Column Archive

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Pentagon have conducted a series of ballistic missile defense (BMD) tests in recent weeks that confirm the growing capabilities of the Navy’s premier at-sea interceptor.* Even better, the tested system will soon deploy in Europe to bolster NATO’s front-line defenses against Iranian missile threats. The remaining challenges are to induce European allies to contribute more resources to NATO’s collective missile defense efforts and for the United States to make better use of its proven sea-based defenses by incorporating them into a homeland defense role. On Sept. 9, the MDA detected, tracked and intercepted […]

The United Nations Security Council’s management of the Syrian conflict since 2011 has frequently been a source of disappointment and disgust. The council has now put in place a framework for the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons and unanimously called for humanitarian access to war-torn towns and cities. Yet these gestures cannot erase memories of its earlier deadlocks and prevarications over the crisis, and the council members still seem unable to compel the Syrian government and its foes to make a peace deal. Could the Syrian war nonetheless precipitate changes in the way the Security Council handles future atrocities? Last […]

Last week, I expressed my skepticism that the Obama administration would be able to sustain its stated commitment to “rebalance” U.S. policy from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region, given the priorities that the president laid out in his speech before the United Nations General Assembly. Barack Obama was supposed to correct that by undertaking a major visit to East Asia this weekend and next week, centered on the forthcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Indonesia and the ASEAN and East Asia summits in Brunei. The trip was to be an opportunity to demonstrate a renewed U.S. commitment to […]

One year ago, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos made the riskiest move of his presidency. He agreed to enter peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Marxist guerrilla organization that has kept the country at war for half a century in a conflict that has taken the lives of more than 200,000 Colombians. If the talks succeed, Santos will earn a place in history, the undying gratitude of the Colombian people and a second term as president. If they fail, the talks could provide the epitaph to his political career. Today, the negotiations with representatives of […]

In 1897, Mark Twain famously advised the New York Journal that its report of his death was an exaggeration. Recent years have seen a number of reports of al-Qaida’s death. These too have been exaggerations but, unfortunately, dangerous rather than witty ones. Claims of al-Qaida’s demise began in July 2011 when then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the defeat of al-Qaida is “within reach.” In a May 2013 speech at the National Defense University in Washington, President Barack Obama said, “The core of al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Pakistan is on the path to defeat.” In an August address at Camp […]

During his current visit to South Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will likely discuss long-standing issues on the alliance agenda, including the timing of the transfer of wartime operational control from U.S. to South Korean forces as well as plans for sharing the costs of defending South Korea in coming years. But Hagel’s visit might well be dominated by Seoul’s abrupt decision last week to annul its tender to purchase 60 advanced fighter planes and launch a new one. Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle—an upgraded version of the F-15E, the dominant model in the South Korean Air Force—looked set to […]