Article Review : THE COST OF LIBYA CIVIL WAR

The mission, according to a U.N. mandate, is to protect civilians in Libya from attacks by Mr Qadhafi’s forces. The price which is paid by Libyan citizens for that safety is so high.NATO’s military intervention is creating problems by heavy bombing and shelling support to rebel body, the transitional national council (TNC); and atrocities by both sides have been reported. Talking about loss or price paid by western countries interfering in Libyan civil war, outcome of United Nations Security Council resolution1973- which bars landings by foreign forces but allows member states to use “all necessary means”(diplomatic terminology for military action) to ensure Libyan compliance with Resolution. Humanitarian interventions conceived by U.S., the United Kingdom, and France  under cover of the U.N. has meant using highly advanced weaponry in helping the TNC, which includes militant islamists of the sort who have been fighting NATO and other western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade, to bring about violent regime change.

The entire rebellion and the NATO campaign are riddled with inconsistencies. Western proponents initially claimed the campaign would be over in days. It has lasted six months, is yet to end , and has cost the U.S. alone more than a billion dollars, secondly, there are severe tensions among the TNC’s three main factions; it is still not known who murdered the rebels’ top officer, General Abdel Fattah younes. Furthermore, many leaders among the Libyan 140 tribes, including long standing Qadhafi supporters, will want office in the new order. Above all, the western powers will almost certainly exact a heavy price for supporting the uprising. Their demands are likely to include-as they did in Iraq- preferential, if not monopoly, access for western oil corporations. It is no coincidence that as reports emerged of the rebel advance on Tripoli, the price of Brent crude fell 1.7 per cent to 106.8 dollars per barrel in futures trading. There are also likely to be lucrative contracts for western companies to rebuild Libyan cities; and the European Union members of NATO may want the new government to impose tight controls on Libyan migration to the EU. In effect, the U.S., Britain and France, with help from Italy, have used the U.N. and NATO to bring about regime change and pull off a gigantic oil-grab.

Violence in Libya is the main concern of worry for Libyan citizens and NATO. Violence has been renewed in Tripoli because of military intervention going on in Libya so NATO and western countries are also responsible for violence in Libya but it is creating problems for citizens living in those violent areas. The crackle of gunfire and the rumble of explosions spread across  Tripoli in fighting going on between qadhafi’s supporters and rebels.Saif-al-Islam, muammar qadhafi’s son is heading those counterattacks on rebels. On basis of some recent videos released by some press reports or T.V. channels, videos showed billows of smoke rising above several districts and heavy clashes around Mr Qadhafi’s compound. The waves of gunfire drowned out the rebels’ earlier euphoria after their lighting strike into Tripoli .NATO officials in Brussels and London said the alliance’s warplanes were flying reconnaissance and other missions over Libya but declined to say whether the planes had bombed the fortified Qadhafi compound in Tripoli. Colonel Roland Lavoie, a NATO spokesperson said that their mission is not over yet and at a news conference in Naples, Italy, urging pro-Qadhafi forces to return to their barracks and said they would carry on the mission. He also acknowledged that urban environment in Tripoli, a city of some two million, was “far more complex “for air strikes. While rebel leaders professed making progress in securing Tripoli and planning for a post –Qadhafi government, and international leaders hailed the beginnings of a new era in Libya, the immediate aftermath of the invasion was a vacuum of power, with no cohesive rebel government still in evidence.
Published by VIKAS YADAV.

Article Review : NATO’S INFLUENCE ON LIBYAN AUTOCRACY

NATO was thinking of helping the rebels forces to bring peace in Libya and to find the Qadhafi ,the dictator of Libya since last 42 years but it costs a lot to Libya and western countries. NATO also influenced in assaulting operation of Qadhafi’s supporters that costs a lot to Libya as it became the cause of violence in Libya. NATO used its all intelligence to hunt down Qadhafi and they succeeded after paying for more than twenty thousand sorties flown by NATO aircraft in five month war in Libya with largest proportion of American aerial tankers refuelling allied strike planes, as well, as AWACS and other surveillance aircraft. NATO was playing an active role in efforts to locate Mr Qadhafi, whose whereabouts are unknown. Western diplomatic, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Special Forces from some NATO nations operating outside the alliance’s command structure may now be engaged in the hunt for Mr Qadhafi. The entire rebellion and the NATO campaign are riddle with inconsistencies. The confusion over the Libyan cannot obscure the problems caused by the military intervention of the north Atlantic treaty organisation (NATO)
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Article Review : SEARCH OF QADHAFI

NATO intelligence is being used to try to hunt down Qadhafi, the elusive Libyan dictator who ruled Libya for 42 years. British defence secretary Liam fox said NATO was playing an active role in efforts to locate Mr Qadhafi, whose whereabouts are unknown, Rebels stormed his compound in Libyan capital of Tripoli but still they were unable to find him. Rebel leadership has offered 2 million bounties on Qadhafi, but autocrat has refused to surrender, fleeing to an unknown destination as his 42-year regime crumbles in the North African nation. According to a Libyan local television channel, Mr Qadhafi vowed from hiding to fight on “until victory or martyrdom”. Rebels are now targeting at Mr Qadhafi’s hometown of Sirte to find Mr Qadhafi. . When Colonel Roland Lavoie, a NATO spokesperson was asked about Mr Qadhafi’s location. He replied “I don’t have a clue of where Qadhafi is”.

The French magazine Paris match reported that rebels almost caught Qadhafi but he was got away and still somewhere in Tripoli. The report cited an unknown “reliable source” as saying a cell of rebel and Arab intelligence services located a plain, modest house in central Tripoli where Mr Qadhafi had spent at least a night. Britain previously provided around 12 military advisers to help Libya’s rebel forces. France and Italy also sent similar troops to assist the anti Qadhafi forces with training and logistics. A western diplomat spoke about the condition of anonymity, said Special Forces from some NATO nations-operating outside the alliance’s command structure- may now be engaged in the hunt for Mr Qadhafi.U.S. Aircraft accounted for most of more than twenty thousand sorties flown by NATO aircraft in five month war in Libya. The largest proportion was flights by American aerial tankers refuelling allied strike planes, as well, as AWACS and other surveillance aircraft. European warplanes –mainly French and british-have flown the vast majority of the airstrike sorties, but U.S. armed drones and some jets –such as those tasked with radar –suppressing wild weasel missions-have also participated.
Pulished by VIKAS YADAV.

Article Review : AUTOCRACY IN NORTH KOREA

The supreme leader of north korea Kim Jong il is leading his nation on the same track in which saddam hussain leaded. but breaching the agreement signed between the superpower u.s. and north korea is not a good sign for the citizens of north korea as u.s. has already revealed the Iraq show.

This review is based on the article captioned as “North Korea, the Next Iraq?”

The nuclear threat

Breaking of the agreement signed between united states of America and democratic republic of korea without any conversation or information. In October 2002, while in Pyongyang, Assistant Secretary of State was informed by his North Korean counterparts that North Korea had revived its nuclear weapons program. This resumption of nuclear weapons development was, according to the U.S. State Department, a "material breach" of an agreement forged eight years earlier between the two nations in which North Korea agreed to give up pursuit of nuclear weapons technology in return for a foreign aid package totaling $5 billion. The agreement also included a commitment by the United States to help build light-water reactor power plants in North Korea.

In December 2002, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were expelled from North Korea. North Korean officials also destroyed surveillance cameras and monitoring equipment, and they broke IAEA locks, enabling their entry into nuclear facilities at Yongbyon, where 8,000 nuclear fuel rods have been stored since 1994.

North Korea's nuclear weapons program got under way in the 1980s with the construction of a small nuclear reactor. North Korea then yielded to international pressure and joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1985. Before its recent withdrawal from the treaty, several violations were committed by North Korea, including shutting down a reactor so that fuel rods could be reprocessed for the extraction of plutonium(as in report presented by nuclear control institute 1994).

A nuclear threat initiative group was founded in 2001 by news mogul Ted Turner and former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn. The Nuclear Threat Initiative looks for ways to reduce the global threat posed by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. An online research library features a wealth of detailed information about North Korea's arsenals of suspected nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Maps of suspected sites are included, along with descriptions and chronologies of activity in various facilities where such weapons are made.

Despite of having considerable number of disputes with international bodies kim jong il continue inceasing and testing his nuclear power .

The underground bomb North Korea detonated was equivalent in strength to those dropped by the United States on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In response, the U.S. and Japan will likely call for strong sanctions. They are, after all, well positioned to do so: Neither country has a land border with North Korea, so if the North Korean regime of Kim Jong il were to implode as a result of punitive economic penalties, they would suffer no hardships.

So citizens of north korea need think about their personal security cover as the nation is at the verge.

Article Review : SPECIFICATION OF THE DEMOCRACY-AUTOCRACY CONNECTION

It has recently been argued that apparent peace between democracies may be the result of political similarity rather than joint democracy, and that there may exist an "autocratic peace" which is similar to the democratic peace. If political similarity generally is the cause of peace rather than joint democracy specifically, then the democratic peace is merely a statistical artefact that follows from separating out a selected subset of data. In addition, we do not know whether the autocratic peace or democratic peace is stronger, if they both exist. Existing empirical specifications of the connection between joint regime type and international conflict have not been adequate to assess these arguments. I develop a specification of joint regime-type variables that uses continuous measures without arbitrary cut-offs and allows us to assess a larger set of hypothesized regime-type effects. I find that jointly democratic and jointly autocratic pairs of states are both less conflict prone than other pairings, but that political similarity apart from these extremes has a much smaller effect on the risk of conflict. The results suggest that political similarity between coherent regimes (those at extremes of the institutionalized democracy-autocracy scale) encourages dyadic peace. 

BUT ALTHOUGH THERE IS A LOWER RISK OF CONFLICT IN BOTH JOINTLY DEMOCRATIC AND JOINTLY AUTOCRATIC DYADS, I FIND THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PEACE IS CLEARLY STRONGER THAN THE AUTOCRATIC PEACE.

Stable political regimes develop stable systems of rules that are conducive to growth, similar to property rights. New measures of political stability indicate that stable political systems stimulate growth in developing autocratic countries. Contrarily, political instability significantly reduces growth in autocracies, as instability creates a time-consistency problem. In some specifications, an instability measure has significant negative growth effects in democracies, and may be an alternative to measures of property rights. Similarly, ethnic fractionalization reduces growth in autocracies, but not developing democracies. Tests indicate that these results are not sensitive to extreme values in the data.