General David Petraeus has been confirmed as the new U.S. commander in Afghanistan and his acceptance as the new NATO ISAF commander should quickly follow. In this role, he will report both to NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Admiral Jim Stavridis and Central Command's new leader...
I'm still trying to make sense of the SVR's "illegals" operation that the FBI disrupted with a series of arrests this week. My colleague here at the Naval War College, Tom Nichols, summed up my impressions as well: "Truthfully, I can't figure out what they...
For more than a year the United States and its allies have courted various nations on the periphery of Iran, in the hope of isolating it and thus motivating it to change its course. Events show that this strategy is not working. Indeed, more and...
Read all of "Iran: the time to deal with the periphery has passed" »
How should the United States counter homegrown jihadist terrorism? With al Qaeda and its jihadist allies extolling the exploits of Major Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, and even failed attempts like that of would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shehzad, we...
If you believe that corporations would be willing to make a little less money in order not to put the nation -- their nation -- at risk, you should read Richard Clarke's excellent, just-issued book, Cyber War. As Clarke reports, prior to the 1990s, the...
The United States was built on the shoulders of immigrants - millions from all over the world, including English Pilgrims, Spanish adventurers, African slaves, and Chinese laborers. The manpower these immigrants provided fueled the industrial expansion of the XIX Century and even at that early...
Relieving General Stanley McChrystal could not have been an easy decision for President Obama. In this speech, he emphasized McChrystal's patriotism and accomplishments and thanked him for decades of service to the United States. However, he was relieved for poor judgment and not competence....
The overall situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. We have already lost support of most of our allies (and certainly their publics) and are now losing support of the American public - there is even an Out of Afghanistan Caucus in Congress....
As we wait for President Obama's decision on how to deal with General McChrystal's civ-mil gaffe, James Joyner at the Atlantic Council has a good summary caused by the Rolling Stone profile of McChrystal. He concludes: "'Thirteen months ago, when General David McKiernan was fired...
By Ghassan Schbley and Scott Weiner In the wake of the Israel Defense Force raid on the Mavi Marmara ship bound for Gaza, the United States must maintain a delicate regional balance between four influential actors in the Middle East. The first is Israel, an...
The iconic photos of the last helicopter leaving the roof of the Saigon embassy vividly encapsulated the collapse of the US effort in Vietnam. And there has been no end of commentary comparing those earlier, fruitless US efforts in Vietnam with the current, troubled effort...
US forces seized Marjah in February, except they did not seize it. They seized control of the daytime, but the Taliban quickly established control of the night. Since then, there has been a war in the shadows: the Taliban fighting to retain control of the...
Kill one, frighten ten thousand. Sun Tzu Intimidation is discouraging people from acting by threats of violence; it is a pervasive, global problem. Autocratic regimes use intimidation to repress citizen demands for government accountability. At the other end of the spectrum, groups opposing legitimate authority...
Admiral Gary Roughead, the Chief of Naval Operations, opened the 2010 Current Strategy Forumat the Naval War College. Right now, some have called into question the relevance of the U.S. Navy given the types of operations the United States is involved in; Admiral Roughead noted...
The Taliban have a vision for Afghanistan, and for the whole world - a vision of a medieval, ascetic society controlled by theocrats. Their vision includes a harsh and inflexible enforcement of religious prescriptions, including a number of prescriptions that are not actually required by...
The verdict by an international team of investigators that it was a North Korean torpedo that sank South Korea's corvette, the Cheonan, on March 26 in waters near South Korea's Northern Limit Line (NLL) has become the catalyst for a worrisome near-term escalation of inter-Korean...
Read all of "The Cheonan Reckoning: Implications for Northeast Asian Stability" »
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...
Authors
- Richard Andres
- Benjamin Bahney
- Cheryl Benard
- Bruce Bennett
- Linda Bishai
- Jonah Blank
- Tim Brown
- James Jay Carafano
- Steven R. Charbonneau
- Christopher Chivvis
- Lindsay Clutterbuck
- Sam Cohen
- James L. Cook
- Walton Cook
- Ed Corcoran
- Ralph Cossa
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Rafiq Dossanip
- Charles Dunlap
- Amitai Etzioni
- Gareth Evans
- Nikolas K. Gvosdev
- Larry Hanauer
- Scott Warren Harold
- Brian Michael Jenkins
- David Johnson
- Terrence Kelly
- Michael Krepon
- Stephen Larrabee
- Mackenzie Eaglen
- Jeffrey Martini
- Arthur G. Martirosyan
- Ralph Masi
- Ali Nader
- Aram Nerguizian
- Ori Nir
- Olga Oliker
- Jim Phillips
- Isaac R Porche
- James T. Quinlivan
- Reset Defense Bulletin
- Charles Ries
- RSIS
- Paul Saunders
- David Schenker
- Ghassan Schbley
- Mark Schneider
- Daniel Serwer
- George Smith
- Scott Snyder
- Jon Soltz
- Julie Taylor
- Alexander Thier
- Charles P. Vick
- Rosemary Freitas Williams
- Charles Wolf, Jr.
- Elizabeth Zolotukhina
