Foul-weather friends: America's 'strategic ambiguity' and the Taiwan Strait

Article Abstract:

The US's so-called strategic ambiguity on its willingness to defend Taiwan from a potential Chinese invasion makes war more likely. It excited passions and is easily misread as a lack of will. Strategic ambiguity on the US's part may have contributed to the Korean War, Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, and war in the former Yugoslavia. When the USS Nimitz sailed through the Taiwan Strait shortly after China leaked its plans for a missile attack on Taiwan, the US wasted a golden opportunity by saying the decision was due to weather.

Editorial, United States, Taiwan, United States foreign relations, Chinese (Taiwan) foreign relations

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Can Pakistan afford the bomb?

Article Abstract:

Pakistan's economic woes threaten its nuclear program and place it in a category with several countries that gave up nuclear power amid financial straits. The program's supporters fear the government will give up its nuclear option, which is now a crucial element of defensive thinking, at an April conference on the non-proliferation treaty in New York. Political turmoil in Pakistan is exacerbated by increasing poverty, a lack of law and order, a swelling population, and dogmatic thinking on several contentious issues.

Nuclear weapons (International law)

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Nuclear exchange

Article Abstract:

Pakistan and India provide an instance where deterrence would be more effective than the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in preventing nuclear war. Deterrence would require allowing Pakistan to keep a specified number of nuclear weapons, allowing India the same number plus a specified number to deter China and then setting up procedures for mutual inspection. This form of deterrence would be less costly and less politically damaging than the NPT for both Pakistan and India.

India

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