'Peace Mission 2007' - sounds good eh? But this mission seems a very long way from the kind of peace-making that many of us recognise. Rather, it is the just-concluded joint military exercises of the SCO. The initials here stand not for the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, but the Shanghai Cooperation Council, the security alliance forged in 2001 by Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Read here an interesting account both of the Mission and of SCO and its growing role in challenging the US spheres of influence around the globe. And a New Statesman piece focussing on the summit they are just beginning
Another bit of heavy-duty military-based "peace building". This time in the form of a massive commitment (30 billion US dollars) by the Univted States to continue providing military aid to Israel. According to a BBC report
[US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns] called the aid package an "investment in peace", saying "peace cannot be made without strength".
"Needless to say, given Israel's predicament, living in a region that is very violent and unstable, its military edge is of interest to our country, and we've committed to that," he said.
The money must be used to purchase military equipment from the US defence industry, although Israel will also be permitted to use 26.3% to buy equipment from local companies.
To be honest, this really sounds more like an investment in the US weapons industry than an investment in peace. Now what would $30 bn buy in non-military peacebuilding capacity? If only someone with access to that sort of money asked themselves the same question.
