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Missiles, more missiles

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BY ALL accounts, Russia is keen on upping the ante, vis-à-vis its engagements with the United States in what might finally be seen as the return of the Cold War era. In other words, let's face the reality: there's nothing constant about the emergence of the unipolar world; it could, at best, be a brief interregnum.

Published: Sun 28 Oct 2007, 8:10 AM

Updated: Sun 5 Apr 2015, 1:03 AM

Signs are there for all to see. Take for instance, the warning sounded by Russia's Commander of the rocket forces, Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, that his country is game for a resumption of production of short and medium-range nuclear missiles, should a need arise, even if it meant a break from its arms treaties. These are straws in the wind; and the real action could follow in due course.

Which is what President Putin has already told America the other day: that, he might not necessarily stand by the arms control treaty signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, historically bringing the curtains down on the Cold War days, two decades ago. That saw the scrapping of nearly 3,000 small and medium range missiles, giving a great fillip to the cause of global demilitarisation and denuclearisation process. The hopes in this respect, it would now seem, will be short-lived.

Nothing, in recent years, however, gives us the feeling we are heading into a safer world. The war in Iraq, into its fifth year, and still raging, and the advancement of the pre-emptive strike theory by the Bush administration have already dampened the hopes of peace activists. War clouds are hovering over the region in a new form targeting Iran; and, an avoidable war in Lebanon has had its share of deaths and devastations.

President Putin might be blowing hot and cold — sharply criticising America one day, and claiming to have a “personal friendship” with George Bush the next day — but his task, in the emerging world order, is already cut out. Without doubt, Russia is keen on playing an active role on world stage yet again: a reason why Russian officials are writing off the Gorbachev-Reagan treaty now as a “Cold War relic”. They, however, have a point when they ask, “why limit the scope” for such a deal to only some, when others can keep building their arsenals?

The fact is, arms control talks, or discussions for a nuclear-free world, have made very little progress as there is no seriousness on the part of the dominant parties involved to effect a real, positive change to the world scenario. There's hypocrisy involved in the act of keeping one's arsenals intact and asking others to destroy theirs. Under the circumstances, nothing might prevent Russia from scrapping the 1987 deal.

All of these bode ill for all of us. For, they will take the world back to Square One; that is, back to a state of hopelessness, yet again.



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