The U.S. presidential election is right around the corner. To help prepare you for the campaign debate on foreign policy and defense issues, the Center has put together a foreign policy profile for President Obama and candidate Romney. Romney has been highly critical of the “reset” with Russia. In a Washington Post interview, Romney stated […]
Bolton Ignores the True Costs of Military Action against Iran
Check out my latest article responding to John Bolton’s recent piece on Iran. Here’s the intro:
In a recent article in The Weekly Standard, John Bolton, an unofficial advisor to the Romney campaign, blasted the Obama administration’s policy of sanctions and negotiations to halt Iran’s nuclear program. That Bolton opposes negotiations with Iran as a futile exercise is well known. What is noteworthy about this article—and Bolton’s viewpoint in general—is the lack of serious discussion about the military option that he proposes as an alternative.
Tac Nukes Talk Again, But Now in Washington
The issue of redeploying tactical nuclear weapons back to the Korean Peninsula is currently a moot issue in South Korea. It’s advocated for by an extremely small number of conservative politicians and academics.
NATO: Still Fighting the Last (Cold) War
NATO released a deterrence and defense posture review in May during the alliance’s summit in Chicago, but as I point out in a piece on our website, NATO is still clinging to outdated ideas rather than looking to the current and future security environment:
At the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, the alliance had the chance to make changes that would more efficiently address 21st Century security challenges. Instead, it chose to remain mired in Cold War thinking. A review of its Deterrence and Defense Posture that was released during the summit calls nuclear weapons a “core component” of NATO capabilities and advocates no changes to current posture, even though the status quo includes antiquated systems and a missed opportunity to clarify and harmonize policies on when nuclear weapons might be used.
Revive the Airborne Laser?
In its mark-up of the Defense Authorization bill for Fiscal 2013, the Strategic Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee lauded the prior accomplishments of the Airborne Laser Test Bed program. It then went further by directing the Missile Defense Agency to provide a report by 31 July 2012 on the costs that would be involved in returning the Airborne Laser aircraft to an operational readiness status to continue technology development and testing, and to be ready to deploy in an operational contingency, if needed, to respond to rapidly developing threats from North Korea.
