June geopolitics roundup

By Rick Morris

Once again, the world looks to be going to hell in a handbasket in several different theatres at the same time. Here’s another one of our roundups of credible sources to help you make sense of what is unfolding.

KOREAN PENINSULA
^ From Janes, South Korea is modernizing their weaponry with the new threats materializing.
^ From Janes, South Korea accused North Korea of the sub attack after a comprehensive investigation.
^ From Financial Times, an examination of potential North Korean motives.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, a comforting sense that North Korea is not really trying to provoke a war.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, a notation of how the sub attack would fit into a long lineage of boat sinkings that led to war.
^ From Belmont Club, a skeptical look at Hillary Clinton’s policy of “strategic patience” on North Korea.
^ From the UK Times, a column about how China’s failure to reel in North Korea could lead to renewed war on the peninsula.
^ From Asia Times, deadly, ominous silence is said to be emanating from the DMZ.
^ From The Economist, an analysis of the death rattles coming from North Korea.

MIDDLE EAST
^ From Financial Times, a sense that Israel may have misread the ramifications of their attack on the blockade-busters.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, how Israel’s attack on the Turkish ship may have damaged relations with Greece, of all countries.
^ From the Foreign Policy Passport blog, the storm that is likely to rain down on Israel as a result of the attack.
^ From Stratfor, an examination of how public opinion plays a role in flotilla crises.
^ From Belmont Club, an analysis about how a perception of Israeli weakness may have triggered the flotilla confrontation.

THE EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS
^ From Financial Times, severe criticism of Germany from a top official at the European Central Bank foreshadows further disintegration as the crisis continues.
^ From Financial Times, a report that indicates that a large-scale default on debt in Europe would be extraordinarily destabilizing to the world economy.
^ From The Moscow Times, an article about how Russia may try to move in to exploit the potential dissolution of the European Union.

GENERAL WAR ON TERROR
^ From Stratfor, a prediction that jihadists will abandon bombs as a primary terrorist weapon because of their increasing level of difficulty with them – in favor of firearms.
^ From Belmont Club, a breakdown of the possibilities that the US will strike at targets on Pakistani soil in the event of a major terrorist attack in America suspected to have been planned there.
^ From Ralph Peters in the New York Post, a harsh analysis about the ramifications of the report exposing new US “black ops” policies.
^ From The Long War Journal, a report about the death by US drone in Pakistan of a key link between the Taliban and al Qaeda.
^ From The Investigative Project, a recap of the guilty plea submitted by a Jordanian national who is confessing to trying to blow up a 60-story skyscraper in Dallas.