Arms Race

Rajan MENON

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy boats near the Strait of Hormuz (Photo: Sayyed Shahab-o-din Vajedi Source: Wikicommons)
Hossein Askari
The Globe Post

Russia and China are right to condemn the testing this week of an INF-busting new missile by the US. Washington is brazenly jeopardizing global security under the usual cynical guise of “defense”.

Those who are familiar with my articles would be aware that I am not given to catastrophism or alarmism. But perhaps the time has come to reflect on who will be president after Trump (whether after this or the next term) and what this will mean for relations with Russia and China.

Kingston REIF
The Trump administration has requested nearly $100 million in fiscal year 2020 to develop three new missile systems that would exceed the range limits of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, a pact the United States is preparing to exit in August.

The global trend in international relations is often difficult to discern. But one can be helped in this task by looking at two events, organized in Washington and Beijing, comparing the different themes, participants, objectives, and broached for discussion. After all, we are talking about the two largest economies in the world, two colossi directing and shaping global culture, behavior and world opinion.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force announced within the span of two days earlier this week that it had awarded over $3.3 billion in contracts to U.S. weapons giant Lockheed Martin. The first of these contracts, totaling $480 million, was announced on Monday and tasked Lockheed with designing a new “hypersonic” missile. The new missile, known as the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), is the second “hypersonic” missile under development at Lockheed, as the U.S.

On July 19th and 20th, The Russian Defense Ministry announced several milestones of progress in its advanced weapons systems programs. These programs were revealed to the world in March of this year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the State of the Russian Federation speech.

Thousands of artificial intelligence (AI) experts and developers have signed a pledge vowing to “neither participate in nor support the development, manufacture, trade, or use of lethal autonomous weapons,” and imploring governments worldwide to work together to “create a future with strong international norms, regulations, and laws” barring so-called killer robots.

President-elect (and President now) of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin met with the senior officials of his campaign after his victory Sunday night to discuss what lies ahead for the next six years. The meeting with his officials happened on Monday and RT reported a surprising series of statements.