The Afghan Transition Challenge: Where is the US Pakistan Strategy?

10/10/2012
2012-10-10 by Richard Weitz After almost a decade of fighting, American politicians are eager to reduce their military, financial, and other costly support for the Kabul government. Relations between the Barack Obama administration and Afghan President Hamid Karzai remain strained, as confirmed most recently in the testy remarks by U.S. Defense…

The Latest Second Line of Defense Publicaton: Air Mobility and Mission Success

10/09/2012
2012-10-09 In a new book, Second Line of Defense provides a broad overview on the evolution of air mobility. Air power is increasingly about integration of air assets into the full spectrum of military and security operations. The book is a compilation of interviews that have been published on the Second Line…

Can Japan Continue to Live in the Nuclear Neighborhood Without Its Own Nuclear Weapons?

10/08/2012
2012-10-08 by Richard Weitz The North Korean nuclear threat and the growing power of China in the region – with a solid growth in nuclear weapons as well – provides a continual test for the U.S. nuclear guarantee for Japan. Thus far, the situation in Korea has not resulted in a…

The United States and the CTBT: The Prospects

10/08/2012
2012-10-08 By Richard Weitz At the 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference, most attention on bringing the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) into force focused on how to secure U.S. ratification of the treaty. The participants from other countries found it convenient to blame Washington’s stubbornness for the CTBT’s failure to enter…

Nuclear Security Summits under Review: The Obama Administration Perspective

10/07/2012
2012-10-07 by Richard Weitz The 2012 Moscow Nonproliferation Conference devoted an entire session to the issue of “Strengthening Nuclear Security,” which focused on the progress achieved by the first two nuclear security summits and what issues remained for the 2014 nuclear security summit (NSS) and beyond. In that regard, the…