2013-01-13 By Robbin Laird The pivot to the Pacific started more than a century ago. The United States first became a Pacific power in 1898, the year the US first annexed Hawaii and then gained Guam and the Philippines (as well as Puerto Rico) from Spain after a "short, victorious war."…
2013-01-12 By Eric Sterner Just before Christmas, A123 Systems Inc., best known for receiving “green jobs” funding from the Obama administration, announced that a judge approved a Chinese company’s bid to buy the battery-manufacturing firm’s assets in a bankruptcy auction. Normally, an offer to take over a bankrupt firm and put…
2013-01-11 By Robbin Laird Energy security is a key element of national security. The missing piece of America's energy security policy, in turn, is the glaring absence of a strategy to coordinate and secure the enormous energy resources of the Western hemisphere. Today, America is over-dependent on the increasingly volatile Middle…
2013-01-11 by Dr. Xin Song, Leonard Zuga, and Professor Michael Pecht In early October of 2012, the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence published its Investigative Report on the U.S. National Security Issues Posed by Chinese Telecommunications Companies Huawei and ZTE. The report caused a brief political flap…
We have published earlier our look at the challenges facing China economically. Our Strategic Inflections Report was based on interviews with the Chinese investor class and looked at the prospects of a hard economic landing. http://sldinfo.wpstage.net/products/may-2012-sip/ A new report released by London-based Centre for European reform underscores some of the…
2013-01-10 We have just published a new Special Report. In this special report, Richard Weitz looks at various aspects of the evolution of policy in the region and how the dynamics of change might play out in the period ahead. Central Asia has become more visibly significant as the West…
2013-01-09 by Lt. General (Retired) David Deptula Whatever happens with sequestration, Pentagon planners are now struggling to fit the services’ myriad programs under a reduced budget topline. Advocates point to their particular project or personnel as vital to US warfighting capacity. Technologists point to new capabilities that will allow us…
By Richard Weitz In its 2012 annual report to Congress, the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission noted rapid improvements in China’s nuclear forces. The Commission estimates that China is possibly within two years of attaining a genuine “nuclear triad,” consisting of land-based ballistic missiles, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and air-dropped…
