THE GROWING CHINA CHALLENGE
A new report by a senior State Department advisory group has warned that China’s ongoing military modernization increasingly poses a strategic challenge to U.S. foreign policy objectives and the existing status quo in the Asia-Pacific. “Chinese military modernization is proceeding at a rate to be of concern even with the most benign interpretation of China’s motivation,” says the new study by the Department’s International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), a copy of which has been obtained by the Washington Times. “The major objective is to counter U.S. presence and U.S. military capabilities in East Asia through the acquisition of offensive capabilities in critical functional areas that systematically exploit U.S. vulnerabilities, including U.S. gaps in missile defenses, and U.S. dependence on space…”
Beijing, the report says, is also hard at work on asymmetric warfare capabilities that could dramatically shift the tide of battle in the event of a military conflict with the United States. “Notably, there are indications that China is developing a capacity for electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warfare, both as a theater weapon (e.g., in a Taiwan conflict) and as a strategic weapon against the United States.” The PRC is also investing heavily in anti- and counter-space technologies, and is now “developing a range of space-denial capabilities, together with satellites and lift capabilities that will enhance China’s ability to operate in space,” the study says.
RUSSIA COOPERATES, AFTER A FASHION
Just days after they reportedly gave the cold shoulder to Israeli premier Ehud Olmert's requests that they refrain from sophisticated missile-related sales to Iran and Syria, policymakers in Moscow now appear to be singing a different tune. On October 9th, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told reporters that the Kremlin has no plans to sell either country additional units of its advanced S-300 air- and missile defense system. Moscow will refrain from selling this technology "to countries that are located, mildly speaking, in volatile regions," Defense News (October 9) reports Nesterenko as saying.
[Editor’s Note: Russia's apparent change of heart is certainly welcome, but it might be driven by an ulterior motive: new attention from the international community over Moscow's longstanding involvement in Iran's nuclear program. The Press Trust of India reports that the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has launched a probe into whether a Russian scientist illegally assisted Iranian scientists in carrying out complex experiments on how to detonate a nuclear weapon.]
STRENGTHENING ISRAELI DEFENSES
Defense News (September 29) reports that the U.S. European Command has deployed a new, high-powered radar array in Israel as part of U.S. efforts to expand Israeli missile defense capabilities against a growing Iranian ballistic missile and nuclear threat. The advanced X-band radar, the trade weekly reports, will be linked to the U.S. Joint Tactical Ground Station (USJTGS), and will help Israel “shave minutes from [its] reaction time” in the event of an Iranian attack. Lieutenant-General Trey Obering, the head of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency, has highlighted the logic behind such a move. "[I]f we can take the radar out here and tie it into the Arrow Weapon System, they'll be able to launch that interceptor way before they could with an autonomous system," Obering explained to reporters during a trip to Israel in early August.
PYONGYANG BEHAVING BADLY
The Bush administration may have just removed the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, but Pyongyang hardly appears to have turned over a new leaf. According to Ha’aretz (October 10), Israel’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency has accused the Stalinist state of supplying advanced weaponry to half-a-dozen nations in the Middle East. “At a time when the international community concentrates on North Korea's nuclear activities and its non-compliance with safeguards agreements, the Middle East is at the receiving end of North Korea's reckless practices," Israeli envoy David Danieli told an IAEA meeting in Vienna on October 10th. "North Korea has long become a source of proliferation of dangerous weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in the Middle East.” Danieli did not name the countries in question, but experts believe them to include Syria, Iran and Libya.