Stephen Walt is one of the smartest realists around and his blog posts are always informative and insightful. One of his more recent posts has to do with the problem of assessing China’s power–obviously something all states need to do, but a very difficult task given China’s secrecy. A good read.
A few days ago, I posted an article about a munitions factory in Sudan that was bombed, presumably by the Israelis. The link between Iran and Sudan is strong, and the Iranian navy has made a port call to Sudan. We also have some more details about how the Israeli raid was conducted, and how the Israelis suspected Iranian involvement with arms smuggling into Gaza to help Hamas.
Casualties of war are often difficult to determine in any comprehensive manner. Even among combatants, we lack the statistics necessary to determine the whole range of possible damages such as post-traumatic stress. Even more difficult are statistics among non-combatants, and damage that occurs after the fighting is over. Many have believed that many birth defects can be attributed to the use of certain metals in modern war, and there have been some disturbing studies in Iraq which tend to confirm this problem. The children affected should definitely be considered casualties of war.
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