North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa

The Institute of World Politics

About the Book: In North Korean Military Proliferation in the Middle East and Africa: Enabling Violence and Instability, Bruce E. Bechtol Jr. analyzes relevant North Korean military capabilities, what arms the nation provides, and to whom, how it skirts its sanctions, and how North Korea's activities can best be contained. He traces illicit networks that lead to state and nonstate actors in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and throughout Africa, including at least a dozen nations. The potential proliferation of nuclear and chemical weapons technology and the vehicles that carry it, including ballistic missiles and artillery, represent a broader threat than the leadership in Pyongyang. Including training and infrastructure support, North Korea's profits may range into the billions of dollars, all concealed in illicit networks and front companies so complex that the nation struggles to track and control them. Bechtol not only presents an accurate picture of the current North Korean threat―he also outlines methodologies that Washington and the international community must embrace in order to contain it. About the Author: Bruce E. Bechtol, Jr., is an award winning professor of political science at Angelo State University and a retired Marine. He was formerly on the faculty at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College and the Air Command and Staff College. Dr. Bechtol served as an adjunct visiting professor at the Korea University Graduate School of International Studies. He was an intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency from 1997 until 2003, eventually serving as the senior analyst for Northeast Asia in the Intelligence Directorate on the Joint Staff in the Pentagon. He formerly sat on the editorial review board of the East Asian Review and served as editor of the Defense Intelligence Journal. He is currently on the editorial advisory board of the Korea Observer, and is on the scientific board of Global Humanities. He is the current president of the International Council on Korean Studies, and serves on the board of directors of the Council on U.S.-Korean Security Studies. He has also authored North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era: A New International Security Dilemma, The Last Days of Kim Jong-Il: The North Korean Threat in a Changing Era, Defiant Failed State: The North Korean Threat to International Security, and Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea. A widely sought after expert on North Korean international security issues, Dr. Bechtol has been called on to present commentary to the BBC, CNN, CBC, FOX News, Radio New Zealand, syndicated nationwide radio shows such as POTUS politics on SIRIUS/XM, the John Batchelor show, the Frank Gaffney show, and several interviews on National Public Radio.