International Herald Tribune columnist William Pfaff describes the process leading up to completion of the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran as a remarkable “coup d’etat” staged by one camp of the American executive branch against another. Writing from Paris, Pfaff suggests …
Archive for the ‘Intelligence’ Category
Intelligence, Nuclear Proliferation, Preventive War, Public Argument
Words of Estimative Probability in the New Iran NIE
Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell released yesterday the summary of a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) assessing Iran’s nuclear intentions and capabilities.
Since key judgments in the report are in tension with several of the Bush administration’s key premises underlying its bellicose Iran policy, release of the new …
Climate change as a security threat
The U.S. Senate is poised to consider S. 1538, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, which contains a provision that would require the U.S. Intelligence Community to produce a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on the security threats posed by global climate change.
“For years, too many of us have viewed global warming as simply an environmental or economic issue. We now need to consider it as a security concern,” said Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) in comments last March introducing legislation calling for the NIE. Catastrophic climate change poses a number of possible security dangers, including:
Rapid migration patterns created by environmental refugees fleeing stressed regions overwhelming disaster relief efforts.
Threats to submarines and warships arising from shifting ocean navigation patterns.
Drought intensifying competition for dwindling food and energy, potentially even stimulating nuclear proliferation
About the blog & authors
Security Sweep connects researchers affiliated with the Ridgway Center and Ford Institute with policy-makers, citizens, journalists, and scholars interested in sharing views on topics spanning the "security continuum." For more about the blog and its authors, click here.
Chalk Talk
What's happening in our classrooms
Question for Karl Rove about Negotiations with Iran
This question was generated by student Group E in Cold War Rhetoric, an undergraduate course in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. The question was played for Karl Rove during his visit to a special meeting of the class on March 3, 2008.
In the students’ peer evaluation using a standardized rating rubric, […]
Question for Karl Rove about the Bush Library
This question was generated by student Group C in Cold War Rhetoric, an undergraduate course in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. The question was played for Karl Rove during his visit to a special meeting of the class on March 3, 2008.
In the students’ peer evaluation using a standardized rating rubric, […]
Question for Karl Rove about Iran’s Nuclear Program
This question was generated by student Group F in Cold War Rhetoric, an undergraduate course in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. The question was played for Karl Rove during his visit to a special meeting of the class on March 3, 2008.
In the students’ peer evaluation using a standardized rating rubric, […]
