When Poland’s president and prime minister, the Kaczynski twins, visited Washington, D.C., in September 2006, they both voiced their support for former Polish chief of state, the post-Communist Aleksander Kwasniewski, who aspired to be the new secretary general, or gensek, of the United Nations. The White House responded with an embarrassing silence. Although George W. Bush had earlier supported Kwasniewski, the United States resolved to back the Korean foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon. Many assumed that Bush discarded Kwasniewski because the Pole could no longer deliver for the United States, as he had by committing Polish troops to the invasion and [...]
VALETTA, Malta — On Memorial Day, a senior officer of Malta’s tiny army placed a wreath at the Monument of the Fallen situated just outside the capital. The granite column topped by a golden eagle commemorates the Maltese and British defenders who lost their lives in the heroic 1942 siege, in which Axis planes bombed the island into rubble but failed to take it. The siege of Malta is an incredible saga of resilience in the face of overwhelming odds. But bygones are bygones: Since 2004, the former British colony has been tied to Europe as the smallest member of [...]
The Bush administration recently published an unclassified version of its new National Space Policy. Like the 2005 National Defense Strategy and the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, the new policy stresses the vital interest of the United States in remaining a major space power. Although it acknowledges the value of international cooperation in space and the right of “free passage” for all countries’ satellites and other space-based objects, the policy reaffirms the intent to protect U.S. space capabilities by all available means. The new policy will likely intensify Chinese and Russian fears that the United States intends to deploy weapons in [...]
