The historic meet up between North Korea and the US produced a page and a half ‘agreement’. This released result was all the public has been given to date. Behind the scenes, the world is assured, much is in the works. New meetings are planned. In North Korea, a campaign of politics with posters is […]
After the Singapore summit, the commentators, op-ed writers, columnists, analysts, foreign policy experts and seemingly everyone within reach of a keyboard or smartphone all have an opinion. Who are we not to join in with StratDem’s opinion? Consider the alternative to negotiating, “politics by other means”, war and potential catastrophic use of nuclear weapons
The nuclear question, the crisis, revolves around “CVID”. You ask, CVID? We answer, Complete, Verifiable and Irreversible Dismantlement (or Denuclearization?). Then we add calls for “complete nuclearization” on the Korean peninsula. Then we add — when, where, how, why. The world is asking for nuclear deescalation and not just on the Korean peninsula Update: […]
The credibility gap, as the phrase goes, extends its reach as news of death, violence, evangelical preachers and hard right politics comes from Israel and the U.S. Talk about a Jared Kushner-brokered peace is so unrealistic and distant as to produce cognitive dissonance, chaos, loss of hope
The lies of the Iraq war and subsequent disaster now shift toward an Iran disaster. After listening this past week to Israel’s PM present his country’s official POV regarding Iran, although it veered widely from top U.S. security officials public statements and testimony before Congress, the U.S. president has decided
The U.S. needs new oversight on the unlimited power of the president to order nuclear use on any day at any moment for whatever reason. The singular nuclear launch authority one person has is an extreme and potentially cataclysmic authority. Now is the time for a sane nuclear launch system
As war drums beat, talk of war grows closer. Yesterday, we exchanged pre-publication messages with professor Tom Nichols over the issue of “preventive” versus “preemptive” war. We went further by asking how many Americans, who support a US attack on North Korea, even know the difference between preventive and preemptive war. A Trump-ordered first strike […]
Count the ways words and belligerance can escalate to war. A litany comes to mind — miscalculation, provocation, preemption, a Gulf of Tonkin moment, or just a temper-tantrum acted out in a “fit of pique” (James Clapper’s words). We could go on, but words that draw the world closer to the edge, push closer to disaster
Fact: Decades of war across the globe produce trillions of dollars of debt and historic spending levels … a $696.5 billion defense bill passes … 18.7% year-over-year growth … though the Pentagon is the only federal department unable to conduct and pass a financial audit … this is unsustainable
The “button” can morph into a perverse temptation for an unstable leader. In 1974, during his impeachment proceedings, President Richard M. Nixon said to reporters: “I can go into my office and pick up the telephone, and in 25 minutes, 70 million people will be dead.”
At the Brink … US – Russian cooperation breaks down as Russia again charges the US and US allies with supporting Islamic Salafi-Jihadi forces — and ups the ante after the US September 17th Deir Ezzor “accidental air attack” that killed and wounded 200 Syrian government troops
On October 27, 2015, the USS Lassen transited within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef, one of China’s artificially-built features in the South China Sea. Officially referred to as a “freedom of navigation” (FON) operation, the US destroyer was accompanied by two maritime surveillance aircraft, a P-8A Poseidon and a P-3 Orion
“For nearly 30 years, China has bulked up by digesting tons of commodities from the world’s emerging markets and turned them into exports, and in the process has become a key creditor to the world’s largest consumer economy, the United States. All of that is changing now… how will it play out?”
As Presidents Obama and Putin meet in New York … the UN meets this week under a supermoon to talk of the state of the world. In DC and NYC the signs are ominous as the Pope returns from the U.S. to the Vatican and throughout the Mid East, catastrophe escalates as millions of refugees […]
Rising tensions between the US and Russia, and the US and China, are producing a gauntlet of consequences. New nuclear arms escalation, oil/gas and energy agreements, new alliances and old rivalries take on added dimension as a “Grand Strategy” in Eurasia gathers force
Carriers and battle groups as platforms for forward force projection. Next up, every ship as a platform for UAVs, drones of multiple use, shape and mission. A remote-guided future of war. DARPA envisions a SkyNet, force projection 360°
As the US Congress continues to act in unprecedented ways, a push back gathers force on multiple fronts. Senator Tom Cotton from Arkansas, a Senator for two months, takes a lead position in a Republican “letter” to Iran. Reactions last week and this week continue to produce unprecedented headlines
