this is only speculation by draft
by Si. .
You can now read Si’s blog at http://skepticalinternationalist.blogspot.com/
Work has been most interesting these days. Alas I am not on the Iran file anymore. But I gotta say it is not looking pretty. I would not be surprised to see an Iranian “domestic resistance group” commit acts of sabotage at Iranian nuclear facilities if and when the negotiations with the EU and the US break down. Any acts by the US directly could wreck havoc in the state building efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I will never rule out action by Israel. But hey, this is only speculation.
I’m still spending most of my time on space weapons research looking at the corpus of law that regulated conflict in outer space. Last month I went to Strasbourg to give a lecture at the International Space University on Space Security in the 21st Century. The trip was brutally short. I was jet lagged the whole time. I managed to squeeze time to visit Strasbourg and Paris. Strasbourg is a beautiful city, perfectly Franco-German. It is no small miracle that the city still stands after centuries of Continental war. I arrived at 6am in Paris on a Saturday morning which was slightly surreal. At that time of day, the city is ghostly silent with no one is on the streets. At that time of the morning, you can enter any cafe, even in normally frenzied St-Germain-des-Pres and relax. Waiters are too tired at that time of morning to be surly. In Strasbourg, I had a very interesting chat with a former US Air Force General who helped direct Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (a.k.a Star Wars). We did not agree on anything, from the idea of orbital nuclear warships (his) to a treaty banning the creation of deadly orbital debris (mine) but at the end of the day he patted me on the back and said: “Son, we should meet up for drinks one day and discuss nuclear strategy in a more civilized environment.” Horrifying. More recently I met another specimen of these men that seem to rule the US when we were organizing a workshop on space security at McGill Law School. On the sidelines of the workshop, I had a beer with one of the heads of international law at the US Air Force to discuss Canada’s stand on missile defense (against participation). These were most interesting and polite conversations but what was most disturbing was that these were very intelligent men with deeply held beliefs that were so inimical to any sense of reason or progress. These are people that are obsessed with survival and who think the country is under siege. When survival is what seems to be at stake, all means seem to be justified. Yet at the end of the day it is not survival (not the US’s at least) that is at stake. All that is a stake is a way of life that is wasteful, unsustainable, and supposedly risk free. These men are willing to turn the world upside down to negate any sense of risk whatsoever. They ignore two paradoxical tenets of international relations. First, no nation can feel secure on its own; no nation can feel secure if all other nations feel insecure. Second, a measure of vulnerability is as inevitable as it is stabilizing. But enough political ranting. I was so upset by the conversation, I managed to lose my $600 blackberry computer. Moral of the story: don’t carry expensive useless gadgets!
OK
I’m out.
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