The idea of the Golden Dome for Air Defense over the United States and some of its allies is not a new concept, but it likely was not possible to be completely effective until the 2020s. In the 1980s, President Reagan’s idea of his Star Wars named SDI space based defense system was an ambitious […]
The War in Ukraine has done more to deplete Cold War military stockpiles than any other event during and since the Cold War, including weather and rust. The dwindling numbers of tanks, troop carriers and artillery pieces litter the woods and fields of Ukraine, being disabled and destroyed by new simple drones and old artillery […]
Former-President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from the JCPOA was misguided. Now President Biden negotiates with Iran after years of obscure nuclear development. It is time to reconsider foreign policy objectives for Iran’s nuclear program. Trump argued the nuclear deal failed to address Iran’s motive for nuclear weapons, and he stands correct. Trump […]
The US and North Korea are likely to attempt diplomacy for a few months, but impossible expectations and intentionally vague promises could frustrate both sides. If this causes the deal to fall through, bilateral tensions could boil over once again. On 29 April 2018, the world watched as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and […]
Withdrawing from the Iran deal puts the United States in a weaker position in every way. Following the 2016 election, some wondered if President Trump was some sort of strategic savant, playing a game of three-dimensional chess behind a façade of emotionally volatile ignorance. Trump quickly put this theory to bed, though, and his decision […]
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Whatever the impact of a new national security team, and whether or not President Trump actually meets with Kim Jong Un in the next few months, the fundamental problems with North Korea remain the same. Former U.S. negotiator Evans Revere notes that we have heard Kim’s line before. Still, the atmospherics around around the question are […]
Russia had a bigly moment recently when announcing their new invincible weapons systems that use new nuclear propulsion systems and travel at hypersonic speeds. The claim that these weapons are unable to be intercepted by modern air defense systems could likely be true. Beyond the testing of American THAAD interceptor systems, there are no extremely […]
While the world’s attention remains focused on the nuclear brinkmanship and missile launches on the Korean peninsula, the Middle Eastern arms race, pitting Saudi Arabia and its ally the United Arab Emirates against Iran has been slowly heating up and could soon reach a boiling point. The spending boom among the gulf states, the Saudis […]
Recently, the Trump Administration decided against nominating Victor D. Cha as Ambassador to South Korea due to his opposition to the “bloody nose” strategy against North Korea advocated by the White House. On the heels of this report, U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood declared that North Korea stands only months away from the ability to […]
What prevented nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union for decades were the efforts to communicate and ultimately reduce the stockpiling of ICBMs.
Lack of political will is largely motivating the inaction in the Korean peninsula. But with nuclear weapons threatening US mainland, it may be that Washington will decide on a policy of “now or never”.
Pyongyang could decide to conduct a new ballistic test in the early weeks of the new administration to gauge President Trump’s response.
Many are wondering how the nomination of General James “Mad Dog” Mattis as the new Secretary of Defense will influence future U.S.-China relations.
The Clinton campaign linked hacks of the DNC to Russia. Snowden took refuge in Moscow. And the Obama administration has been linked to hacking of close allies.