Sometimes you can benefit from taking a step back from the barrage of information many media outlets would like to convince you is necessary to consume on a daily basis. You can also learn from people like Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson quipped later in his life...
Read all of "Remember when Obama and the Russian president ate burgers together?" »
The J.Edgar Hoover FBI headquarters defines the agency, and should be preserved for posterity. More than any other structure in Washington, it is a monument to the turbulent 1960s. The "Brutalist" style of the building perfectly captures the agency under Hoover. Other government buildings in...
At the end of the Twentieth Century, America was the sole global superpower, leading a world of peace. Its leadership had ended centuries of European warfare and led to the collapse of the totalitarian Soviet Union. The situation was even labeled the End of History,...
Having hijacked the White House in the 2016 election, Moscow Center is poised to make an all-out effort - far larger than the campaign they mounted in 2016 - to retain effective control of the US Government by heading off looming Republican losses in the...
VOA reported on "... the practice of allowing staff without security clearances to work in and around the Oval Office. Porter had only an interim clearance while holding one of the most sensitive jobs in the White House, where he controlled the flow of information...
All nations have unique characteristics that make them feel exceptional. But exceptionalism has been a disaster for America even though it was based on three solid pillars: Two centuries ago a unique nation was formed, not on the basis of any ethnic, cultural or religious...
A number of commentators have perhaps been overly fastidious with reference to the 'Trump Dossier'. Max Boot, for one, suggested "It is worrisome that this material was published by BuzzFeed when major news organizations, which are not particularly friendly to Mr. Trump, declined to do...
Memo to American cyberwarriors: You can't rehab your lousy reputation by planting stories on how you saved banksters in big newspapers. Illustrating that global cybersecurity policy and action in the US is purely for the benefit of the 1 percent, Ellen Nakashima of the Washington...
There's an old Soviet-era joke about Vladimir Lenin, a play on all the stories of the kind, grandfatherly figure schoolchildren in the USSR heard endlessly. It goes like this: Lenin is shaving, when a small child approaches him. "Grandfather Lenin," the child begins eagerly. "Buzz...
Democratic sclerosis refers to the tendency of democratic systems to become increasingly encrusted with legacy provisions which inhibit responsiveness to the general welfare and make it increasingly difficult for the government to perform routine tasks. National security is managed at the highest level by the...
The military drawddown now in progress is both inevitable and necessary. The costs in blood and resources are simply unsustainable, while it is widely recognized that no military solution is plausible....
What constitutes war? Andrew Stigler and I point out some of the difficulties in coming up with standards: Should a 40-minute raid conducted by several dozen commandos be regarded as "hostilities" commensurate with an act of war? After all, force was projected across borders and...
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do. -- Leonardo da Vinci There are two Afghanistans, and they are intermingled. Old Afghanistan is a backward, tribal society, strongly...
The word's officially in. Guys waving V signs in pickup trucks as they speed toward Tripoli speed back just as quickly. The inability to handle weapons, or even fight, can't easily be overcome. They're not the Desert Rats. Even a Bernard Law Montgomery could be...
Read all of "Bombing Moe: Rebel rabble routed plus General Electric funnies" »
The Great Recession caused by Wall Street whacked almost all of the middle class in the United States. Newspaper articles and the opinions of economists continue to discuss its impact in terms of mass unemployment and extreme hardship.However, there are a few large industries which...
Read all of "Economic Treason: Middle class whacked, arms manufacturing flourishes (a series)" »
Discussions with a number of Afghan specialists indicate broad agreement on the need to set individual development projects into a larger framework. One area specialist, Fred Starr, for example, in a note on Give Economic Strategy a Chance, laments that during the 2010 policy review,...
The current strategy for Afghanistan is not working. It can not. It is too big. While General Petraeus can tick off signs of progress, including expanded American control farther outside of Kandahar, this does not make any difference. Even if such assessments are accurate, they...
I thought April Fools' Day was two months ago. Today we read that the 189-nation NPT review conference, after three weeks of meetings, produced a new agreement. Hurray. What does it cover? North Korea's growing number of nukes and threats? Pakistan's expanding nuclear program--in response...
On May 3 the representatives of 188 nations (give or take a few) will assemble in New York City to debate ways to revise the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The issue could not be more important. As President Obama's new Nuclear Posture Review declares, the greatest...
The White House is hinting broadly that it is considering imposing a peace settlement on Israel and the Palestinians. Three elements of the plan the United States is to push are well known (no refugee return, a divided Jerusalem, and redrawn 1967 borders), but the...
The problem isn't the border fence, it's the job hole in the United States and corrupt leaders worldwide supported by Western money. Immigration complicates both these challenges and diminishes national well being. Of course, it was not always so. The Statue of Liberty proclaims, "Send...
The world faces major challenges in the XXI Century: food, water and population crises and ongoing conflicts, heightened by radical Islamic movements and the still uncertain impacts of global warming raise the potential of a world in turmoil. The United States is the only nation...
The core driver of US prosperity has disappeared and no one has noticed. Growth has been the central driver of the American economy ever since early settlers built up the East Coast and moved into the Appalachians; by the middle of the nineteenth century, the...
The revelation of a secret nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom, and the likely existence of other advanced facilities across Iran, makes more urgent the need for a quick solution to the nuclear impasse. The Obama administration appears to be following a strategy...
Despite the huge protests on the streets of Tehran, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again triumphed. A relative newcomer to Iran's political scene, Ahmadinejad's re-election and subsequent crackdown on the demonstrators suggest that the Iranian political system is moving in a new and potentially...
Read all of "Iran's Real Winners: The Revolutionary Guards" »
"Guilty as charged!" So said the highest court in the land in the case of Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling vs. North Korea. The two journalists, who allegedly (and very foolishly or recklessly) wandered across the China-North Korea border on March 17...
[this was posted today on the Washington Post - Newsweek PostGlobal] The Speech Netanyahu Won't Give By Ori Nir Here's what Benyamin Netanyahu should - but most likely won't - say in his much-anticipated policy speech on Sunday. Bar Illan University President Moshe Kaveh, distinguished...
Immigration remains a significant problem. With some ten million illegal immigrants in the country, it has a major economic impact and troubling security implications. It is difficult to address because there are two basic principles in conflict, well encapsulated by Ruben Navarette's comment of two...
Read all of "Immigration, Globalization and Sustainability" »
By Aram Nerguizian and Ghassan Schbley Lebanon is scheduled to hold elections Sunday [June 7], and the pro-Western political alliance favored by the United States may lose. If it does, the Obama Administration should not consider the result a triumph for Hezbollah, but a challenge....
Read all of "Living with the Outcome: Elections in Lebanon By Aram Nerguizian and Ghassan Schbley" »
There is no country on earth more committed to global nuclear disarmament than Japan. Ever since experiencing first hand the horrors of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese government and people have been steadfast in calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons...
Read all of "Global Nuclear Disarmament: Too Much, Too Soon? by Ralph A. Cossa" »
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...
By Morton Abramowitz and Daniel Serwer Bosnia is stuck. Its Bosniak Muslim leader, Haris Silajzic, stridently calls for abolition of the Serb entity (Republika Srpska), whose prime minister, Milorad Dodik, wants increased autonomy and threatens a referendum on independence. By taking extreme positions, Dodik and...
The opinions expressed in this article and the SitRep website are the author's own and do not reflect the view of GlobalSecurity.org.
