Foreign Policy

North Korea and nuclear weapons are ever-present in the minds of South Koreans except when it comes to its own nuclear energy.
 
This may seem counterintuitive.
 
But there’s a distinct culture in South Korea in which its people and nuclear engineers don’t think of weapons (or aren’t allowed to) as Americans often do; rather “nuclear” is viewed as a source of energy to fuel its growing economy.
 
Washington and Seoul are negotiating the renewal of the 1974 civil nuclear cooperation agreement (Korean 123) expiring in March 2014. Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act requires U.S.-origin nuclear material and technology meet stringent nonproliferation criteria when transferred to a recipient country for nuclear energy uses.
 
With new U.S. appointments and confirmation hearings post-election, Seoul may not have a negotiating counterpart until next summer, and given the Congressional calendar, an agreement would realistically need to be submitted to Congress by June 2013.

Educating people is the first step towards a peaceful world. Education is the foundation for economic development, prosperity, self-determination and ultimately happiness.

Pakistan Prime Minister Rehman Malik called the October shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafza an act of cowardice, Minister of Education in Afghanistan, Farouq Wardak, arranged special prayers in all schools across the country and said that 9 million Afghan kids prayed for Malala and for girls’ education in Afghanistan.

Some of the recent developments in Afghanistan are rather disheartening. For one, the spike in the green-on-blue attacks this year alone seems to have created a never-ending rift between American and Afghan security forces. Although there are undoubtedly grave challenges ahead, some commentators have gone so far to claim that the Afghan government is most likely to collapse – now such views are misguided, to say the least.

It is not to discredit skeptics who rightly point to some foreseeable challenges along the road as foreign troops withdraw and Afghans get closer to elect a new leader. The deterioration of security situation will most probably escalate leading up to, and immediately following, the Afghan presidential election and the withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014. That is, more targeted attacks are sure to increase.

Perhaps the most overlooked aspect of last Tuesday’s elections was the Fox News exit poll in Virginia declaring, “Veterans and active military split their support evenly between the two candidates”: Obama 49% to Romney 49%. After decades of being viewed as everything from “weak on defense” to “cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys” Democrats today — personified by President Obama — are viewed as at least as strong as their Republican counterparts, even within the military community.
 
Clearly this was a long journey. From the Vietnam War through the 1970s and 1980s, Democrats were seen as incapable of defending America. They were often depicted in American popular culture as having betrayed the military and prevented our troops from fighting-to-win in Vietnam.

We need every tool available to prevent nuclear terrorism. Unfortunately, two treaties that have been awaiting Congressional approval for more than half a decade that will enhance our ability to protect nuclear materials and go after terrorists intent on using them are stalled in Congress. This is unacceptable. Now that the election is over, one of the first orders of business when Congress returns should be to get past the bickering and pass these two nonpartisan treaties our military leaders have been pleading for.

President Obama knows that America is and always will be a Pacific nation and that, in the 21st century, it is more important than ever that the United States play a role in shaping the future of the Asia Pacific region. No other U.S. President in history has had such a deep understanding of the vibrancy of Asia. But that’s no surprise. As he said earlier this year: “When I think about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, I think about my family.”

The president carries a deep personal connection to the Asia-Pacific, from his birth in Hawaii to the time he spent in Indonesia as a young man. As he has said, “This is a community that helped to make me who I am today. It’s a community that helped make America the country that it is today.”

If one were to take a snapshot of U.S.-Israel relations today, Nov. 6, it would reveal that U.S.-Israeli relations are at an all-time high.
 
Our nations just conducted the largest-ever armed forces drill together. Elements of this drill, code named “Austere Challenge” were personally overseen in Israel by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey. Austere Challenger includes more than 3,500 Americans and 1,000 Israelis. These soldiers are practicing their ability to work together against a range of threats facing Israel.

Last week, as Hurricane Sandy devastated portions of the East Coast, President Obama visited Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C. and tried to reassure the American people saying "...America is tougher, and we’re tougher because we pull together. We leave nobody behind." It was a curious thing to say in light of another major story: The unraveling of the events of the night of September 11-12 as terrorists attacked our consulate in Benghazi, Libya and killed our ambassador and three other Americans.

Two days after President Obama and Governor Romney debated foreign policy, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met with his South Korean counterpart, Kim Kwan-jin, at the Pentagon.

The purpose of the meeting was to reaffirm both nations’ commitment to deterring conflict—especially nuclear conflict—on the Korean Peninsula. That should go without saying. Yet this was no pro forma meeting. Minister Kim expressed very real concern regarding North Korea’s missile and nuclear program, no doubt increased by Pyongyang’s recent (August 30) vow to expand and modernize its nuclear weapons arsenal "beyond imagination" unless the U.S. changes its policy toward the regime.

The violence plaguing the Arab world should move U.S. policy makers, decision makers and experts to consider how and why the U.S. should strengthen stable, pro-American governments in Muslim countries against internal or external threats.  Azerbaijan exemplifies such states. Though it is still an emerging democracy, born from the shadows of the Soviet Union, it has stood squarely with the U.S. against terrorism in Afghanistan, Iraq, Central Asia and throughout the world, all at considerable risk to itself.