Marisela Escobedo’s life changed forever in August 2008 when her 16-year-old daughter Rubi failed to come home. What was left of Rubi’s body was found months later in a dump — 39 pieces of charred bone.
Republicans are finally conceding that defense cuts are needed. But it’s not just budget priorities that need to be reevaluated, but our global priorities.
The mood across East Asia as 2011 dawns is one of foreboding. Can the militarization and confrontation that gathered momentum through 2010 in the spiral of incidents (Cheonan in March, Senkaku in September, Yeonpyeong in November) and massive regional war rehearsals by the US and its allies be halted and reversed? The fear that events might slide during 2011 into catastrophe is hard to resist.
The Costa Rican legislature on December 20 approved another deployment of dozens of U.S. ships to its territory for the next six months, but denied permission for warships to deploy to the country until a full debate occurs after the New Year.
The United States is a bit schizophrenic when it comes to treaties. The U.S. government does a great job negotiating them. From the International Criminal Court to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, U.S. diplomats have forged very constructive compromises on major human rights and security agreements. Unfortunately, the U.S. Senate has a history of letting these accords molder. The Senate and the White House still have a long list of treaties that are overdue for ratification. Here are seven lessons from the New START experience for policymakers to consider as they move forward.
At this point, it can only be pulled out by its roots — or via a grass-roots movement.
Nonproliferation is a non-starter when those who seek to enforce it refuse to convincingly disarm.
Did Defense Department general counsel Jeh C. Johnson really think invoking Martin Luther King, Jr.’s name in the service of our presence in Afghanistan would fly?
Van Pao’s “secret army” was financed by the CIA as part of the war against North Vietnam. Is the U.S. also tolerating and empowering drug lords in Afghanistan?
U.S. nuclear-war policy has always been poised between deterrence — riding out a nuclear attack before responding — and launch on warning — an itchy trigger finger.