In recent months, Australia’s strategic planners have grown increasingly concerned by the challenging security outlook emerging in the Indo-Pacific. Discussions with senior officials reveal tha...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/08/8-big-ideas-to-turbo-charge-u-s-australian-alliance/
Here’s the nightmare for any U.S. war plan that requires conventional strikes on mainland China: The president will balk. Even in the midst of a full-scale war, he or she would reject mainland ...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/08/the-real-problem-with-strikes-on-mainland-china/
On July 20, Turkey suffered one of its deadliest suicide bombing attacks in recent memory, which claimed more than 30 lives. While the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has not yet clai...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/whats-eating-turkey-ankara-and-the-islamic-state/
In their recent testimony before Congress, both Gen. James Dunford, likely the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Mark Milley, nominee for chief of staff of the Army, identified...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/what-the-army-needs-to-do-to-win/
In the days since the United States and Iran concluded their landmark nuclear accord, much has been said about the deal’s geopolitical implications. Most U.S. media coverage has focused on rami...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/why-afghanistan-is-a-big-winner-in-the-us-iran-deal/
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has repeatedly called for reforms to the Pentagon’s ineffective acquisition system, and rightly so. Yet the troubled acquisition process is only one aspect of a ...
After two years of intense negotiations, the P5+1 reached an agreement with Iran that would limit its ability to develop nuclear weapons in exchange for lifting a set of international sanctions. ...
This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica. Between July 9 and July 20, 1995, Serb forces killed almost 8,000 Muslims in this Bosnian town while UN peacekeepers stood id...
The Chinese intelligence threat is set to change dramatically as hackers believed to be linked to China’s civilian intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS), acquired millions ...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/chinas-new-intelligence-war-against-the-united-states/
The recent near-simultaneous and computer-based disruptions of iconic American financial, transportation and media institutions raised reasonable fears that the United States was undergoing a foc...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/can-u-s-courts-stop-chinese-cyberspying/
Recently, I had the good fortune to attend a number of conferences related to the upcoming British Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). The publication of the latest SDSR this fall will ...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/three-big-ideas-on-the-future-of-british-defense/
“Up from a sub sixty feet below, Hit the beach and I’m ready to go” is the opening line to a common physical training running cadence sung by marines for generations. For some 80 years, mar...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/put-the-marines-back-in-submarines/
The protracted question of Greece’s financial affairs continues to be of intense interest to Europe and the wider international community. Greece’s negotiations with the troika — the Europe...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/russia-greece-and-the-eu-a-putin-shaped-shark-in-the-mediterranean/
The United States has sent its latest tranche of 450 troops to Al Taqaddum Air Base in Iraq to train that country’s new army recruits. The hope is that this will bolster the Iraqi army, which c...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/training-foreign-military-forces-quality-vs-quantity/
Despite the House of Representatives steadily passing a series of appropriations bills, real congressional action on fiscal year (FY) 2016 defense spending is unlikely to start before September. ...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/wake-me-up-when-september-ends-americas-defense-budget-blues/
Today, the P5+1 and Iran reached agreement on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The agreement’s provisions expand upon the U.S. fact sheet, released after the previous round of nu...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/down-and-dirty-on-the-iranian-nuclear-deal/
Since becoming secretary of the Navy, Ray Mabus and Sen. John McCain haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on important naval issues. They certainly have differing views on energy, personnel, and ship...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/mabus-and-mccain-actually-agree-dod-is-broken/
Alongside all the furor of the last decade-and-a-half’s discussions of the operationally, legally, and morally transformative (or otherwise) consequences of unmanned and autonomous aerial vehic...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/what-darpas-naval-drone-could-mean-for-the-balance-of-power/
Since 1959, the U. S. Air Force’s ICBMs have been on alert, meaning postured to be ready-to-launch within minutes. This alert posture has generally been considered necessary to sustaining stabi...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/keeping-icbms-on-alert-enhances-presidential-decision-making/
The recent politics of trade have been ferocious. Unions, conservative groups, and members of congress battled each other over Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and are now licking their wounds. TP...
In an era of declining defense budgets and growing instability abroad, U.S. policymakers are increasingly looking to improve how our forces operate with allies and partners. This emphasis on what...
http://warontherocks.com/2015/07/improving-security-cooperation-a-win-win/
Last week, the Washington Post reported that the White House has just finished an extensive internal review and developed a plan to reshape the National Security Council (NSC). The review was app...