Ideas
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.
Ideas
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.
Ideas
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.
Ideas
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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States Must Explain When a Cyber Attack Might Draw a Violent Reprisal
Without clear explanations that affirm rules of the road, countries make it easier for conflicts to spiral out of control.
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A New Industrial Base Is Taking Shape. Call It the Military-AI Complex.
The most essential Pentagon suppliers will be the ones that master robotics and artificial intelligence.
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Allies Try Using D-Day to Remind Trump Who America's Real Friends Are
The U.S. president has expressed affection for authoritarian leaders, so it’s unclear what impression the celebrations will make on him.
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