World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

There is an interesting op-ed essay in the New York Times that follows up on the article we read earlier about the Swiss referendum that would limit the highest  paid employees to salaries no more than 12 times that of the lowest paid employees.  The essay was written by a Swiss resident and it explains some of the cultural background to the issue.  The election is to be held on Sunday, and polls indicate that it will likely fail.  We shall see.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China has announced an “Air Defense Zone” that includes the contested Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands (in the lower part of the zone identified in the map).

The Chinese also issued a statement “saying all aircraft must notify Chinese authorities and are subject to emergency military measures if they do not identify themselves or obey orders from Beijing. It said it would ‘identify, monitor, control and react’ to any air threats or unidentified flying objects coming from the sea.”  The Japanese have lodged a “serious protest” over the unilateral claim, but it is unclear whether the Japanese will try to test the Chinese claim.

US Secretary of State Kerry has once again gone to Geneva for the P5+1/Iran talks.  And, once again, there is a great sense of anticipation of a possible negotiated deal.  Whether that feeling is justified will be clear in a few days,  but the foreign policy heavy weights of the P5 are deeply involved, suggesting that there is a strong sense that an agreement is possible.  We are beginning to get a better idea of the issues that are still under dispute.  One of those issues is whether Iran will delay the start-up of its new reactor at Arak.  Since that reactor will produce plutonium, the issue is of great significance.  But since this negotiation is only on a temporary, not a permanent, agreement, it seems that the Iranians could easily agree to stop working on the reactor for 6 months.  The other major issue is a curious one: whether the Iranians should stop enriching uranium.  Since the right to enrich uranium is codified in the Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory, that dispute seems nonsensical.  Article Four of the NPT reads as follows:

“Nothing in this Treaty shall be interpreted as affecting the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination.”

But the Israelis and the Americans (and apparently the French, although they have said so explicitly) believe that uranium enrichment is not covered by Article Four even though it is impossible to run a peaceful nuclear reactor without enriched uranium.  This dispute, however, also seems to be something that can be verbally resolved, at least for 6 months.  Whether it can be resolved in a permanent agreement is more difficult to answer.