israel’s leading experts on missile defense, the sale has the potential to significantly alter the region’s military balance in Syria’s favor. Should it acquire enough units of the advanced Russian missiles in question, the 280-kilometer range solid-fuel “Iskander-E,” the Ba’athist regime in Damascus could overwhelm Israel’s advanced Arrow theater missile defense system, Rubin has told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. And Israel is not the only country threatened by the potential Russo-Syrian deal; Israeli officials fear that U.S. troops now operating in Iraq could also come within range of the new missiles. JAPAN EYES ASIAN ABL As part of its evolving missile defense partnership with the United States, Japan appears to be mulling the development of advanced boost-phase laser systems. Agence France Presse (January 10) reports that the Japanese government is considering an American proposal for cooperative work on an airborne directed-energy anti-missile project – one similar to the Airborne Laser (ABL) now being built by the U.S. Air Force. The concept for an Asian ABL, the news agency reports, was floated informally by the U.S. late last year as part of Administration efforts to share costs associated with the emerging missile defense architecture in Asia. NATO MAKES PROGRESS ON MISSILE DEFENSE The issue of missile defense is again gaining prominence on Europe’s strategic agenda. In its January 13th edition, Inside the Pentagon reports that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is moving ahead with its study of the feasibility of an alliance-wide system to protect member states from ballistic missile attack. According to the trade newsletter, an international consortium of defense firms is now looking into the technical and political complexities of such a transnational anti-missile grid – with a final report expected sometime this summer. The initiative builds on the decisions made at NATO’s November 2002 summit in Prague, when Alliance members agreed to examine “options for addressing the increasing missile threat to Alliance territory, forces and population centers in an effective and efficient way through an appropriate mix of political and defense efforts, along with deterrence.” GMD FORGES AHEAD In the wake of last month’s very public failed test, the Pentagon is redoubling its efforts on the Ground-based Midcourse missile defense system. Aerospace Daily reports in its January 13th edition that the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency has identified the source of the December test failure – a minor “glitch” in the operational software, which officials expect to be fixed shortly. And the Pentagon has mapped out an ambitious agenda of five system tests for 2005, including two scheduled shoot-down attempts, in efforts to confirm the GMD system’s operational capability, and its interoperability with other components of the emerging American missile defense effort. |
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