UNIVERSITATEA LUCIAN BLAGA SIBIU FACULTATEA DE TIINE SOCIO-UMANE

Departamentul de Relaii Internaionale, tiine Politice i Studii de Securitate SPECIALIZARE: Studii de Securitate, anul II

PROIECT

PROF. COORDONATOR: NEAGO IULIANA

REALIZAT DE: ELENA BOGOS

SIBIU 2012

NEWS FROM FOREIGN POLICY

Unmanned and Dangerous

NATO leaders meet in Chicago, they will unveil a series of new projects, among them, apparently, a program to develop and expand the use of unmanned aerial vehicles -- or "drones" -- so as to confront the security threats of the future and make better use of tighter budgets. Used first for surveillance, and increasingly for strikes, drones have considerable operational attraction. For instance, as much as the NATO leadership might be satisfied with its campaign in Libya, there has still been no transparent assessment of the number of civilians who were killed in the U.N.authorized airstrikes there, which included the use of drones, and of the circumstances of their deaths. As NATO countries prepare to withdraw thousands of troops from Afghanistan and expand their drone programs commensurately, they must carefully weigh the policies and practices for using a weapon that distances them from the human, political, legal, and moral costs of war. . They too must clarify under what conditions these hi-tech weapons should be used, who might constitute a legitimate target, and ultimately ensure that their use respects international law.

Supersonic
For decades, these American jets have ruled the skies. The Pentagon announced it was increasing funds for the new model of the F-35 by another $289 million -- on top of the $379.4 billion already allocated to the program. The F-35 will replace most of the air-combat aircraft in the inventories of the U.S. Critics also note that the plane's scheduled rollout has already been delayed for nearly a decade, and the deployment date continues to be pushed back. The concept for the F-35 was designed by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, as part of its search for a jet that could have short takeoffs and vertical landings while also traveling at supersonic speeds. Hundreds of F-35s will be produced before the

jet has been properly tested. It's time for the U.S. military services, and Congress to face the facts: The F-35 is an unaffordable mediocrity, and the program will not be fixed by any combination of hardware tweaks or cost-control projects. There is only one thing to do with the F-35: Junk it.

IISS scholars: End the war on drugs

The official events of the 2012 Shangri-la Security Dialogue have yet to begin, but in the meantime, scholars from the hosting International Institute for Strategic Studies have a message for the crowd here in Singapore: End the war on drugs. That's the main message of the new book entitled, "Drugs, Insecurity and Failed States: the Problems of Prohibition," written by IISS experts Nigel Inkster and Virginia Comolli . He offered some suggestions about how states can reduce the criminality, violence and instability that the current world drug policy endures. States can ensure safe and ready access to legal drugs, reducing the demand for illegal drugs used for medical purposes, for example. Legalization of narcotics wouldn't eliminate organized crime, but would significantly reduce low level crime, as the street trade in drugs would fade. Many argue that legalization would increase drug use, but Inkster said, "The honest answer is, we don't know." Meanwhile, drug producing states pay the heaviest price due to the illicit drug trade, Inkster said. Earlier this week, he wrote about the drug trade in Afghanistan in an article for Foreign Policy, in which he outlined the ineffectiveness of the international community's decade. Accounting for between one-quarter and one-third of the national economy, it is an integral part of the insecurity blighting Afghan life for the past 30 years," he wrote. "Debate may continue for years as to whether the Western intervention in Afghanistan has made the world safer or more insecure . But it has not only done nothing to reduce global supplies of illicit opium; rather, it has made the problem worse."