Axis Of Evil Research Articles

Public to join search for cosmic ‘axis of evil’

Public to join search for cosmic ‘axis of evil’

The Axis of Evil Walks into A Bar

The Axis of Evil Walks into A Bar

Just Whose Side Is Time On?

President Bush's bold National Security Strategy document of September 2002 would appear to have been written with North Korea as much as Iraq in mind. Yet the Bush administration has been uncharacteristically passive in responding to the challenge posed by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions, especially in comparison with the forceful manner with which the administration dealt with Iraq. In the latter case, Bush mobilized the full weight of military force; seemed disdainful of allies, international institutions and multilateral diplomacy; and moved forward with what his critics deemed reckless abandon. In the case of North Korea, on the other hand, the President has emphasized patience, close coordination with allies and an overall lack of urgency oddly at variance with his `axis of evil' characterization of the regime in Pyongyang, and with dangerous advances in North Korea's nuclear arsenal. This essay attempts to explain the rationale behind the Bush administration's surprisingly relaxed approach to the North Korea challenge.

Post-CFC Korean Security: Key Issues and Suggestions

Abstract The Republic of Korea (ROK) today faces the greatest security threat since the Korean War half a century ago. The military situation on the Korean peninsula has been remarkably aggravated following North Korea's nuclear test, and the agreement on deactivation of the Combined Forces Command (CFC) has jolted the roots of the ROK-U.S. combined defense posture. While the ROK and the United States were putting many endeavors into disabling the existing combined defense system, North Korea scored a series of nuclear and missile provocation during the past couple of years. Meanwhile, the Bush administration showed a major turn-around in its attitude toward North Korea since its nuclear test. Washington, which previously labeled North Korea as part of an “axis of evil,” now considers the North a legitimate counterpart for negotiating peace and security on the Korean peninsula. The Roh administration also goes with the principle of “peace for peace” or “no war” on the Korean peninsula. “Improving inter-Korean relations” constitutes the most salient concept to direct all other aspects of its security policy. In this paper the author examines the political and military implications of three key challenging issues pressuring South Korean security-namely, wartime OPCON transfer, a nuclear-armed North Korea, and President Bush's proposal to end the Korean War. The author also presents his own views for sustaining the ROK-U.S. combined defense posture in the upcoming post-CFC era.

Correlating anomalies of the microwave sky

At the largest angular scales the presence of a number of unexpected features has been confirmed by the latest measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Among them are the anomalous alignment of the quadrupole and octopole with each other as well as the stubborn lack of angular correlation on scales $g60\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$. We search for correlations between these two phenomena and demonstrate their absence. A Monte Carlo likelihood analysis confirms previous studies and shows that the joint likelihood of both anomalies is incompatible with the best-fit $\ensuremath{\Lambda}$ cold dark matter model at $g99.95%$ C.L. Extending also to higher multipoles, a common special direction (the ``Axis of Evil'') has been identified. In the search for an explanation of the anomalies, several studies invoke effects that exhibit an axial symmetry. We find that this interpretation of the ``Axis of Evil'' is inconsistent with three-year data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). The data require a preferred plane, whereupon the axis is just the normal direction. Rotational symmetry within that plane is ruled out at high confidence.

The Axis of Evil revisited

In light of the three-year data release from WMAP we re-examine the evidence for the ``Axis of Evil'' (AOE). We discover that previous statistics are not robust with respect to the data-sets available and different treatments of the galactic plane. We identify the cause of the instability and implement an alternative ``model selection'' approach. A comparison to Gaussian isotropic simulations find the features significant at the 94-98% level, depending on the particular AOE model. The Bayesian evidence finds lower significance, ranging from ``substantial'' at $\Delta(\ln E)\sim 1.4$, to no evidence for the most general AOE model.

On Others' Outlook

PERSIAN VISIONS: CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY FROM IRAN JOHNSON MUSEUM OF ART CORNELL UNIVERSITY ITHACA, NEW YORK JANUARY 27-MARCH 18, 2007 In a time when pronouncements from the White House and the United States press attempt to justify military action against Iran, the personal and political expressions in Persian Visions: Contemporary Photography from become all the more poignant. In the current climate, this exhibition that has been curated for U.S. venues becomes a quiet intervention, an entreaty for sanity, an all-too-rare conduit for certain Iranian secular and intellectual voices. It is a wonder that this exhibition exists at all, especially since no corporate sponsor had the courage to fund it, and the works themselves were even threatened with deportation by U.S. Customs. While current viewers of this already somber exhibition receive the works with an undeniable gravitas, the displayed photographs do not convey urgency; indeed, most were created a few years ago in the relative peace following the Iran-Iraq war. The balance of pieces included in Persian Visions engage concepts of mediated looking, identity constructions, and the creation of beautiful images. These twenty Iranian photographers have much more in common with the international scene of art fairs and biennials than with radical Islamic stereotypes cultivated by the U.S. news media. Persian Visions offers an alternative to the hysterical corporate-state-sponsored images of raving clerics, oppressed women, and gun-wielding revolutionaries. This exhibition visualizes what critical thinkers know, but what is rendered invisible in the U.S., that Iran is a complex society with its own psychodynamics and conflicting viewpoints and certainly not the monolithic rogue state situated on the axis of evil. Despite prevailing anti-Iran sentiments, this exhibition pleasantly reminds us that Iranian artists study abroad in premier institutions, show in European and U.S. galleries, and represent their country in prominent international exhibitions. Their endeavors have been a part of the decade-and-a-half tide of identity art in which unique perspectives from numerous points on the globe (though they may nod to western art critical discourse) have been successfully parlayed on the market as vestiges of avant-garde originality. With its unassuming conceptual play and media awareness, an untitled photo-collage (n.d.) by Yahya Dehghanpoor would be equally at home in Chelsea, Mitte, or any international art city. The collage is a grid of twenty-one color prints floating in clear glass, all of which show five horizontal and parallel electrical wires against a blue sky with white clouds. The black lines read as musical staffs, each print a measure, and the changing clouds as a Cagean chance composition. The piece seems less surprising when one learns that Dehghanpoor was educated in San Francisco, exemplifying the worldliness of these artists. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Other works possess equal conceptual rigor but situate subjects firmly in Iran. Sadegh Tirafkan's Persepolis (1995-98) combines photographs and video. Mounted on the gallery walls, flat screen televisions uncannily read as framed photographs, especially as they are similar in size to the prints included in the installation. On two video screens, Persepolis shows a man strolling through this archaeological site. The images of this man walk toward each other on the same path but from opposite ends, as each finishes at the other's starting point. Though they seem to walk in contemporaneity while presented along with unrelenting audio of historical debris crunching underfoot the figures never intersect. An intersection with two other men and a chador-clad woman is staged in the accompanying prints. Persepolis employs a meaningful subtlety lost on those not patient enough to allow the work to reveal its paradoxes. …

Everlasting flower: a history of Korea

South - a democratic high-tech Asian Tiger and flamboyant host of the 2002 World Cup; North - a secretive dictatorship on Bush's notorious 'axis of evil', with a controversial nuclear program and a poverty stricken population. These two Koreas seem worlds apart, separated along the 38th parallel by the last active 'cold war' frontier. But North and South share a common history and culture of which both are deeply proud. The poignant scenes of reunited families when the borders were opened in 2000 show that, even though frustrated, the links between the two populations remain strong. Keith Pratt tells the story of this common heritage from the ancient states of Old Choson and Wiman Choson to the present relics of Cold War politics. He describes the physical and cultural landscape in which this history unfolds, dealing with religious identities and social aspects like food and drink, as well as more controversial issues such as punishment and torture, and the 'comfort women' of the Japanese occupation. In a series of short picture essays he introduces particular aspects of Korea's past, including the world's oldest observatory and the country's famous turtle boats. Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea reveals a country which, although sandwiched between the more familiar worlds of China and Japan, has a distinct and rich cultural identity of its own. With the DPRK's precarious relationship with the outside world brought to increasingly frequent crises in the aftermath of 9/11, the Korean peninsular looks certain to remain a geopolitical hotspot. The importance of understanding this part of the world has never been greater.

Axis of evil

Axis of evil

Beyond anti-terrorism: Metaphors as message strategy of post-September-11 U.S. public diplomacy

This research analyzed the major metaphors the U.S. government created to define the post-September-11 world realities, including “Second Front,” “Axis of Evil,” “Old Europe,” “Responsible Stakeholder,” and “Color Revolution.” The metaphors are found to be rhetorically advocating and share the archetypal metaphor of “democracy vs. tyranny” and “freedom vs. oppression.” The metaphors had their origins in the U.S. national security strategies, and the images they created highlighted aspects of the moral and ideological considerations but hide certain aspects of the realpolitik motivations.

Introduction

The essays collected in this issue emerged out of the Canadian Association for American Studies conference held in Winnipeg in October 2003. The conference’s program was organized around the topics ‘‘Authenticity and Contention’’ because, at the time of issuing the call for papers, we could not help but recognize the renewed urgency these notions had taken on following the United States government’s response to the events of September 11, 2001. The declaration of a war on terrorism, the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the first Patriot Act, the identifying of a so-called ‘‘axis of evil,’’ and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq had already registered a dra­matic shift in the American government’s approach towards both its geopolitical role in the world and the regulation and monitoring of its own population. Concerns about national security demanded more intensive internal scrutiny of the origins, identities, and beliefs of American citizens, landed immigrants, and visitors, while potential external threats to the United States were identified as targets for pre-emptive aggression. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and throughout the planning and execution of the military actions that followed, the legitimacy of certain models of national citizenship and political dissent were measured against a coercive ideal of patriotism, which mobilized appeals to an authentically American identity or ‘‘American way of life’’ in order to suppress or disqualify the possibility of critical debate. Any view contesting the policies of the White House administration left itself open to the charge of being inherently ‘‘un-American,’’ or even ‘‘anti-American.’’

A sheriff, two bullets and three problems

This paper analyzes deterrence in international conflicts. Assume a strong country has several opponents and faces a military capacity constraint, which is not exhausted after just one war. Two main effects are at work. If the strong country is constrained, then reputation is more expensive and may occur less often. The problem is that the opponents may (but need not) be more aggressive compared to a world without a constraint. It may be that an “axis of evil” does not exist before a war occurs, but is implicitly formed even by moderate countries after the first war was waged. A point of interest is whether the constrained strong country should obtain additional capacity, given that the objective is to minimize the number of wars. The analysis sheds some new light on the U.S. foreign policy, the United Nations and the “axis of evil”

CMB multipole measurements in the presence of foregrounds

Most analysis of cosmic microwave background spherical harmonic coefficients ${a}_{\ensuremath{\ell}m}$ has focused on estimating the power spectrum ${C}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}=⟨|{a}_{\ensuremath{\ell}m}{|}^{2}⟩$ rather than the coefficients themselves. We present a minimum-variance method for measuring ${a}_{\ensuremath{\ell}m}$ given anisotropic noise, incomplete sky coverage and foreground contamination, and apply it to the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) data. Our method is shown to constitute lossless data compression in the sense that the widely used quadratic estimators of the power spectrum ${C}_{\ensuremath{\ell}}$ can be computed directly from our ${a}_{\ensuremath{\ell}m}$-estimators. As the Galactic cut is increased, the error bars $\ensuremath{\Delta}{a}_{\ensuremath{\ell}m}$ on low multipoles go from being dominated by foregrounds to being dominated by leakage from other multipoles, with the intervening minimum defining the optimal cut. Applying our method to the WMAP quadrupole and octopole as an illustration, we investigate the robustness of the previously reported ``axis of evil'' alignment to Galactic cut and foreground contamination.

Why they don't hate us: lifting the veil on the axis of evil

PART I: Who are They, Where'd They Come From, and Why Don't They Hate Us-Yet? Introduction: They Are Us Chapter One: From Evil to Empathy: The Orient Beats Back the Axis of Arrogance Chapter Two: Overcoming the Matrix, Re-Imagining Middle Eastern History PART TWO: Branding Islam in the Global Era Chapter Three: Grounding the Globalization Concorde Chapter Four: New Logo: Rebranding the Middle East in the Global Era Chapter Five: Beyond bin Laden: Human Nationalisms versus Inhuman Globalization Chapter Six: Facing the Music: Rock and Resistance in the Middle East and North Africa PART THREE: We're Jammin': Global Solidarity in the Post-9/11 World Chapter Seven: Paris '68 - Baghdad '04: The Evolution of a Movement of Movements Chapter Eight: Inspiring the Impossible: The Global Peace and Justice Movement Between Old Problems and New Horizons Conclusion: Chaos and Culture Jamming in Iraq and the World

The Founders of American Anti-communism

For those not too caught up in the fight against the Axis of Evil and the War on Terror, recent years have presented an opportunity to reflect on American responses to insecurity, conflict, and fea...

Mortality Salience, Martyrdom, and Military Might: The Great Satan Versus the Axis of Evil

Study 1 investigated the effect of mortality salience on support for martyrdom attacks among Iranian college students. Participants were randomly assigned to answer questions about either their own death or an aversive topic unrelated to death and then evaluated materials from fellow students who either supported or opposed martyrdom attacks against the United States. Whereas control participants preferred the student who opposed martyrdom, participants reminded of death preferred the student who supported martyrdom and indicated they were more likely to consider such activities themselves. Study 2 investigated the effect of mortality salience on American college students' support for extreme military interventions by American forces that could kill thousands of civilians. Mortality salience increased support for such measures among politically conservative but not politically liberal students. The roles of existential fear, cultural worldviews, and construing one's nation as pursing a heroic battle against evil in advocacy of violence were discussed.

US Policy and the Nuclear Weapons Ambitions of the “Axis of Evil” Countries*

This article examines US policy as it pertains to the nuclear weapons objectives of what the Bush administration identified as the countries making up the “axis of evil,” pre-war Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Having drawn the same conclusion as that appearing in the 2000 report of the Project for the New American Century, which alleged the involvement of these countries in illicit activities relating to nuclear weapons, the Bush administration initiated an overtly hostile and accusatory policy toward each of these nations after 9/11.Undeterred by the paucity of evidence and the failure to find a nuclear weapons program (or any weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq, the Bush administration has remained relentlessly focused on the nuclear weapons ambitions of North Korea and Iran, all the while ignoring or minimizing diplomatic efforts that are not hegemonic and confrontational. This paper stresses that for the past several years the Bush administration has not hesitated in using questionable and uncertain information relating to the nuclear weapons objectives of the “axis of evil” countries, even though it has demonstrated no interest in eliminating US nuclear weapons as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty obligates it to do.

Strategies for Managing Rogue States

In the ongoing debates on how to manage relations with rogue states such as North Korea and Iran, the opposing policies of both hawks and doves are unrealistic in their pure forms. Throughout American history, presidents have faced the same choices the Bush administration now has when dealing with adversaries abroad: appeasement, engagement, containment, rollback, and non-entanglement. Each of these five basic strategic alternatives has potential advantages and risks. In analyzing how these have applied to U.S. relations with Iraq, North Korea, and Iran—the so-called axis of evil—it becomes clear that rollback and appeasement are the riskiest options and containment the most promising. Elements of diplomacy, however, can be used in conjunction with a primary policy of containment to head off threats from rogue states.

Introduction

The essays collected in this issue emerged out of the Canadian Association for American Studies conference held in Winnipeg in October 2003. The conference’s program was organized around the topics ‘‘Authenticity and Contention’’ because, at the time of issuing the call for papers, we could not help but recognize the renewed urgency these notions had taken on following the United States government’s response to the events of September 11, 2001. The declaration of a war on terrorism, the founding of the Department of Homeland Security, the passage of the first Patriot Act, the identifying of a so-called ‘‘axis of evil,’’ and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq had already registered a dra­matic shift in the American government’s approach towards both its geopolitical role in the world and the regulation and monitoring of its own population. Concerns about national security demanded more intensive internal scrutiny of the origins, identities, and beliefs of American citizens, landed immigrants, and visitors, while potential external threats to the United States were identified as targets for pre-emptive aggression. In the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and throughout the planning and execution of the military actions that followed, the legitimacy of certain models of national citizenship and political dissent were measured against a coercive ideal of patriotism, which mobilized appeals to an authentically American identity or ‘‘American way of life’’ in order to suppress or disqualify the possibility of critical debate. Any view contesting the policies of the White House administration left itself open to the charge of being inherently ‘‘un-American,’’ or even ‘‘anti-American.’’

AXISing Asian American Literature: In the Age of War and Empire

On October 9th, 2006, seismologists in Russia, Norway and Vienna detected an earth tremor originating in Northeast Asia with a magnitude of around four. North Korea had detonated its first underground nuclear bomb, albeit a weak one, and the international community including the U.S., Europe, and Japan, reacted in shock, calling for sanctions against the Koreans. Indeed, North Korea had shifted the political/power axis, adding another nation to those who already possessed the bomb: Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia, and the U.S.Nonetheless, for most of us in the West, the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea appears an abstraction, a rhetorical enemy, and part of what the U.S. government has branded an Enemy Nation, part of the Axis of Evil. We live in an era in which ethnic, national, and political lines are more savagely and crudely drawn, dividing nations, peoples, and entire belief systems into good and evil, civilized and barbaric, savior and terrorist.