Reflections on South Korean Elections

12/23/2012
2012-12-23 by Richard Weitz In South Korea’s 18th presidential election, held on December 19, Park Geun-hye of the governing Saenuri (New Frontier) Party defeated Moon Jae-in of the opposition Democratic United Party. Park’s inauguration is scheduled for February 25, when she will succeed President Lee Myung-bak. Park faces many domestic and…

Beijing Backs Kim Dynasty

12/21/2012
2012-12-21 by Richard Weitz As soon as North Korea had announced its plans to launch another nuclear test, Chinese officials had expressed “deep concern” and had dispatched a senior official to lobby against the test on behalf of the new Chinese leadership headed by Xi Jinping. Although Pyongyang ignored these warnings,…

The Impact of Space Budget Cuts on the Supply Chain: The End of An American Era

12/21/2012
2012-12-21 by Richard McCormack   A substantial percentage of companies that specialize in the space industry are on the brink of extinction.  According to the initial findings of an industry survey conducted by the federal government of 1,087 companies in the space supply chain, 38 percent said they would be insolvent…

The PRC Shapes the Pacific Future: Can the US and Its Allies Meet the Challenge?

12/20/2012
2012-12-18 by Richard Weitz Yesterday at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, China experts Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell presented some of the themes in their new book entitled China’s Search for Security (Columbia University Press, 2012). Their articles in Foreign Affairs and The Washington Quarterly repeat the same…

Moving Forward with Japan-US Defense Cooperation

12/19/2012
2012-12-19 By Richard Weitz The change in government in Japan offers an opportunity to move forward in re-shaping the US-Japanese Alliance. The Alliance has now a long history, but re-shaping the Alliance will be crucial in the period ahead, notably with the challenges from North Korea, the PRC and new regions…

Meeting the Challenge of Dealing with Counterfeit Parts in the Defense Supply Chain

12/18/2012
2012-12-24 In a discussion with Denton Clark of Lockheed Martin, the focus was upon how to meet the challenge of counterfeit parts in the supply chain. Denton Clark, an AIT Manager, is the Automated Identification and Data Capture (AIDC) Integrated Process Team (IPT) lead, for Lockheed Martin Corporation. In this…