ARMAMENT ESCALATION AND REGIONAL SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
This paper is a critical evaluation of the challenges of the insecurity posed by the production of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the Middle East. It argues that the insecurity in the Middle East particularly arise as a result of the alteration of the regional military balance, destruction as a result of covert means and as a result of defense mechanism which has consistently endangered the lives and properties of the inhabitants of the Region. The paper concludes that unless the crisis between the Israelis and the Arab World is resolved and Arabs are prepared to accept the existence of the State of Israel and as long as the Israelis face what they regard as an existential threat, they are going to be reluctant to surrender what they see as an ultimate guarantor of their security. Keywords : Proliferation, security, defence, destruction.
Security implications of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
The issue of the proliferation of nuclear weapons has been given  widespread international focus arising from the incessant security  imbalance in the world. This is so because these weapons have posed a  nuclear threat to both the “Superpowers” and the rest countries of the  world, knowing fully well that the nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them could inflict terrible damage on the world. Our review of relevant  literature on this research problem indicates the existence of a yawning gap that we feel a further research can help to fill. The researcher has  resorted to the use of the system and security theories for our analysis. In a political system such as ours, we need to bear in mind the fact that when there is a nuclear crisis in Japan, North Korea, Ukrain, etc. The political  system is affected in one way or the other and the issue of security cannot be separated from human existence. We have therefore analyzed the  proliferation of nuclear weapons from the context. The paper concludes that all countries should oppose the production, acquisition, or trade in  separated plutonium or highly-enriched uranium and by supporting efforts in the conference on disarmament and elsewhere to achieve an equitable global ban on such materials. Keywords : Security, weapons of mass of destruction, proliferation,  superpowers
Analysis: The Agenda 2007 Proposals: Evolution or Revolution?
On 10 February 2004 the Commission published its proposal for the financial perspective 2007-2013. A week later it adopted the third report on economic and social cohesion. These two documents form the basis of the so-called ‘Agenda 2007 reforms’. They will be the greatest challenge for the enlarged EU after the intergovernmental conference, since they will determine the financial basis for EU policy-making until the middle of the next decade. The Agenda 2007 proposals certainly hint at courageous reforms, because they place a previously unheard-of emphasis on performance and quality. Under the proposals, structural operations should generate value for money, and the funds should focus on projects which generate added value at a European level. Overall the Commission’s proposals point in the right direction, because they balance, on the one hand, solidarity for the new Member States and weak regions in the old Member States with, on the other hand, investments in future tasks. Moreover, they constitute a paradigm shift. For the first time, the Common Agricultural Policy will not be the dominant expenditure category. Now it is up to the Member States to examine the proposals politically and find a compromise between sometimes very divergent interests. It is to be hoped that, during the debate over expenditure limits and division of funds, national interests do not outweigh European interests.