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PacNet #33 - Japan’s security policy under Abe: much ado about almost nothing
Japan’s Prime Minister Abe Shinzo has been able to reorient his country’s security policy. The defense budget has been increasing since 2013, for the first time in a decade. The ban on arms exports has been loosened, allowing Japan to export defense items and technologies for the first time in 40 years.
Categories: Defense Policy
Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi Has China, Myanmar’s Military Watching
Myanmar experienced a number of firsts over the past week. The Union Parliament—which now counts former political prisoners, doctors, businesspeople, and poets among its ranks—on March 24 approved a new cabinet to serve under the incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government, the first civilian government to rule the country in over 50 years.
Categories: Defense Policy
Women in Senate Confirmed Department of Defense PAS Positions Since 1947
This is an up-to-date list of female Presidential appointments in the Department of Defense which require Senate confirmation from 1947 to April 2015.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #32 - How China sees THAAD
On Feb. 7, the United States and South Korea decided to begin official discussions on deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #31 - To understand China’s economic signals, start with the Four Comprehensives
The recent drama surrounding China’s economy reveals contradictions in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) monetary and fiscal management policies.
Categories: Defense Policy
The Comparative Metrics of ISIS and "Failed State Wars" in Syria and Iraq
The fighting against ISIS/ISIL/Daesh has become at least three different and interrelated conflicts: a fight against Daesh, a low-level sectarian and ethnic civil conflict in Iraq, and an intense civil war in Syria.
Categories: Defense Policy
The Urgent Need to Prove the European Union Relevant on Counterterrorism
As they did after the Paris attacks in November 2015, EU interior ministers met last week for an emergency discussion in Brussels in the aftermath of two attacks committed last Tuesday in the Belgian capital. These attacks demonstrate that the threat of terrorism is likely to remain consistent for the near future in Europe.
Categories: Defense Policy
Korea Chair Monitor | Vol 4 Issue 5
The Korea Chair team takes a biweekly look back at events of interest in Washington, Seoul, and the region from March 10 - March 23, 2016.
Categories: Defense Policy
Indictments, Countermeasures, and Deterrence
“What counts are the political and military consequences of a violation…since these alone will determine whether or not the violator stands to gain in the end.”
Fred Ikle, “After Detection, What?” 1961
Categories: Defense Policy
Key Trends in the Uncertain Metrics of Terrorism
It is now some 15 years since 9/11, the United States has not only conducted a constant campaign against terrorism since that time, but has been at war with violent Islamist extremists in Afghanistan, then Iraq, and then Syria.
Categories: Defense Policy
Shifting Political Economy of Russian Oil and Gas
Russia is one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon resource holders, producers, and exporters, but it is undergoing an uncertain economic and energy transition.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #30 - A pragmatic public: observations of Japan’s 2016 Public Opinion Survey on Diplomacy
As controversy swirls around the security policies of the Abe Shinzo government, the Japanese public remains a stabilizing force in foreign policy.
Categories: Defense Policy
Impact Player: Vincent K. Brooks
General Vincent K. Brooks has been nominated to be the new Commander of United Nations Command (UNC), Combined Forces Command (CFC), and United States Forces Korea (USFK). General Brooks moves into this position after serving as Commanding General of U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC), a position he held since July 2013.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #29 - Obama’s recent China policy – more resolve, rising tension
Anticipated positive interaction between President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the nuclear summit in Washington on Mar. 31-Apr. 1 probably will not change Obama’s more resolute approach to the challenges the Xi administration has posed to US interests.
Categories: Defense Policy
FY17 Budget Squeezes MDA’s Research and Development
The recently released $7.5 billion FY17 budget request for the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) represents an $822 million reduction from last year’s enacted budget. These cuts are essentially divided between procurement ($501 million) and research and development ($322 million) as compared to the $8.3 billion MDA budget enacted by Congress for FY16.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #28 - Philippines v. China arbitration: be careful what you wish for
Sometime in late-spring/early-summer, an arbitral tribunal constituted under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) will issue a highly-awaited final ruling on a Filipino protestation that China’s maritime claims – and actions in defense of those claims – in the South China Sea are contrary to UNCLOS and thereby a violation of the Philippines’ sover
Categories: Defense Policy
The Army Modernization Challenge
Since 2008, Army modernization ([1] Procurement; and [2] Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) accounts) total obligation authority has fallen by 74 percent in real terms. In absolute terms, this decline seems substantial, but how does the current Army modernization trajectory compare to the challenges faced in previous defense drawdowns?
Categories: Defense Policy
Beyond the Headlines: The U.S.-Brazil Relationship
The turmoil in Brazilian politics has reached a head with the potential impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff , as the economic crisis and
Categories: Defense Policy
Afghanistan: Shift to a “Conditions–Based” Strategy or Lose the “Forgotten War”
The Obama Administration’s lack of focus on the Afghan War is symbolized by the fact that it is no longer even listed as one of the “Top Issues” on the Department of Defense’s website.
Categories: Defense Policy
