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ViceNews sought expert opinion, including from Joshua Pollack of the Institute’s James Martin Center on Nonproliferation Studies, on what the latest North Korean missile tests means in terms of threat to the U.S. and U.S. allies and in general, what it says about the country’s missile program.
A new Soufan Center report, co-authored by Middlebury Institute Professor Jason Blazakis, director of the Institute’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, shows a growing number of foreign fighters who are right-wing extremists and white supremacists traveling to Ukraine to fight for either pro-Ukrainian or pro-Russian forces. “The bulk of those foreign fighters are coming from the near region,” Blazakis shared with Voice of America, pointing to 800 fighters from Belarus and hundreds more coming from Germany, Georgia, Serbia and dozens of other countries across Europe. “That’s, in some ways, not too different than what you saw with ISIS.”
The New Yorker published Associate Professor Philipp Bleek’s letter to the editor in its October 7, 2019 edition. Bleek writes: “Dexter Filkins echoes a common misunderstanding when he, in his review of Samantha Power’s memoir, calls Bashar al-Assad’s deployment of chlorine gas in Syria “barbaric but not illegal” (“Damned if You Don’t,” September 16th). Under the Chemical Weapons Convention, which Assad reluctantly joined in 2013, the use of any chemical as a chemical weapon is banned. Yet, because chlorine has widespread nonmilitary applications, states are allowed to possess it, even after giving up their other chemical weapons. As a result, Assad has continued to have access to chlorine, though its use as a weapon remains just as illegal as that of any other chemical agent.”
The term “Juche” is considered political ideology in North Korea. In English it has been translated to mean “self-reliance” but according to the Associated Press (AP) the term flummoxes many outsiders. To help explain, the AP turned to Joshua Pollack, North Korea expert at the Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies: “The essence of it is that independent progress in science and technology is supposed to resolve national defense problems and economic problems alike.”
In the Inside Higher Ed Academic Minute, Middlebury Institute Professor Lisa Leopold discusses the best way to say you’re sorry. A transcript of this podcast can be viewed here.
Jeffrey Lewis, director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Middlebury Institute, told the Wall Street Journal that the publicly available evidence backing up the direction of the missiles and drones hasn’t been conclusive. Drones can loiter and fly in circles, and photos of the facilities struck by missiles didn’t convincingly show the direction of the strikes, he said. Without a publicized radar track showing the trajectory of the weapons, he said, their origin would be difficult to definitively determine.
Dave Schmerler MANPTS ‘15, senior research associate at the Middlebury Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies using satellite images from Planet Labs, shares his analysis that suggests North Korea may be preparing to deploy a ballistic missile-capable submarine with NHK, Japan’s National Broadcasting Organization.
The Associated Press quoted Fabian Hinz, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in widely published article about an attack on Saudi oil production sites and suspicions about involvement from Iran. “Previous Houthi drone strikes against oil facilities tended to result in quite limited damage which could be an indication that a different weapons system was used this time.”
“The attack has been quite surprising” for the amount of damage it caused, said Fabian Hinz, an arms researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey to the Wall Street Journal about coordinated strikes on the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on September 14th, 2019. “We have seen quite a few drone and missile attacks against Saudi infrastructure, but in most cases the actual damage caused has been quite minimal,” said Mr. Hinz.
“Russia is committed to a massive investment in new systems like this to defeat U.S. missile defenses. We are stumbling toward an arms race,” Jeffrey Lewis, adjunct professor at the Middlebury Institute and nuclear weapons expert at the Institute’s James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
