CIAO DATE: 01/2009
Volume: 15, Issue: 1
March 2008
Editor's Note (PDF)
How do we know what we know? Or to put it more precisely, how do we know that our knowledge of any particular subject or issue is both accurate and complete?
If, like many of our readers, you are an expert in one or more aspects of the field of global nonproliferation, then you have a wealth of resources upon which you can draw, including professional journals and listservs, regular interaction with colleagues, arcane or difficult to obtain official documents and transcripts, and, of course, a deep background of higher education and personal experience. (Government officials often, but not always, have access to even more information. However, this does not necessarily improve their comprehension of a particular topic.) Taken together, these resources enable you to understand and interpret mainstream media news coverage of complicated nonproliferation issues in ways that the general reader cannot.
Paranoid, Potbellied Stalinist Gets Nuclear Weapons: How The U.S. Print Media Cover North Korea (PDF)
Hugh Gusterson
Mainstream American print media coverage of North Korea's nuclear weapons program has been deeply flawed, a reality that skews policy debates and confuses public perceptions. Even simple factual descriptions of the parties' obligations under the 1994 Agreed Framework have often been inconsistent and partial, informing readers about North Korea's obligations more than U.S. obligations, and rarely acknowledging U.S. failures. The media repeated allegations about an illicit North Korean uranium enrichment program based largely on anonymous sources, who made what seem now to have been misleading statements. Journalists rely for comment on administration officials or members of Washington think tanks, while making little effort to gather opinions from academics, those on the left (as opposed to centrist liberals), or experts in Southeast Asia. Journalists also frequently present Kim Jong Il in ways that erase the Korean perspective on U.S.-Korean relations. Accurate, nuanced coverage of events on the Korean Peninsula is vital in producing an informed public and a policy-making process that is judicious, supple, and intelligent. This article concludes with various ways in which the media could better report on North Korea.
Surmounting the Obstacles to Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1540
Monika Heupel
UN Security Council Resolution 1540, which binds all states to implement generic nonproliferation obligations, has been hampered in its effectiveness by serious delays and problems in implementing its obligations. Getting nations to carry out its requirements depends on applying a division of labor strategy to the problem. Such a strategy would be based on the Security Council's 1540 Committee and other participants—such as international and regional organizations, regimes, state actors, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—all working together to maximize their competences toward applying the resolution. To create and maintain momentum, those involved must improve their efforts to address the various challenges to such implementation. The Security Council should strengthen the structural foundation of the 1540 Committee, and the 1540 Committee should act as a clearinghouse for assistance with implementing the resolution. Those bodies that provide assistance should make more help available to more states and cooperate closely with the 1540 Committee. NGOs and regional organizations should pressure advanced states to fulfill the resolution's requirements with the necessary urgency, and individual states and international organizations should explore ways to accommodate frequently articulated grievances that dilute the legitimacy of Resolution 1540.
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