On November 27, a State Department advisory board, the International Security Advisory Board (ISAB), recommended that the Obama Administration ignore the Constitution and break the law to unilaterally reduce the number of nuclear arms in the U.S. nuclear stockpile. Set aside the fact that such unilateral arms control measures would …
Recently, the Obama Administration has come under fire for potentially making unilateral cuts to the United States nuclear arsenal. Such unilateral cuts were proposed in the International Security Advisory Board’s (ISAB) November report on “Options for Implementing Additional Nuclear Force Reductions.” Legal arguments aside, there are many problematic assumptions that …
Rumors are swirling that included in their negotiations to avert the “fiscal cliff,” President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R–OH) may add an additional $100 billion in cuts as an alternative to the roughly $500 billion in defense budget cuts over nine years required by sequestration under the Budget …
Earlier this year, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments conducted an exercise that purported to show how a smaller defense budget wouldn’t be so bad after all. However, the assumptions behind this exercise have significant shortcomings. The exercise forced the participants to accept defense funding levels mandated in the …
In the past two weeks, the terrorist organization Hamas launched about a thousand ballistic missiles on Israel. Since then, the Iron Dome short-range missile defense system has occupied the front pages of the media. The system managed to intercept about 300 missiles and evaluated that about additional 700 missiles did …
The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has released a list of essential facts about the defense budget entitled “Defense Spending 101.” The list reminds readers of the truth about U.S. defense spending and should serve as the starting point for any debate in Congress over the future of the defense budget. …
On Thursday, the U.S. military conducted a combined developmental and operational test of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile defense system, and Aegis ballistic missile defense system. This has been the most complex and largest test the U.S. has ever conducted. The missile defense systems …
Fifty years ago, the world came to the brink of nuclear war. On October 14, 1962, U.S. policymakers learned that the Soviet Union was building missile bases in Cuba, which would have allowed Moscow to attack anywhere in the continental United States within minutes. An international crisis followed, and while …
Philip Ewing, in an article on Politico Pro about the vice presidential debate, asserts that comments about defense spending by Representative Paul Ryan (R–WI) signal that Governor Mitt Romney could abandon his pledge to maintain the defense budget at 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Ewing is jumping to …
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is in Asia trying to prevent further escalations in tensions over several territorial disputes. National elections in South Korea and Japan and a leadership transition in China’s Communist Party have fueled a resurgence of nationalism and historical animosities. Although the rhetoric and political posturing is coming …
