Symantec, a top cyber security firm based in Cupertino, Calif., has released a report that shows convincingly (in my opinion) that the stuxnet worm was designed specifically to disrupt uranium enrichment operations at Iran’s Natanz plant. An earlier analysis by a leading German cyber security expert, which I described in detail in an earlier post […]
South Sudan is set to vote itself into independence. But can it get there? A number of problems confront the government of South Sudan in preparation for a January referendum on independence.Voter registration is underway, but a delay in the vote could push Africa’s largest nation back to civil war. Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary […]
The prevailing view coming out of the G-20 Summit last week is that US monetary policy is as much to blame for the precarious state of the global economy as is China’s exchange rate policy. A deluge of dollars is causing a speculative bubble in emerging markets. This analysis is wrong. U.S. monetary policy should be kept just where it […]
Later this week, representatives of NATO member states are scheduled to meet in Lisbon, Portugal, where they will adopt a new strategic concept – the first since 1999. On October 8th, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen spelled out the direction of the new framework document. As overarching security concerns have shifted significantly for the […]
The discovery of a drug tunnel, no matter how long it may be or how lavishly outfitted–even the seizure of millions in coke or marijuana–means nothing, unless it leads authorities, in hot pursuit on both sides of the border, up the criminal hierarchies, to the drug lords, and their corrupt accomplices in the police, military, banks, business, and government. To everybody waiting, in Mexico and the US, for their ‘taste.’
On Tuesday, President Obama officially endorsed India’s potential bid to join the P5 with a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. While realists may view the UNSC as the only arguably substantive body within the United Nations, an article this week in Time Magazine provides excellent commentary as to precisely why India should not […]
Let Niall Ferguson tell you the stakes: Let Mike Mullen expand on Ferguson’s point: Let Roger Hickey tell you why the debt commission isn’t the way to go about solving the problem: Let Paul Krugman tell you why the U.S. should take a cue from St. Augustine: “Lord, give me chastity and temperance, but not […]
Last month, Gail Harris of the FPA U.S. Defense blog expressed some skepticism about the claim that the United States’ problems in Afghanistan arose because the U.S. was too focused on Iraq: Like many, I’ve wondered why we didn’t do something earlier to counter the Taliban resurgence before it got out of hand. The conventional […]
Been spending a lot of time blogging about Afghanistan, thought it was time to look at what’s happening in Iraq. The impetus for me was press reports of increasing numbers of insurgent attacks against Iraqi citizens and the continued inability of Iraq to set up a functioning government in the aftermath of the March elections. […]
David Cameron and Nicholas Sarkozy this week signed a historic 50-year treaty designed to vitalize defense and security cooperation between Britain and France. As previously noted, the impetus for the treaty originates from Britain’s need to redress foreseen “structural” defense procurement shortages within the Ministry of Defence. (see: “When Great Powers Decline…” http://powerpolitics.foreignpolicyblogs.com/2010/10/27/17/) At the […]
Mr. Obama once dubbed himself the “Pacific president”, and rightly so. Less than two years ago, the newly-incumbent Obama Administration began to evaluate its overarching national security strategy for the U.S.. Newly appointed policymakers felt that the strategic focus of the U.S., at the time, was overly biased on the Middle East. When analyzed over […]
The current situation in Afghanistan demonstrates something that may seem surprising: counterinsurgency would probably work. The problem is, the United States has been reluctant to actually attempt it. The policy brief, The Trust Deficit, published last month by Open Society Foundations, demonstrates this pretty clearly. The document, created after interviewing over 250 Afghans in focus […]
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