UN Arms Trade Treaty Overwhelmingly Approved

In the summer of 2012, I wrote an article on the failure of the international community to reach a voting consensus on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), despite the almost 10-year lobbying effort to get the treaty signed into international law. Various problems with the treaty came to the fore back in July 2012, mainly that the U.S. and Russia claimed they didn't know how the treaty would affect their domestic laws. It was a frustrating end to what could have been a monumental addition to international law; a treaty designed to regulate trade worth $70 billion annually. Good news came roughly 9 months later: two days ago, the Arms Trade Treaty was brought to a majority vote and received overwhelming international backing. Only three countries in the UN General Assembly voted against it (North Korea, Iran and Syria) while great power arms manufacturers China and Russia abstained. Despite a few small issues, the treaty may very well prove to be a guiding law in future policy discussions, especially concerning the three conspicuous nations that voted against the measure.

United Nations General Assembly chamber. Photo by Chris Erbach.

Dennis Rodman and the Era of Unconventional Diplomacy: From Ping-Pong to Basketball

Famed basketball weirdo Dennis Rodman raised many eyebrows this week as he visited the pariah state of North Korea and palled around with its notorious leader Kim Jong Un. Apparently a huge basketball and Bulls fan, Kim received Rodman and a crew of Western documentary makers as well as players for the Harlem Globetrotters to his reticent country. Rodman and Kim hit it off, with Rodman drawing fire for calling the brutal dictator “a friend for life” and stating that he does not believe the Korean leader wants war with the US.  The statements seemed bizarre given the February 12 North Korean nuclear test, the Feb. 19 threat to bring “final destruction to the South,” and a video released just this week showing Pres. Obama engulfed in flames and a US city targeted by a nuclear attack.

Best Budz: Rodman hugs Kim. Photos courtesy of AP.

Yet in East Asia, when dealing with belligerent nations the US has employed unconventional diplomacy successfully in the past. The now-infamous “ping-pong diplomacy" that was seen as leading to a marked improvement in US relations with the People’s Republic of China played a role in the visit of Pres. Richard Nixon to the PRC. At the time, China was in a similar position to North Korea in terms of its nuclear proliferation, history of poor relations with the US, and position in the Communist Bloc. While “ping-pong diplomacy” was not the only cause of the improvement in relations, the US and China made an adroit diplomatic decision in seizing a window of opportunity in the political climate to arrange a trip that was well-received by the publics on either side and that opened the door to further negotiations.