Ideas
Worse Than Obama’s Red-Line Moment
Trump has now shown himself just as willing as President Obama to make empty threats that damage American credibility.
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A Closer Look at the Arguments against the Low-Yield SLBM
Why should the U.S. forgo a modest technical adjustment that improves forces supporting its strategy for deterring limited nuclear war?
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US Arms Sales to the Gulf Have Failed
Despite spending billions of dollars on hardware, our regional partners don’t have the capabilities we need.
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Bolton Keeps Trying to Goad Iran Into War
For more than a decade, he’s consistently promoted war with Iran. All that has changed are the pretexts he’s offering to justify one.
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Cutting Language Training Is the Latest Foolish Retreat from Global Engagement
Cancelling bought-and-paid-for air tickets to study-abroad programs is the latest Trump administration blow to programs that support strategic understanding.
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For their National Interests, the US and China Must Continue to Engage
Four former Congressmen return from a China trip with new perspectives.
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How to Step Back from the Brink with Iran
Right now, everything both sides do to strengthen their defenses looks to the other side like preparation for attack.
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House Democrats Want To Kill This More Useable Nuke. They’re Right.
There are no good arguments for the W76-2 warhead, and quite a few good ones against.
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Europe's Elections Suggest US Shouldn’t Be Complacent in 2020
The lesson is not that elections are secure, but that Russian and other subversives are choosy about when and how they engage.
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Deterrence Is Failing — Partly Because Iran Has No Idea What the US Really Wants
Successful deterrence requires clear delineation of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. That needs to start, pronto.
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Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter Talks Iran, China, and Trump’s Late-Night Tweets
“I don’t want to have a war with Iran, but I know who would win.”
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Vetting Foreigners’ Facebook Feeds Won’t Make Americans Safer
The federal government wants visa applicants to cough up their social-media handles.
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Trump’s Efforts at Election Tampering Are Growing Bolder
Having exploited foreign assistance in 2016 and gotten away with it, the president is already trying it again in the 2020 race.
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The US Military Emits More Carbon than Sweden
Even as it begins to grapple with climate change, the Defense Department remains the world’s single largest consumer of oil.
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Buttigieg Splits From the Progressives on Foreign Policy
He articulated a values-based liberal internationalism, even as he sometimes struggled to fill in the details.
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Russia’s Quest to Lead the World in AI Is Doomed
Innovation in the former Soviet Union is still in shackles.
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The US Wants to Sell Taiwan the Wrong Weapons
The proposal to send tanks, and not A2/AD weapons, exposes a flawed American strategy.
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Trump’s New Arctic Policy Has a Familiar Ring
Administration officials are talking tough on Russia and China, while picking fights with allies that are making U.S. goals harder to achieve.
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Save This One Piece of the INF Treaty
Preserving the ballistic-missile ban would reduce the danger of leaving the treaty — and light a path to its replacement.
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