The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2007

ue to be delivered even if it conducts another test. In addition, India wish- es to retain the right to reprocess U.S.-supplied spent fuel without seek- ing Washington’s permission. Besides the 123 Agreement, India will have to attain approval from the Nuclear Suppliers Group to amend some of the group’s guidelines and also conclude a separate agreement with the IAEA on safeguards. More than three years in the mak- ing, the deal was aimed at removing the single largest obstacle to a strategic relationship between India and the U.S. — namely, the technology denial regime established by Washington fol- lowing India’s first nuclear test in 1974. That trade embargo failed to keep India non-nuclear. Yet it was main- tained at the cost of better relations with the world’s largest democracy in a sensitive area of the world, says Ash- ley Tellis, a Carnegie Endowment for International Peace fellow who has been a key player in the initiative. The agreement faces strong oppo- sition in both the U.S. and India. Nonproliferation advocates in the U.S. warn that it totally undermines the NPT, the world’s central enforce- ment structure, and will set off a new wave of proliferation. In India, opponents argue that the agreement compromises both the thorium-based nuclear power pro- gram built up indigenously and the country’s basic sovereignty, unneces- sarily opening the door to U.S. politi- cal and economic interference. Re- processing, which India can now do freely as a non-signatory of the NPT, is essential to produce plutonium to fuel the thorium reactors. Both Washington and New Delhi, however, remain publicly confident that the deal will ultimately be com- pleted. But as the Bush administra- tion approaches its last year, and Con- gress becomes increasingly preoccu- pied with electoral calculations, it is less clear when that may be. Besides the major daily press on the American side, Arms Control Today ( www.armscontrol.org ) tracks the issue. For background, see the Carne- gie Endowment for International Peace’s South Asia program at www. ceip.org . To follow this issue from the Indian side, read the Hindustan Times ( www.hindustantimes.com ) . J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 7 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 13 C Y B E R N O T E S Site of the Month: www.eyesondarfur.org Eyes on Darfur is the latest project of Amnesty International USA to engage individuals in the effort to stop the humanitarian disaster in western Sudan. This is an innovative, informative and compelling site that aims to (literally) monitor people threatened with violence in remote locations. Taking advantage of high-resolution satellite imagery and the image-analysis capabilities of an American Association for the Advancement of Science team, Eyes on Darfur offers “before” and “after” looks at more than a dozen villages in Darfur that have been marauded by the Janjaweed militia and focuses on another dozen villages that are in danger. Accompanying each photo or series of photos is a report on what has happened or is happening in the village, including some first-hand accounts and, in some cases, videos. The site also offers a conflict analysis, a report on the international response and avenues for becoming involved in the campaign to bring peace. This edition of Cybernotes was written and assembled by Senior Editor Susan Maitra.