Major developments

For those interested in the direction and development of US foreign policy, Thursday was an extremely eventful day.
The White House published an updated National Security Strategy, which 'declares that American-led diplomacy to halt Iran's program to enrich nuclear fuel "must succeed if confrontation is to be avoided,"' the New York Times reports.
More significantly perhaps, in a clause not mentioned in the NYT report, the document reaffirms the doctrine of preventative strike: "duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats, using all elements of national power, before the threats can do grave damage."
'Transparency' also seems to be a watchword. The report stresses that 'rogue states' must be open and transparent about the development of military programmes, particularly where nuclear materials are involved. Also today, Condaleeza Rice expressed some concern about China's announcement that its military budget was to increase: she "underscored America’s concerns about the rapid development of China, urging Beijing to open up its economy and be “transparent” about the reasons for its military build-up, and acknowledged that the US-China relationship faced some “difficult issues”. Ms Rice said: “I heard that there is going to be a 14 per cent increase in the Chinese defence budget. That’s a lot. China should undertake to be transparent about what their military build-up means.”"

Also today, NYT reports, "The American military announced today that it had begun its largest air assault since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, while Iraqi legislators convened the long-awaited first session of the new Parliament in the capital, even in the absence of any agreement to form a full government."
Meanwhile, the US has now recognised the need at least to consult Iran over the question of Iraq's future, although how seriously this can be taken on the same day Condaleeza Rice stepped up rhetoric against Iran, calling it "a central banker to terrorism" (FT) remains to be seen.

In an interview with the FT, Pakistan's foreign minister said that a civil nuclear deal between the US and India would precipitate the collapse of the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty: “The whole Nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty will unravel. It’s only a matter of time before other countries will act in the same way. Nuclear weapons are the currency of power and many countries would like to use it. Once this goes through the NPT will be finished. It’s not just Iran and North Korea. Brazil, Argentina and Pakistan will all think differently.”

A quick glance over tomorrow's international pages makes for an extremely restless night. It hardly need be emphasised that all of these developments look set to exacerbate what are currently the most serious threats to the survival of the human race over the next century.