The Impact of the Euro Crisis on European Space

09/02/2012
2012-09-02 by Robbin Laird and Harald Malmgren The Euro-Crisis European sovereign debt crisis is not simply a bump in historical progress; it is the end of a period of history and a critical point in European and global transition in the 21st century. The confluence of several trend lines: — the…

Japan and Russia: The Current Deadlock

09/02/2012
2012-09-02 By Richard Weitz Japan and Russia are on a collision course and can be resolved only if both sides have the wil to do so. History has a long reach in the Pacific and managing history is a constant of any Pacific strategy. Japanese and Russian historians can cite competing…

Iran’s Nuclear Program Charging Ahead: The Latest IAED Reports

08/31/2012
2012-08-30 by Richard Weitz  The key sentence in the today’s IAEA report on Iran is that the agency is "unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities." And…

Russia as a Pacific Power: Tensions with Japan

08/30/2012
2012-08-30 By Richard Weitz Relations between Russia and Japan have remained strained throughout the post-Soviet period. Despite the end of the Cold War, Moscow and Tokyo have been unable to resolve their territorial dispute over what the Russians call the Southern Kurils and the Japanese label their Northern Territories. The 1875…

Iraq and its Gulf Neighbors: A Troubled History

08/28/2012
2012-08-28 by Richard Weitz Iraq’s relations with other Arab countries are complex and often troubled. Arabs and others consider Iraq a core Arab state despite its peripheral location on the eastern flank of the Arab world, where it borders two large non-Arab countries, Iran and Turkey. Yet, Iraq’s diverse population…

Japan, the Iraq War, and More on the Coming Out Party

08/28/2012
2012-08-28 By Richard Weitz In explaining their government’s December 2003 decision to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, Japanese officials cited the imperative of supporting their country’s bilateral military alliance with the United States. They considered the deployment of ground troops to the Iraqi theater as especially important in demonstrating Japan’s reliability to…

South Korean Defense Re-Considered: Preparing for 2015

08/28/2012
2012-08-28 Second Line of Defense has been shaping a broader understanding of the challenges and opportunities in shaping a new Pacific strategy for the 21s Century.  A key part of such a strategy is focusing on the way ahead within South Korea to broaden the ability of U.S. forces in the…