scholarly journals Donald Trump’s Administration Confronting Missile Defence: Key Challenges and Probabilistic Overview

Author(s):  
Grzegorz Nycz

The text describes main US missile defence efforts in the first years of D. Trump’s administration. The analysis of current aspects of BMD (Ballistic Missile Defence) deployments is enhanced by probability analysis examining missile defence reliability. Donald Trump took office in the time of increased military competition between the West and Russia and a dangerous regional crisis related to North Korean nuclear arsenal and its ballistic tests. BMD appeared to bring additional chances to US deterrence options in regional scale, allowing more successful first strike or active defence posture. Notably, D. Trump’s administration managed to raise defence expenditures including BMD spending.

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-26

This section comprises international, Arab, Israeli, and U.S. documents and source materials, as well as an annotated list of recommended reports. Significant developments this quarter: In the international diplomatic arena, the UN Security Council approved Resolution 2334, reaffirming the illegality of Israeli settlements and calling for a return to peace negotiations. Additionally, former U.S. secretary of state John Kerry delivered a final address on the Israel-Palestine conflict, outlining a groundwork for negotiations. Two weeks later, international diplomats met in Paris to establish incentives for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas to return to the negotiating table. Despite international discussions of peace talks and the impediment settlements pose to a two-state solution, the Israeli Knesset passed the controversial Regulation Law, enabling the government to retroactively legalize settlements and confiscate Palestinian land throughout the West Bank. Meanwhile, U.S. president Donald Trump took office on 20 January 2017, and he wasted no time before inviting Netanyahu to the White House for their first meeting, in February.


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 271-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amitav Acharya

While the West woke up to the threat to the liberal international order when Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, its decline was apparent even at the height of the Obama-Clinton era. What follows the end of the U.S.-dominated world order is not a return to multipolarity as many pundits assume. The twenty-first-century world—politically and culturally diverse but economically and institutionally interlinked—is vastly different from the multipolar world that existed prior to World War II. China and India are major powers now; and globalization will not end, but will take on a new form, driven more by the East than the West and more by South-South linkages than North-North ones. The system of global governance will fragment, with new actors and institutions chipping away at the old UN-based system. Liberal values and institutions will not disappear, but will have to coexist and enmesh with the ideas and institutions of others, especially those initiated by China. This “multiplex world” carries both risks and opportunities for managing international stability. Instead of bemoaning the passing of the old liberal order, the West should accept the new realities and search for new ways to ensure peace and stability in partnership with the rising powers.


Author(s):  
Guillaume Chagnaud ◽  
Geremy Panthou ◽  
Theo Vischel ◽  
Thierry Lebel

Abstract The West African Sahel has been facing for more than 30 years an increase in extreme rainfalls with strong socio-economic impacts. This situation challenges decision-makers to define adaptation strategies in a rapidly changing climate. The present study proposes (i) a quantitative characterization of the trends in extreme rainfalls at the regional scale, (ii) the translation of the trends into metrics that can be used by hydrological risk managers, (iii) elements for understanding the link between the climatology of extreme and mean rainfall. Based on a regional non-stationary statistical model applied to in-situ daily rainfall data over the period 1983-2015, we show that the region-wide increasing trend in extreme rainfalls is highly significant. The change in extreme value distribution reflects an increase in both the mean and variability, producing a 5%/decade increase in extreme rainfall intensity whatever the return period. The statistical framework provides operational elements for revising the design methods of hydraulic structures which most often assume a stationary climate. Finally, the study shows that the increase in extreme rainfall is more attributable to an increase in the intensity of storms (80%) than to their occurrence (20%), reflecting a major disruption from the decadal variability of the rainfall regime documented in the region since 1950.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chané Henney

This review examines Wendy Brown's argument that neoliberalism led to the resurgence of antidemocracy in the West. It is argued that Brown's main arguments offer a valid explanation of the hard-right's appeal to conservatives in the United States. This ultimately led to an overwhelming support for Donald Trump as president of the U. S. The author exposes the antidemocratic effects of the Hayekian view of democracy, which is largely based on the support of free markets and traditional morality.   


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 140-178
Author(s):  
Paul Karolyi

This update, which summarizes bilateral, multilateral, regional, and international events affecting the Palestinians and the future of the peace process, covers the quarter beginning on 16 February 2017 and ending on 15 May 2017. During this period, the administration of U.S. pres. Donald Trump attempted to put its own stamp on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Israeli government announced a new policy on settlement growth in the West Bank, and the Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership struggled to consolidate power. Palestinians in the West Bank elected new local leaders, despite disagreements among the major parties. Some 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails declared a hunger strike, drawing support from across the political spectrum. Meanwhile, Israel's right-wing government kept up a campaign to undermine and delegitimize its opponents, including the Israeli Left, the Palestinian minority in Israel, and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.


2020 ◽  
Vol 191 ◽  
pp. 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Chardon ◽  
Ousmane Bamba ◽  
Kalidou Traoré

Shear zones of the Paleoproterozoic Eburnean accretionary Orogen (West African craton) are investigated by means of large-scale structural mapping. Regional scale (10-100 km) mapping was based on the aeromagnetic survey of Burkina Faso and craton-scale (1000 km) mapping on a compilation of fabric data. At both scales, shear zones are arranged as an anastomosed transpressional network that accommodated distributed shortening and lateral flow of the orogenic lithosphere between the converging Kénéma-Man and Congo Archean provinces. Structural interference patterns at both scales were due to three-dimensional partitioning of progressive transpressional deformation and interactions among shear zones that absorbed heterogeneities in the regional flow patterns while maintaining the connectivity of the shear zone network. Such orogen-scale kinematic patterns call for caution in using the deformation phase approach without considering the “bigger structural picture” and interpreting displacement history of individual shear zones in terms of plate kinematics. The West African shear zone pattern is linked to that of the Guiana shield through a new transatlantic correlation to produce an integrated kinematic model of the Eburnean-Transamazonian orogen.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-15

This section covers items pertaining to Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Significant developments during the quarter 16 November 2016 through 15 February 2017 include: in anticipation of changes to U.S. policy on settlements under incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, Terrestrial Jerusalem and other settlement watch groups outlined the areas they consider most vulnerable to settlement expansion. While the Israeli Security Cabinet voted on 22 January to postpone discussion of a bill facilitating the annexation of the Ma'ale Adumim settlement until after Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu had a chance to meet in person, many analysts highlighted the probable annexation of settlements in East Jerusalem and even possibly part of Area C of the West Bank. Peace Now released a report estimating that 4,000 settlement units and 55 illegal outposts would be retroactively legalized under the recently enacted Regulation Law and documenting the 3,000 additional units that could be newly expropriated under the law (see Update on Conflict & Diplomacy in JPS 46 [3] for more on new Israeli legislation).


Significance President-elect Donald Trump plans to expand military spending as part of his "America First" foreign policy but has so far offered few details of how this expansion will be financed. The new budget will have significant commercial implications for private entities involved in US defence procurements and for Washington’s force posture abroad. Impacts Trump may focus on increasing US-based missile defence capabilities instead of regionally focused systems based overseas. Political complications over NATO deployments may ensue if US spending outstrips that of its allies. Expansion of the nuclear arsenal beyond current modernisation plans could spark an arms race with Washington’s rivals.


Subject Russia's new foreign policy document. Significance A new foreign policy concept presents Russia as a nation facing a range of security threats but nevertheless willing to play a global role in a multipolar, chaotic and unpredictable world. Replacing the 2013 foreign policy concept, the document also attempts to assuage fears of Russian expansionist intent. Impacts Assumptions about the United States may change rapidly under President Donald Trump. Moscow will strengthen its foothold in Syria as a bargaining chip with the West and to show its resolve not to back down under pressure. Russia will refuse to relax control over Ukraine's eastern regions. Asian policy will consist partly of courting China and partly of seeking alliances to counterbalance this. Economic cooperation with Japan will be constrained by lack of a near-term deal on territorial issues.


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