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."…
2013-01-13 Paul Bracken has published a very thoughtful look at strategy in the new nuclear age. Rather than simply looking at nucs, and why they are not going away, Bracken has puzzled over the nature of deterrence in the new nuclear age. Although many Americans have banned nucs for any real…
2013-01-13 by Albert Santoli I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man. – George Washington The nomination of former-Senator and Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense has generated debate whether he…
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…