Ideas

Building Post-INF Missiles Would Be a Waste, or Worse

New U.S. intermediate-range ground-launched missiles would deliver more undesirable effects than tactical utility.

Ideas

A Bigger Foreign-Policy Mess Than Anyone Predicted

In the 2010s, global affairs turned out far worse than the most pessimistic scenario foretold by U.S. intelligence experts.

Ideas

Progress, Peril, Hope: The Nuclear Decade in Review

U.S. policies that restrained and shrank atomic arsenals have been abandoned. Yet there are hopeful trends as well.

Ideas

Inside the Collapse of Trump’s Korea Policy

When it comes to America’s last-ditch effort to prevent North Korea from becoming a nuclear power, timing has been everything. Now time’s running out.

Ideas

The Trump Administration’s ‘Denuclearization’ Is A Road to Nowhere

U.S. policy will remain stuck as long as the administration continues to convince itself that the North’s nuclear dismantlement can be achieved on Washington’s timeline.

Threats

How North Korea Soured on Donald Trump

Kim Jong Un only wanted to engage with the president. Now he’s turning on him.

Policy

Esper, Milley Push South Korea to Pay More for US Troop Protection

South Korean Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo declined to confirm reports that Trump is asking for a 400-percent hike.

Ideas

On North Korea, the Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost

One of the downsides of highly personalized diplomacy is that when the person in question is debilitated, the diplomacy suffers.

Ideas

Imagine If Obama Had Done This

Republicans have tolerated plenty of foreign-policy moves by Trump that they would never have let his predecessor get away with. Will that continue with Iran?

Ideas

Challenges Pile up on US-South Korea Alliance Agenda

Summer 2019 has been a watershed moment for trends that threaten to compromise South Korea’s position in Northeast Asia.

Threats

The Biggest Winner Of the Japan-South Korea Dispute? China

The Pentagon is on edge after Seoul ends an intelligence-sharing agreement with Tokyo.

Ideas

How Long Can Trump Keep Ignoring Kim’s Missile Tests?

It’s becoming harder for the president to overlook the fact that the man with whom he claims to have fantastic chemistry is literally going ballistic.

Threats

South Korea's Tough Choice: The US or China?

Caught between its security ally and its top trading partner, Seoul is trying to have it all.

Ideas

China Should Consider Supporting a Korean Nuclear Deal

If Beijing hoped that a nuclear North Korea would decrease U.S. presence in the Pacific, that strategy has backfired.

Threats

The Day America's Denuclearization of North Korea Died

The first Trump-Kim summit was about convincing Pyongyang to give up nuclear weapons. By the third meeting, it never even came up.

Policy

The Normalization of Meeting Kim Jong Un

Trump probably won’t convince the North Koreans to give up their nuclear weapons. But that doesn’t mean he has accomplished nothing.

Science & Tech

North Korea’s Nuclear Bomb Is Much Bigger than Previously Thought

A new look at 2017 test data reveals an explosion 16 times as powerful than the one that leveled Hiroshima.

Ideas

The Disturbing Logic of Trump’s Lovefest With Kim Jong Un

“The cheapest concession you can make in a negotiation is to give the other fellow a little respect.”

Ideas

Time to Abandon Denuclearization?

An unwavering faith in the gospel of denuclearization is not supported by its track record, and some of the fears of moving toward a new policy are overblown.