Gitty Amini, associate professor of political science, presented her research on nuclear tensions between the United States, North Korea and Iran.
“I’m interested in the way nation states interact with each other in a way that influences the other,” Amini said.
She added that her interest includes their economic interactions as well as their military interaction.
Amini provided a range of potential courses of action that the United States might take with North Korea and Iran including preventive war and or regime change, negotiated arms control, and deterrence and accommodation.
“We are trying to prevent Iran from getting nukes and convince North Korea to give up their nukes,” Amini said,
At the Singapore Summit in June, between President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, a bilateral stance, with the goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was at issue, she said.
“The American standard we insisted on was CVID: complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization before we meet,” Amini said.
“But we let them substitute different language in the Singapore Summit.”
Amini added that the situation in Iran is also still problematic and unresolved.
“We’re setting up circumstances that (that will) spontaneously collapse.”
Amini’s presentation included a slide that listed the missiles in North Korean possession.
During the question and answer section of the presentation, Amini asked the audience why the United States gets to determine which nations are classified as a rogue.
Amini believes the challenge that the current administration has posed for those studying political science is that the content being taught is a mockery.
“Most wars are made because of bumbling idiots who made catastrophic mistakes,” Amini said.
“History is past tense but it certainly has consequences that continue,” said Al Clark, professor of humanities, who also introduced Amini’s lecture.
“Think globally,” Clark said. “It’s so easy to be caught up in national politics and forget about the world out there.”
–Jaycie Thierry
