The National Journal’s national security experts blog asked us what are reading this week.  My response:
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, the Afghan-American better-known for his first novel The Kite Runner.
Here’s a link to the entry: http://security.nationaljournal.com/2009/08/what-are-you-reading.php

ASP Senior Fellow Dr. Bernard Finel recently wrote a piece for Foreign Policy posing 10 questions that must be answered if the United States is to justify further involvement in Afghanistan.
A sampling of Dr. Finel’s questions:
(1) Why does the possibility that al Qaeda might establish a sanctuary in Afghanistan justify a multi-year commitment of American [...]

I’ve been writing in several blog threads my concerns about McChrystal’s new guidance document, most notably at Abu Muqawama: COMISAF COIN Guidance Released | Center for a New American Security.
But it is probably worthwhile to summarize my views:
(1) The guidance seems like a perfectly reasonable set of principles for any army operating in a foreign [...]

According to an Associated Press article, Yemen could become the next significant terrorist staging ground as Al-Qaida’s operatives in Yemen and Saudi Arabia merged earlier this year to become al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP.
According to the article, “as insurgent attacks have spiked in the embattled Middle East nation over the past year, the [...]

Since the Washington Times just ran a piece today on the Afghan elections and gave it a title I can agree with, I’m eager to post it, and now ready to post the link to the Daily Beast piece — which was mercilessly mistitled. 
http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/27/the-election-observed/?feat=home_commentary
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-25/americas-latest-mistake-in-afghanistan/
Here’s an excerpt from the Wash Times below:
“…There is a danger that [...]

There is an interesting editorial in the Washington Post today, highlighting the indignities of the previous administration’s torture policies laid out in the recently released 2004 report from the CIA inspector general, and explaining the predicament the current administration finds itself in assessing whether or not to prosecute:
The line between authorized interrogation techniques and those [...]

As the US lumbers on in debate over renewable energy reform, the PRC is moving forward to become the world’s biggest contender in the solar energy market. Boosted by generous government subsidies, bountiful cheap labor and an ever-increasing demand for green energy, Chinese companies like Suntech are gradually overtaking their American and German competitors.
This may [...]

Our Senior Fellow and member of last week’s International Republican Institute’s election monitoring delegation, Dr. Evelyn Farkas, published a piece today in the Daily Beast on how to move beyond the Afghan elections and execute a new decentralized and dynamic approach to Afghanistan.
She writes:
The outcome of the Afghan elections may very well make the task for the [...]

There is a growing understanding that the impacts of climate change will bring with them serious implications for U.S. national security.  The Senate Foreign Relations and Energy committees have held hearings on this topic.  The intelligence community and the Department of Defense–in the George W. Bush administration–began to examine the topic and factor it into [...]

An interesting article is out on the AP Wire today about the effect of climate change on world water supplies, and what experts at the World Water Week conference in Stockholm are saying. From the article:
“Thousands of scientists and experts urged world leaders Friday to include strategies for global water management in the planned Copenhagen [...]