In the PBS Newshour segment to which I linked last week, Richard Haas said: Why are we so confident that we know enough about the tribal structure of Libya, about the various clans that are competing for power, that if we intervene, that the guys we want are going to win, that we’re not, for […]
Over the weekend forces loyal to Colonel el-Qaddafi advanced against rebel forces in the west regaining lost territory and heading east toward Benghazi, the opposition capitol. General Abdul Fattah Younes, Qaddafi’s former interior minister and one of the rebel leaders is calling the movement a strategic retreat. According to press reports, the rebels are preparing […]
Last year I coined a phrase: getting 527-ed. It comes from the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Bush was asked whether he would condemn the Swift Boat ads against Kerry, and instead, Bush condemned all ads made by 527 organizations. Bush 527-ed Kerry. This, apparently, is also what Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, did over the weekend. […]
The U.S. Defense Department is mobilizing support to assist in the earthquake relief efforts. The U.S. military has a total of 38,000 military personnel, 43,000 military dependents, 5,000 Department of Defense civilians, and 25,000 Japanese civilians working and living on bases throughout Japan. On the main Japanese island of Honshu there are 7 major bases […]
by Sarwar Kashmeri As the situation in Libya becomes daily more chaotic, pressure mounts on President Obama to militarily intervene on the side of the Libyan opposition. He should resist these calls. Without a clear mandate from the United Nations Security Council in support of Libyan intervention, the United States has little to gain, and […]
The debate about whether the United States should use military force in Libya (and if so in what capacity) is on. Here’s one version of the debate from the PBS Newshour. It’s between two former State Department Directors of Policy Planning: Richard Haas (who served under George W. Bush) and Ann-Marie Slaughter (who just left […]
Last week, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano reported what he considered a mini-advance in ongoing deliberations with the Syrian government over access to the Dair Alzour, or Al-Kibar site. In lieu of allowed access to that site, the Syrian government offered up the Homs acid purification facility. On a scale of “meh” to “wow!”, this […]
And they’re taking on the role of nuclear weapons in deterrence. In their fourth collaboration, former secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, one-time Defense Secretary William Perry and former Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga) wrote in an OpEd in the Wall Street Journal today that the role of nuclear weapons in deterrence should finally, […]
Pinchas Landau, author of The Landau Report, is one of Israel’s leading independent analysts and commentators on economic and financial affairs. Prior to establishing an independent consultancy, he was for many years one of the country’s most prominent financial journalists. In 1996, Pinchas launched The Landau Report, a newsletter and consultancy service addressing the needs of foreign firms and […]
he disclosure by Iran last week that it has had to remove the initial fuel load from its newly built Bushehr power reactor has ignited or re-ignited a storm of speculation, much of which is best ignored. Well before the latest difficulties, a controversy was raging among experts as to whether the plant had been […]
Unsurprisingly, after the UN Security Council referred the Libya situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC), John Bolton took the opportunity to criticize the ICC and, more generally, international law itself. He dubs the ICC “one of the world’s most illegitimate multilateral institutions,” argues that the threat of ICC prosecution will not alter Gadhafi’s behavior, […]
I recently read Robert Kagan’s article ‘The Price of Power‘. Here’s his intro: The looming battle over the defense budget could produce a useful national discussion about American foreign and defense policy. But we would need to begin by dispensing with the most commonly repeated fallacy: that cutting defense is essential to restoring the nation’s […]
I just returned from a fourteen-day tour of the Middle East. As dictators falter and topple left and right, this is certainly an exciting time to be in the region. “The new Middle East,” you might call it. Simmering resentment, propelled by youth movements, disappointment in the status quo, and a sense of serious social […]
This piece originally appeared in The Hill’s Congress Blog today. I am repeating it here. The petition to which Dr. Slakey refers seeks to close what some believe is a dangerous loophole in U.S. efforts to prevent the spread of technologies that can be used in covert nuclear weapons programs. It picks up on a […]
Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi continues to show the world if he’s going down it won’t be easy. He’s vowed to fight to the end and is ramping up his military actions. According to recent press reports Libyan aircraft dropped bombs near the oil refinery in the port town of Marsa El Brega. Judging from the conflicting […]