IntroductionAs it struggles to contain a growing insurgency, Pakistan has aroused concern that it is a failing or fracturing state. One aspect of the international community's response has been to place new focus on Pakistan's economic weaknesses. On completing his first hundred days in office,...
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Ho-hum! Another United Nations Security Council (UNSC) pronouncement "demanding" that North Korea cease and desist all missile activities and verifiably give up its nuclear weapons program. Another "declaration of war" by the North against anyone who would dare criticize (much less enforce sanctions against) Pyongyang,...
Read all of "North Korea: Is a Containment Policy the Best (Only) Option? by Ralph A. Cossa" »
There is now a wide recognition of the tie between Afghanistan and Pakistan - safe havens in the rugged Pakistan border area are greatly facilitating the operations of radical elements in Afghanistan. But little attention is being paid to the tie between Pakistan and India....
Is the White House planning on spending more or less on defense? Heritage Foundation analyst Mackenzie Eaglen unpacks all the numbers in "The $64,000 Question: Is President Obama Actually Increasing the Defense Budget?" Here is what she concludes, "President Obama has submitted a budget blueprint...
There is no effective border strategy for dealing with this. If someone crossing the border were affected, they could well show up at the border "asymptomatic" or with symptoms virtually indistinguishable from other flus and colds. There is no way to stop this at the...
Read all of "Responding to Swine Flu; Updates and Implications for Healthcare and Homeland Security" »
PRISTINA, KOSOVO Standing on the Mitrovica bridge looking at the Serbian flags flying on the northern side of the Iber River, it is clear that something is gravely amiss in Europe's youngest democracy, Kosovo. Serbs in the three municipalities across the river refuse to allow...
Read all of "European Union at Cross Purposes in Kosovo By Christopher Chivvis" »
The Obama administration was a political target of North Korea's April 5, 2009, North Korean missile test in addition to the targets of internal political consolidation, exploiting China's DPRK dilemma, and the exploitation of possible divisions within the UN Security Council....
According to The Alliance for Science & Technology Research in America one of the greatest challenges the United States faces today is creating the qualified work force we will need for tomorrow. As documented by a report by the National Academies that need is nowhere...
It's the stuff of Tom Clancy novels, except it is probably really happening. A US submarine is probably searching the Pacific ocean floor for pieces of an ill-fated North Korean missile. The American people will probably never learn about it in our life time. And...
The kidnapping of another one of its soldiers by Palestinian or Lebanese guerillas is a nightmare scenario for Israel's military. In addition to the demoralization and humiliation that are caused by such kidnappings, Israeli soldiers held by Hamas or Hezbollah are a terrible military...
Read all of "To Reduce Risk of Kidnapped Soldiers, Israeli Military Uses Robots" »
The daily news on methods of US torture and the Bush administration’s legal justifications for its routine use as an instrument of national power can, at times, make it seem that our watchdogs were always on the ball. Then reality snaps back in place. So...
IntroductionSharia, Islamic law derived from the teachings of the Quran and the ways of Mohammed, is a source of law for many Muslim nations. Sharia is largely a personal code of conduct, but its tenets govern every aspect of Muslim life from financial to political...
From flower shows (AFP) to ribbon cuttings, hints of normalcy are returning to Iraq. And yet, even as the United States turns its military focus to Afghanistan, experts in Iraqi politics warn that unresolved governance issues and mounting sectarian tensions--capped by a week of killings...
From flower shows (AFP) to ribbon cuttings, hints of normalcy are returning to Iraq. And yet, even as the United States turns its military focus to Afghanistan, experts in Iraqi politics warn that unresolved governance issues and mounting sectarian tensions could test Washington's exit strategy....
The conventional wisdom among Asia specialists on both sides of the aisle has been that there would be little need for change in a new administration's policy toward Asia. At the same time, there is no question that America's preoccupation with Iraq, Afghanistan, and the...
Read all of "Needed: An American Vision for East Asia and the U.S.-ROK Alliance" »
The United States currently has roughly a thousand strategic launchers with several thousand warheads, a number expected to drop to roughly two thousand under the Moscow Treaty. These strategic nuclear warheads have yields ranging from 100 to 500 kilotons and are the core of the...
The recent French and American rescues of hostages held by pirates off the coast of Somalia were necessary and proper. No one believes these actions will end piracy. But unless we impose risks on the pirates--which means taking some risks ourselves--piracy will certainly flourish....
Read all of "Who Has the Will to Fight Piracy? By Brian Michael Jenkins" »
Dreams die hard and a recent article from the journal IEEE Spectrum is a showcase for scientists trying to keep their electromagnetic pulse bomb projects alive for the Dept. of Defense. A week or two ago DD revisited the phenomenon of US electromagnetic pulse crazies...
Today’s Los Angeles Times frontpage story on the Bush administration’s torture documents was curious for one thing. It didn’t use the word torture until almost the very end of the story (and not on the front page). Near the end, it reads: “The memo outlined...
“The methods [in the torture memos included] keeping detainees naked for long periods, keeping them in a painful standing position for long periods, and depriving them of solid food,” reported AP today. “Other tactics included using a plastic neck collar to slam detainees into walls,...
IntroductionIn outlining his new strategy for the beleaguered Afghan military campaign, U.S. President Barack Obama put Afghanistan's nascent security forces front and center in the U.S. effort to right the mission. Obama announced the deployment of about four thousand additional U.S. troops to train Afghan...
According to recent news commentary "[']Buy American' provisions in the economic stimulus legislation moving through Congress have foreign leaders threatening retaliation and academics warning that the globe could soon go through the kind of tit-for-tat protectionism that helped deepen the Great Depression." Indeed as Heritage...
On Sunday, March 1, the U.S. chief military and civilian defense leaders spoke out on Iran's atomic weapons program. Assuming both had full access to US intelligence on this program, it is surprising that they voiced two different views. Or is it? For parochial reasons,...
IntroductionElections in India, the world's second-most populous country, evoke descriptions like 'spectacle' or 'carnival,' in part due to the overwhelming numbers that participate in the process. In this country of over a billion people, 714 million voters will decide who rules the world's largest democracy...
After the rescue of the Captain of the Maersk Alabama, the ship's officer told reporters "We would like to implore President Obama to use all of his resources and increase the commitment to ending this Somali pirate scourge," the first officer said Monday at a...
North Korea's efforts to exploit divisions among members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in its response to its April 5, 2009, test of a multi-stage rocket has proven to be a slightly harder political target than some in Pyongyang may have anticipated. The...
Read all of "UN Security Council Response to North Korea's Missile Test: Washington's Policy Debate" »
On April 6, 2009 Secretary Robert Gates announced a swath of cuts to defense procurement programs. According to an article in the Financial Times titled Gates takes axe to top weapons projects in US, "Robert Gates, US defence secretary, yesterday unveiled a sweeping overhaul of...
IntroductionThe annual U.S. State Department report cataloguing the human rights failures and progress of nations around the world regularly arouses controversy as well as acclaim. Nations that receive poor ratings in the report, sometimes important U.S. partners, bitterly resent the exercise and often accuse Washington...
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The white paper detailing the new U.S. strategy on Pakistan and Afghanistan calls for increasing and broadening development and economic assistance to Pakistan. It echoes recent recommendations by both U.S. and Pakistani policymakers who have argued against too much emphasis on military assistance, the Bush...
North Korea's launch of a multi-stage rocket has been assessed by international experts as a technical failure, but the test has been at least a partial success in hitting four political targets: North Korea's domestic audience, exploitation of international divisions among members of the six...
Musudan-ri, the small missile test pad, located on an isolated portion of North Korea's Northeast coast is one of the most photographed "secret" facilities in the world. A sparrow does not fall to the ground there without notice. It is now the focus of unprecedented...
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The 1947 partition of the subcontinent was traumatic for both Pakistan and India, resulting in hatred on both sides. Kashmir was the focal point of this enmity and almost immediately the object of a bitter war with a subsequent partition along a line of control...
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in terms of conventional military capability, is by far the best resourced and most sophisticated regional or multilateral organization in the world. Its 26 countries - which will become 28 following the Strasbourg-Kehl NATO summit later this week - together...
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been insisting again that the coercive interrogation techniques used against terrorism detainees after 9/11 prevented attacks on the United States. Protecting American security is "a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business," Cheney told Politico.com. "These are evil people. And...
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