Ideas

Genocide, Empty Threats, and a Warning to Obama, Clinton, and Trump

I watched America’s broken promise fuel Radovan Karadzic's terror in Bosnia.

Ideas

It's Time for China to Turn Nuclear-Security Pledges into Reality

Beijing's made a good start, but must buckle down before terror groups exploit corruption to devastating effect.

Ideas

The Changing Logic Behind Suicide Bombings

What was once purely a strategic action has become a tactical move meant to help hold territory.

Ideas

ISIS Is Using the Media Against Itself

It doesn’t matter if the coverage that follows an attack is negative. For ISIS, any coverage is good coverage.

Ideas

The All-Too-Human Reason Nuclear Material Isn’t Secure Enough

Every facility that holds it is vulnerable to security complacency.

Ideas

Not Just Trump: The Chilling Rise in Global Authoritarianism

Terrorism and drone war are feeding a larger sense of insecurity, driving some to xenophobia and jingoism.

Ideas

NATO Needs to Move Two Brigades East, and That’s Just a Start

The world is changing around the alliance; here's what its leaders must do to keep up.

Ideas

Keep America's Top Military Officer Out of the Chain of Command

I lived through Goldwater-Nichols. Congress should know why it's still a bad idea to give the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who advises the president, that kind of power.

Ideas

The Dangerous Myth of 'America Must Lead'

A world in which the forces of light vie against the forces of darkness, with America charged with ensuring the triumph of good over evil—that isn’t Obama’s world.

Ideas

Putin Got Exactly What He Wanted in Syria

Russia pulls out of Syria, going home with the leverage Putin came for. The U.S.-led coalition must seize the moment.

Ideas

Hey, America: Don’t Forget Your Soldiers While Spending Billions on Future Weapons

AUSA President Gordon Sullivan describes what a smaller, busier Army means for American power, global instability, and the troops themselves.

Ideas

Why Does Obama Fight Wars He Deems Unwinnable?

The uncertainty he projects about his policies undermine the half-hearted military efforts he undertakes.

Ideas

An Isolationist President, In Love With Drones and Special Forces

Obama’s no realist; history suggests little promise for the path he has chosen for the U.S.

Ideas

The End of the US-Dominated Order in the Middle East

Critics say the Obama doctrine has given Russia the upper hand in the region; the president says Moscow’s welcome to try to use it.

Ideas

The Hidden Costs of Obama's Vision of American Power

Grand strategies are judged by their consequences, not by their intentions, and in the Middle East the consequences are not looking pretty.

Ideas

In Defense of the Obama Doctrine

Obama is still trying to win Washington over to American power as he sees it: limiting military interventions while convening players for peace.

Ideas

The Obama Doctrine

The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America’s role in the world.

Ideas

Obama's 'Red Line' That Wasn't

Inside the president’s last-minute decision not to bomb Syria in 2013.

Ideas

US Ballistic Missile Defense Needs A Boost

Amid ominous tests by Iran and North Korea, why is the Missile Defense Agency’s budget shrinking?

Ideas

Do ‘Guardian Forces’ Belong in the Military?

More and more national security workers in and out of uniform never get close to combat. It's time to rethink their place in the system.