I’m a big fan of Tom Ricks the reporter. I am much less enamored with Tom Ricks the blogger/pundit. So, on one hand, he’s writing this endless series of posts on Iraq, the unraveling, he’s up to entry 19 on this topic.  So, you’d think that implies that he has a very skeptical perspective on [...]

In case you missed it, there was a great piece by Alexandra Zavis in the Boston Globe on May 3, “Going green becomes a matter of national security.”
In it, Zavis details how the military is, in many respects, leading the way on climate and energy security–not simply because military leaders say so, but because it [...]

Today, the American Security Project released an interim update as part of its ongoing “Are We Winning?” study, which found several discouraging trends, including an increase in worldwide Islamic violence and a dampening of the so-called “Obama Effect” in the Muslim world, among other issues.
Click here to listen to audio of a conference call held [...]

An article today from McClatchy (Do U.S. drones kill Pakistani extremists or recruit them?) further bolsteres the claim that drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal regions may be doing more harm that good.  The article quotes government and military officials who say the strikes cause Islamic radicals to migrate to urban centers–where they are more difficult [...]

This month’s issue of Armed Forces Journal features an article by American Security Project Senior Fellow Bernard I. Finel entitled “A Security Strategy We Can Afford.” Read the full article here.
In the piece, Dr. Finel covers many of the issues that The American Security Project has been confronting in regard to defense alternatives and improving [...]

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and ASP Board Member Senator John Kerry visited Gaza to view the destruction caused by the fighting and view the needs of the area.  According to the New York Times, “Mr. Kerry, who is on a tour of the region, entered Gaza after seeing the remains of Palestinian [...]

For the first time in six years, terrorism was not presented as the primary danger to the country’s national security, according to Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.  Instead, the global economic crisis is the top “near-term security concern” facing the U.S. 
Before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Mr. Blair stated that “roughly a [...]

According to an article in Aviation Week, FY2010 budget request could be issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget as soon as next week.  Aviation Week states that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates “has been conducting a review of major Pentagon programs to determine possible cuts or terminations to better align the [...]

Good story in the Washington Post today about some specific programs that might be facing cuts: Defense Industry in the Line of Fire.
The key here is to remember that cuts in individual programs are not synonymous with cuts in the overall budget. Public debate on this issue is often startling sloppy. Every campaign [...]

In an article for Salon.com, Glenn Greenwald takes apart Robert Kagan’s Op-Ed.  Using the graph below, Greenwald shows U.S. defense spending from 2001-2010.