Two of my FPA blogger colleagues offer differing assessments of the war in Afghanistan. In the optimistic camp is Gail Harris of the FPA U.S. Defense blog. She participated in several Bloggers Roundtables sponsored by the U.S. Defense Department and blogged about it in three parts (here, here, and here). She notes that NATO is […]
Beware CTBT Cheaters! We have a Garmin and we know how to use it! In addition to finding your way home and locating enemy targets, researchers at The Ohio State University have found another use for our little Garmin: detecting clandestine nuclear tests. The Global Security Newswire reports today on the work of Ralph Von […]
In the context of all the Iranian nuke news, Reuters has run a couple of basic, layperson-accessible FAQs, or “Factboxes”, on uranium enrichment and how uranium ore becomes civilian nuke fuel. They are reasonably accurate.
Longtime nuke journalist and now Senior Associate at Carnegie Mark Hibbs has written an update on the ongoing saga regarding the Dair Alzour site in Syria. Readers will recall that the site was bombed four years ago by the Israeli military because it believed, along with the U.S., that the Syrians were hiding a DPRK-supplied […]
Here’s the conclusion to my series on Afghanistan based on several Department of Defense sponsored Bloggers Roundtables I participated in over the last several weeks. On May 3rd, Major General Richard Mills, United States Marine Corp, spoke on the topic The Evolving Security Situation in Afghanistan. General Mills is the former commander, Regional Command Southwest. […]
The idea that American leadership is civilian and accountable is a fallacy. Why is this important? The US war effort in Afghanistan is lacking true civilian leadership, and the existing leadership (military) is avoiding accountability through obfuscation, self-aggrandizement, and attempts to overly intellectualize the conflict. We need to examine why this has been allowed to happen, as well as what we can do about it.
Since September 11, every now and then someone will bring up the Barbary Wars as a precedent to the United States’ post-9/11 military actions. (See this Washington Post piece from October 2001 and this National Review piece from 2005.) This time the phenomenon emerges with Marion Smith who, writing for the National Review, argues that […]
As Peter Mellgard of the FPA Current Conflicts blog noted last week, Thomas Friedman recently offered a perhaps seemingly novel proposal to the Palestinians. His proposal? A massive nonviolent protest movement advocating a two-state solution. Friedman writes: If Palestinians peacefully march to Jerusalem by the thousands every Friday with a clear peace message, it would […]
I wanted to share this with you all. What do you see as a solution to this, if any? I will post my own thoughts to that question this coming Friday.
…evidence that the US did in fact sign such an agreement with Mexico, authorizing ATF, in cooperation with Mexican authorities, to implement the gun-walking ‘sting’ that provided Mexican gunman with killing tools used to fire on and murder US agents would corroborate the intent and involvement, at the highest levels, of ATF officials, of the Attorney General (either Holder or his representatives would have had to sign off on the operation), and of the President of the United States—who, as Holder’s supervisor, must be held accountable for the decisions and actions of his subordinates.
It would be difficult, as well, to believe that Eric Holder would have undertaken such a risky endeavor, such a politically sensitive gamble, without a discussion having occurred between Holder and Obama before the implementation of the ATF operation. The stakes, in terms of US-Mexico relations, would have just been too high.
If we are able to recognize that US foreign policy in respect to instability in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India is irrational due to the absence of a ‘necessary but not sufficient’ condition – bolstering of Pakistan’s strategic advantages over India – then the easy part is done. Crafting a foreign policy that addresses this contingent […]
Last month I attended a panel discussion called “Post Genocide Rwanda: Inventing Structures of Hope” at Brown University’s Arts in One World conference. One speaker in particular, Tim Gallimore, had much to say that I wanted to share with my Law and Security Strategy readers. So I interviewed him. With events relating to Rwanda making […]
Popular from Press
