Egypt’s second revolution in two years resurrects a debate over what role, if any, the United States should play in promoting human rights around the globe. Much of the confusion surrounding this ongoing debate stems from Americans’ tendency to project their own revolutionary experience onto other situations that arise in vastly different cultural and civilizational contexts. This idealism is sometimes Read More ›
The stunning revelation that a segment of the intelligence community believes that North Korea already has a nuclear weapon compact enough to be placed upon a ballistic missile shows anew the limits of what intelligence agencies can determine as to what goes on in closed societies. What matters from a standpoint of intelligence acuity is less whether Pyongyang can put Read More ›
The Justice Dept. rules for press subpoenas …. Attorney-General Eric Holder talks about adopting new rules for how the feds subpoena reporter records. This is a typical Beltway ploy, one that “fixes” violations of old rules on the books by passing new ones. Doing so implies that there is a loophole in existing law that needs closing. But, inconveniently for Read More ›
As basketball star turned amateur diplomat Dennis Rodman planned a summer vacation with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s direct threat to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) at America’s west coast induced President Obama to order a supplemental deployment of 14 more U.S. Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) missiles by 2017, for a total GBI deployment of 44. The move Read More ›
In a speech on Monday at the Asia Society in New York, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon addressed Chinese cyber intrusions into U.S. government and business network infrastructures. In moving cybersecurity “to the forefront of our agenda,” Mr. Donilon noted that he wasn’t referring to “ordinary cybercrime or hacking.” He called on Beijing to recognize the importance of cyber issues, Read More ›
President Obama’s State of the Union address included a declaration of his intention to pursue further reductions in nuclear forces to accelerate realization of global nuclear zero. He also said that North Korea’s day-earlier nuclear test would further isolate the regime, and that he would prevent Iran from joining the nuclear weapon club: Of course, our challenges don’t end with Read More ›
On the day that Vice-President Biden is expected to announce his recommendations on how to reduce gun violence, hark back half a century, to 1963. School shootings were rare, with mass murder of students unheard of. Indeed, mass murders were virtually unheard of. In 1966 came one outlier case, when at the University of Texas a mentally ill sniper shot Read More ›
Republican leaders are negotiating with President Barack Obama over a package to prevent America, now awash in $16.25 trillion public debt, from going over the “fiscal cliff,” to prevent a ruinous plunge in America’s global credit standing. Alas, Republicans seem ready to fall into a classic political trap: sharing blame if a deal goes wrong while getting none of the Read More ›
It was a tragic coincidence that Monday, April 1, 2013 was both the last day of the Jewish celebration of Passover and the 34th anniversary of the 1979 referendum establishing the Islamic Republic of Iran, under the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Ironically as well, it was the day after Western Christendom’s Easter Sunday. At noon that Monday, a Liberian-flagged freighter passed Read More ›
THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS brought to global public consciousness the fear that rogue nations might use nuclear weapons or transfer them to terrorist groups, or that terrorists might themselves make a nuclear bomb. The first fear has far more foundation than does the second. The good news is that it is very hard to make bombs; the bad news is Read More ›
Begin with recent nuclear weapon-related developments: China tests new missiles, including road-mobile and nuclear submarine-launched ballistic missiles, plus multiple warhead missiles whose deployment will give China a nuclear first-strike capability. Viktor Yesin, a former chief of Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces, publicly places the Chinese nuclear arsenal at 1,600 to 1,800 warheads, with half operationally deployed and the remainder in storage, Read More ›
In a recent interview with the Business Insider, I said that “problems in Iran and Syria are ‘wonderful for the Russian economy.’” I meant it. Adam Taylor’s article, “For all the bluster, these three reasons show Russia’s position on Iran may be surprisingly sane” explores well why Russia is interested in the ambiguity around Iranian nuclear program. In brief, two Read More ›