2012-08-16 by Robbin Laird The Japanese government released its latest Defense White Paper late last month. This is the first white paper released since they announced their decision to acquire the F-35, and provides a further elucidation upon the new defense policy announced in 2010. The Japanese announced in that…
2012-08-20 by Richard Weitz Historically, the Japanese nation has proven to be highly adaptive to international pressures. Not long after Admiral Matthew Perry forced Japan to open to foreign trade in 1853, the Japanese government initiated a comprehensive restructuring of the country’s political and economic systems. Termed the Meiji Restoration,…
2012-08-14 by Robbin Laird China is building an expanding global presence strategy, economically, politically and militarily. And the impact of what they do on others is on the rise as well. We looked in our first Strategic Inflections Reports on the impact of the Chinese economy and its evolution worldwide. …
2012-08-14 By Richard Weitz Iraq-GCC relations have perhaps now reached one of their most critical stages. This turning point has been reached due to several concurrent developments. Iraq’s precarious internal and external conditions after the U.S. military withdrawal, the enduring and widespread impact of the Arab Spring, and the profound…
2012-08-13 By Harald Malmgren and Robbin Laird The Euro crisis is not simply a financial dynamic. It is the end of a period of history. The confluence of several trend lines: the unification of Germany, the end of the Soviet Union, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the expansion of…
2012-08-13 by Harald Malmgren The slowdown in the US is reflective of the global economic slowdown, with some other parts of the world already in recession. All export-dependent economies are likely to suffer from continuing loss of momentum in world trade. Very few economists in the US and around the…
2012-08-12 by Ed Timperlake Is it Time for a Counterintelligence Damage Assessment? In a recent article in the Wichita Business Journal, the CEO of Hawker Beechcraft reaffirms that there is no defense conflict in Superior deal to sell the company to a Chinese company. Boisture points out that when it comes to the King…
2012-08-10 On our companion site Second Line of Defense Forum, we have published an interesting piece by Al Poteet on the VA situation. As he puts it, “Warriors used to be applauded at sports stadiums. Now they are backlog.” Mr. Poteet is a former Army gunship pilot with two tours in…
