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“To Leave, or Not to Leave…That is the Question:” 121 Days Until the UK Referendum
Prior to the UK General Elections in May 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged, if reelected, to hold a nation-wide referendum on the United Kingdom’s continued membership in a “reformed EU.” After days of high drama in Brussels, a “reform” deal between the 27 members of the European Union and the United Kingdom has been reached.
Categories: Defense Policy
Afghanistan: The Uncertain Impact of a Year of Transition
A previous Burke Chair report has addressed the fact that it has now been a year since U.S. and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) combat forces formally left Afghanistan.
Categories: Defense Policy
The Honorable Tom Malinowski: Special Address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
A special address delivered by The Honorable Tom Malinowski at the “North Korea: The Human Rights and Security Nexus” conference held in the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as released by the U.S. Department of State.
Categories: Defense Policy
Seeing the Forest through the SAMs on Woody Island
The recent deployment of Chinese surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) to Woody Island is a notable tactical development, but a far more significant strategic signal.
Categories: Defense Policy
A Tumultuous 2016 in the South China Sea
This promises to be a landmark year for the claimant countries and other interested parties in the South China Sea disputes. Developments that have been under way for several years, especially China’s island-building campaign in the Spratlys and Manila’s arbitration case against Beijing, will come to fruition.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #21 - Taiwanese presidential transitions need less turbulence
Tsai Ing-wen and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) historic victory last month was largely driven by domestic political and economic concerns, but brings with it significant geopolitical implications.
Categories: Defense Policy
Paying for America’s Wars in FY2017
The United States is exceptionally transparent in reporting on its military activities and spending – but only in comparison to the far more limited level of transparency in most other governments. Security and “spin” still limit or color much of the official reporting, and it is often difficult to track any clear relationship between U.S.
Categories: Defense Policy
Managing Risk for the Internet of Things
The term Internet of Things (IoT) was first used in the 1990s to describe networked devices with computing power and Internet addresses. Like so many Internet predictions, the idea of an IoT was premature; but by 2008, machines outnumbered people as Internet “users.” These machines connect wirelessly, take action, and create data.
Categories: Defense Policy
Posturing and Politics for Encryption
The encryption debate has been largely unencumbered by facts. That deserves a separate discussion, but for now, let us consider Apple’s stout refusal to cooperate with the FBI in gaining access to data stored on the phone of one of the San Bernardino murderers.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #20 - South Korea’s big strategic bet to rein in North Korea
In US presidential politics, a candidate suspending their campaign means that they are dropping out of the race.
Categories: Defense Policy
The Strategic Impact of Iran’s Rising Petroleum Exports After Sanctions
The decades since the first major oil embargo in 1973 have shown all too clearly that no one can predict oil and gas prices and petroleum export revenues.
Categories: Defense Policy
Jihad & a Geopolitical G-X: Winning the War and Building the Peace
The civilized world is still being caught flat-footed by global Jihad, but at least we’re now realizing that our societies are engaged in a whole new kind of conflict—with a decentralized nonstate enemy, fueled by an archaic-techno mix of messianic theology and social media outreach.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #18 - The current and future of Vietnam – US defense relations
Since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1995, defense ties between Vietnam and the United States have been based on three pillars. The first is the overall positive framework of Vietnam-US relations, which created a favorable platform for the development of defense relations (especially with the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership in July 2013).
Categories: Defense Policy
Issues and Insights Vol. 16, No. 3 - The Future of Nonproliferation Cooperation with Myanmar after the 2015 General Election
The Pacific Forum CSIS, with support from the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Strategic Programme Fund (FCO/SPF), held the third US/UK-Myanmar Nonproliferation Dialogue in Yangon, Myanmar on Dec. 9-10, 2015.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #17 - China’s resurgence and its effects on transatlantic relations
China’s resurgence, particularly since the turn of the century, has had global repercussions, as any number of studies of this phenomenon attest. The longer-term implications for one of the most significant coalitions in global history – transatlantic relations – are potentially profound, and potentially profoundly disruptive.
Categories: Defense Policy
Of Complexes and Generals
Kim Jong-un has had a busy start to 2016, with a nuclear test in January, a claimed hydrogen bomb test and his third overall, and a long-range missile/satellite test over the weekend added to his list of ever growing accompl
Categories: Defense Policy
Erdogan Denounces U.S. Position on the PYD
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s exceptionally harsh comments directed at the United States on February 10 for its links with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have brought to the surface simmering tensions in the relationship because of the Syrian crisis.
Categories: Defense Policy
The European Reassurance Initiative
The president’s FY 2017 budget proposes to quadruple funding for the European Reassurance Initiative (ERI) to $3.4 billion, up from $789 million in FY 2016. The request represents a significant reinvestment in the U.S. military presence in Europe after decades of gradual withdrawal.
Categories: Defense Policy
Defense versus Mandatory Spending: What Drives the Burden on the Budget and Economy?
There is a mild irony in the fact that the New Hampshire primary will occur on the same day that the Department of Defense issues its new FY2017 defense budget briefing.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #14R - Response to PacNet #14 “The Japan-Korea comfort women deal: this is only the beginning”
I concur with most of the points in “The Japan-Korea comfort women deal: this is only the beginning” by Scott Snyder and Brad Glosserman. Let me add several points to clarify this complex issue.
Categories: Defense Policy
