Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security by Bruce E Bechtol - Political Science Book on Global Affairs & International Relations | Perfect for Researchers, Policy Makers & Security Analysts

Packed into the economical title of Bruce Bechtol's newly published "Defiant Failed State" about North Korea is the contradiction one encounters in examining that country. Judged solely by the socioeconomic measures that factor into the annual Failed States Index and by the bizarre attempt to pass leadership to Kim Chong-il's third son, North Korea might well be short-listed for the country most likely to face extinction. However, as Bechtol writes, this is not a country that intends to go under, and to that end it has developed a variety of intriguing and worrisome strategies. That North Korea has become a nuclear-armed state is now widely acknowledged. That it is also a cash-earning proliferator of nuclear and ballistic missile technology and the sponsor of globe-circling criminal activities are truths well understood by the U.S. Government and Intelligence Community but little reported on by most U.S. media.Bechtol, now teaching at Angelo State University, was until recently with the Marine Corps Staff and Command College and prior to that was an intelligence officer with the military. It is therefore no surprise that the greatest and most distinctive strength of "Defiant Failed State" is Bechtol's focus on those very activities that constitute North Korea's campaign to stay afloat. As was the case with Bechtol's previous book, "Red Rogue," "Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security" provides a solid wrapup of the country's military deployments and assets. Even more valuable, however, is the succeeding chapter which details North Korean assistance to the WMD programs of both Iran and Syria. It is on this front that Bechtol's energy and expertise in culling information from a great variety of sources pulls together a story of truly strategic importance. Bechtol's treatment of the criminal activities that sustain Kim Chong-il's dictatorial rule is somewhat cursory, and I wish that this subject had been given more prominence. Still, one need look no further than another publication to which Bechtol contributed-- "Criminal Sovereignty: Understanding North Korea's Illicit International Activities"--to gain a fuller understanding of that very subject.