It has become conventional wisdom that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is both a visionary and decisive leader, but his decisions deserve greater scrutiny.
Given the large-scale cutbacks directed by President Obama, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's rhetoric is fast becoming an excuse for budget cuts.
President Obama’s plan is an inevitable formula for American military decline.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's new budget will leave us weaker to pay for the president's domestic programs.
Senate Armed Services Committee
March 26, 2009
Six years after the invasion of Iraq and more than seven after the invasion of Afghanistan, we still do not have the land forces we need.
Why has Obama gone absent without leave on Afghanistan?
Obama's military budget presages retreat.
Defense programs have been conspicuously absent from all the talk of economic stimulus in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
The "yes-we-can" man is now commander-in-chief.
AEI Online
January 14, 2009
Defensespending will be key to American recovery and reinvestment.
There is a strong historic correlation between defense spending and past economic recoveries.
Why Israel's campaign against Hamas may succeed.
The work of AEI scholars shows that the Mumbai attacks are yet another front in the global war on terrorism.
What are the president's strengths and weaknesses as a supreme commander?
The approval by the Iraqi parliament of a strategic framework agreement represents a tremendous success for the United States and for a free Iraq.
Looking forward, there are reasons to hope for a continued transformation of the U.S.-Iraqi partnership.
Our geopolitical goals in the Middle East are enduring, and our maturing grand strategy now accepts that long-term political change demands a deeper involvement.
In the American democracy, do the essential choices about war rest with soldiers or civilians?
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave another speech laying out the course he believes the U.S. armed forces must follow to address the conflicts of the 21st century.
Both presidential nominees have been silent on China, its human rights record, and its role in shaping the future security apparatus of East Asia.
What are the presidential candidates saying about the Russo-Georgian conflict?
While Obama focuses on theproblems in Afghanistan, McCain goes after solutions.
Barack Obama's New York Times op-ed betrays a strategic understanding that is deeply disturbing.
Defense SecretaryRobert Gates is making needed changes at the Pentagon.
The country team is the point at which the rubber of American policy hits the road and where it will ultimately succeed or fail.
Stretched to its limits, the U.S. military needs 1 million men.
The limitations of America's land forces remain the most fundamental constraint on U.S. military strategy.
AEI Online
April 29, 2008
The need to strengthen U.S. military forces is immediate.
Iraqi troops asserted control over the Basra neighborhoods that had been Sadrist "strongholds" and continue to make progress.
It will take at least a decade to build up U.S. land forces to withstand what promises to be an extended hurricane in the greater Middle East.
Although victory in Iraq is yet to be achieved, the situation is not as gloomy as many have made out. The U.S. positionis growing ever stronger.
AEI Online
March 13, 2008
The centralizing reforms that culminated in the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986 did much to weld America's armed services into the preeminent military force of the late twentieth century.
The Pakistani governmenthas beenstruggling with the Taliban; however, the leader of the Taliban has called for a cease fire, which will aid in the upcoming elections.
Hollywood portrayals of the war in Iraq bear no resemblance to what is actually happening there.
Do not look now, but our planes are falling out of the sky.
We have the ships,the men, and the money to fight the wars we need to.
President Bush has more options in Iraq than people think.
The moderates think they've found a "responsible" way out of Iraq; also, what General David Petraeus is learning from past U.S. mistakes in Iraq.
The moderates think they've found a "responsible" way out of Iraq.
Concerning the war in Iraq, the New York Times reports success but decides on failure.
The media once again portray soldiers in Iraq as victims and the Iraq war as lost.
China has a strong mercantilist attitude toward energy supplies that impacts the international community.
We began the Long War with the land force we had, but now we must build the land force we need.
War is a pay-as-you-go business.
AEI Online
April 30, 2007
The president must attend to the China question if the Bush Doctrine is to endure.
The number of soldiers in the U.S. Army, both active and reserve, will continue to be a critical determinant of America's ability to win future wars and, above all, the peaces that follow them.
Essential for the long-term viability of the Bush Doctrine and the continuation of the Pax Americana isarticulating a strategy for the Long War in the greater Middle East.
AEI Online
February 13, 2007
The first in a series of National Security Outlooks addressing George W. Bush's foreign-policy legacy and how he can cement it.
More than five years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Bush administration has come to realize that U.S. land forces are too small.
Meet General David Petraeus, the new commander in Iraq.
What matters most in Iraq now is what Lt. Gen. David Petraeus and the Iraqis do in Baghdad.
It is a profound irony that the man hired to transform the Pentagon could not set aside his preconceptions and change himself.
At long last, the Bush administration appears willing to consider increasing the size of the U.S. force in Iraq.
Will a new occupant of Pentagon office 3E729 mean a new direction for American strategy in Iraq? Will a new Democratic leadership in Congress deliver a new strategy?
Although problems in Pakistan are of that country's own making, U.S. interference has only made them worse.
Do we yet understand the nature of the “Long War” for the future of the Middle East?
What can we learn from America's history that will help us shape America's future?
If the experience of the past five years means anything, it is that the war for the greater Middle East is most likely to be fought at close range.
The crabbed and inward-looking professional literature of the 1990s has given way to what looks to be a renaissance of serious thinking about the art of war.
We might be another long, hard slog with India.
How are foreign aggressive powers intersecting with U.S. strategy?
Hatred of George Bush has changed the loyal opposition into the bitter opposition, less interested in policy than in punishing their bête noire.
How should the United States respond in the event of a potential Pakistani crisis related to nuclear weapons, materials, or facilities?
Didn't think the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the other deployments in the Middle East were enough? Iran may now be a military focus as well.
One of the happier unintended consequences of the global war on terror has been a flowering of thoughtful writing about war.
Voting during wartime is a measure of the greatness of the United States. What will happenduring the 2006 and 2008 elections?
It will be awhile before American strategistscan bring themselves to contemplate that China's global economic presence is matched by a global geopolitical influence.
Testimony before the House Armed Services Committee regarding the future of U.S. armed forces in light of the Pentagon's most recent Quadrennial Defense Review.
The Quadrennial Defense Review is neither a benchmark for the U.S. military nor a "roadmap to victory."
Review of various literature published by think tanks and research universities.
The Quadrennial Defense Review process, from 1993 until now, has utterly failed to do what it was intended to do: provide a link among strategy, force-planning and defense budgeting.
AEI Online
January 5, 2006
President George W. Bush’s desire to maintain a “balance of power that favors freedom,” coupled with hyper-powerful means, prevents the United States from acting like a traditional, status-quo power.
When will the "tipping period" end?
Prepare to be underwhelmed by the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review.
AEI Online
December 2, 2005
Aglobal coalition system,including the United States, Great Britain, India, and Japan, is beginning to emerge for the post-Cold War world.
Slowly, but surely, the abstract idea of "capabilities-based" planning is giving way to a more traditional and political judgment about enemies and allies.
Given the administration's initially fuzzy approach to this war, let us pray that it is finally seeing things more clearly.
Al-Qaida is a movement that requires extreme violence to win success. The war will continue, and seems more likely to grow than to end.
Osama Bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zawahiri and the senior al-Qaida leaders see themselves, as does the Bush administration, in a large and long war for the future of the region, beyond Iraq.
Washington Post
November 27, 2005
Ultimately, if the Bush Doctrine is not successfully applied to East Asia, and China can export its bad behavior to the Middle East, the strategy of promoting democracy will fail there, too.
In considering whether to back a clearstandard for treatment of detainees,Republicans have the opportunity to reassert their own best traditions and principles.
Daily Standard
October 4, 2005
Congress owes it to America, our allies, and our soldiers to set clear standards for the treatment of detainees.
With this hearing, the Commission returns to one of its core concerns: assessing the growing military power of the People’s Republic of China and its impact on American interests.
New York Sun
September 13, 2005
A review of Robert D. Kaplan's Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground.
AEI Online
September 7, 2005
It is important for the U.S. to help India become a truly global power, show how it can play a leading role in the world, and cure its South Asian myopia.
The sale of Unocal is not just about dollars and cents.
Senator Hillary Clinton seems to graps what many in her party still cannot: in the post-9/11 world, the job of an American president is to be a wartime commander in chief.
The Bush administration’s policiesreflecta deeper strategic culture that has guided the United States from the earliest days of the republic.
Two recent books by experienced war correspondents tell important stories that call parts of the defense transformation program into question.
Daily Standard
April 28, 2005
In promulgating a model of heroism in service to an imperial ideal, the Chinese Communist leaders are riding a very powerful tiger, notorious through history for slipping the leash.
Weekly Standard
April 11, 2005
For many superstitious Afghans, it's no coincidence that the coming of democracy coincides with the end of the drought; it's proof, despite winter's bitter hardships, of a better future.
China's declaration of an anti-secession law is a timely if unwelcome reminder of Bejing's determination to retake Taiwan.
Daily Standard
March 31, 2005
By helping India become a major world power, the administration is showing the global seriousness of the Bush Doctrine.
The National Defense Strategy of the United States is an attempt to begin to wrestle with the challenges of a post-Iraq world.
Daily Standard
March 16, 2005
Even during the Cold War, the United States has never had a comprehensive strategy for East Asia;since the collapse of the Soviet empire,things have only gotten worse.
The time is ripe for a more realistic, balanced reappraisal of what air power can--and cannot--be expected to accomplish against present and future threats to U.S. national security.
Defense News
February 28, 2005
Piece by piece, the creation of the institutions of an extended Pax Americana is well under way.
Daily Standard
February 23, 2005
A military alliance with the United States makes sense for Japan, and Japan could prove to be a more important than Europe as an ally to the United States.
Washington Post
February 20, 2005
President Bushshould propose a U.S.-EU strategic dialogue to keep an eye on China's threat to regional security and its human rights and proliferation records.
Daily Standard
February 9, 2005
The Democrats have never been further estranged from the tradition of Harry Truman, andthe cause of international liberalism is no longer theirs.
The Daily Standard
February 2, 2005
Reactions to the election in Iraq were varied across the globe and at home in the United States.
AEI Online
February 1, 2005
Rather than insist on the defeat of the Iraqi insurgency as a precondition for Iraqi democracy, President Bush sees democracy as a means to help defeat the threat of radical Islam.
Daily Standard
January 26, 2005
It is increasingly possible that the United States will succeed in helping Afghans achieve political reform and pluralism.
The Daily Standard
January 13, 2005
The world of realpolitik fears the Shia and wants to postpone the Iraqi elections.
The Daily Standard
January 6, 2005
The next Quadrennial Defense Review will reveal what lessons we have learned in the fight against terrorism.
AEI Online
January 1, 2005
The Bush administration must ensure that its coalition of the willing is also a coalition of the committed--an enduring network of relationships for fighting the war on terror.
The Daily Standard
December 30, 2004
In the middle of fighting the global war on terror, America has forgotten aboutits "strategic competitor" to the east. The Chinese have noticed.
The George W. Bush administration did the right thing by disbanding the Iraqi army after the fall of Saddam.
Donald Rumsfeld'smeeting engagement with Thomas Wilson in Kuwait last week was a reality check for what has proved in practice to be a terrible idea: military "transformation."
The author discusses how to read the George W. Bush administration's commitment to Iraq.
With Falluja, the Bush administration finally seems to have grasped who the real enemy in Iraq is.
AEI Online
December 1, 2004
One of the key questions for the second term of the Bush administration is how to reposture U.S. military forces both at home and abroad.
The Weekly Standard
November 29, 2004
Ultimately, a second Bush administration must convince Americans and the world that a tolerant, democratic Middle East is not a desert mirage, but a winnable prospect.
The Daily Standard
November 24, 2004
Duncan Hunter and James Sensenbrenner have blocked the headlong rush to intelligence "reform" legislation that puts current military operation in Iraq and Afghanistan at risk.
Although Donald Rumsfeld has been part of the problem, he can still be part of the solution in ways that Colin Powell could not.
Operation Iraqi Freedom is entering its decisive phase. What happens next?
Los Angeles Times
November 8, 2004
While speculation about the foreign policy priorities of President Bush's second term is rife,the recentattack in Darfur should catapult the problem of Sudan to the top of the agenda.
The Daily Standard
November 2, 2004
No matter who wins, the logic of war will propel the next president forward in the Middle East war.
AEI Online
November 1, 2004
The 9/11 attacks and the global war on terror are forcing American strategists to reevaluate conventional assumptions about how missile defense and neighboring nations fit into U.S. national security.
While the campaign has focused on Iraq, there are other big-picture foreign policy issues at play. Where does John Kerry stand on them?
The Daily Standard
October 20, 2004
Arecent story in theWashington Post became the headline of the hour for John Kerry, who saw in it yet another instance of President Bush's shortcomings as commander-in-chief.
The Daily Standard
October 5, 2004
The 2004 presidential election is a Rorschach Test about the world of the early twenty-first century.
AEI Online
October 1, 2004
Regardless of who is elected to the presidency in November, the growing threat posed by a nuclear Iran is certain to be at the top of the next administration’s national security agenda.
The Daily Standard
September 23, 2004
John Kerry often seems more interested in strategic self-esteem with Europethan in actually winning the war in Iraq.
AEI Online
September 1, 2004
The United States must rebuild and restructure to meet the challenges of a changing Middle East and a rising China.
The Daily Standard
September 1, 2004
The "grand bargain" John Kerry and John Edwards are prepared to offer Iran deserves scrutiny.
New York Sun
August 31, 2004
Review of The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy by Jussi Hanhimaki.
AEI Online
August 1, 2004
The author considers the ten most important questions confronting U.S. military strategists and force planners today.
AEI Online
August 1, 2004
The report of the 9/11 Commission should help strengthen American resolve in the war on terror.
New York Sun
July 23, 2004
Although the 9/11 Commission report has recommendations about how to defend America at home, its discussion of strategyreveals that the theater of operations is the greater Middle East.
The Weekly Standard
July 19, 2004
With hisrecent op-ed,Senator John Kerry lays claim to being the genuinely conservative foreign policy voice in this fall's election.
Sen. John Kerry's "realist" foreign policy prescriptions are profoundly unrealistic and reflect a dogmatic ideology.
Baltimore Sun
June 22, 2004
We are no closer to solving the puzzle of Islamic terrorism than we were when the 9/11 panel began its work.
The Weekly Standard
June 7, 2004
No one should expect General Casey to lead us to victoryin Iraqsinglehanded, but if we're not going to cut and run, a necessary step is putting someone very much like him in command.
The U.S. military must address a gap between an ambitious strategy and a force ill-designed to accomplish it.
The Weekly Standard
May 17, 2004
Victory in the so-called "war on terrorism" will be measured less by how rapidlythe United Statesdeploys or how swiftlyit fights than how long and how broadlyit remains engaged.
Despite efforts to resurrect the transatlantic bonhomie of the Cold War era, the limitations of any strategic partnership between the United States and Europe are growing increasingly clear.
Completing regime change in Baghdad and spreading democracy in the Middle East will require an open-ended commitment and more political resolve thandemonstrated in Washington.
NPR's Marketplace
April 8, 2004
The reward of democracy is surely worth the cost because the prosperity it brings will snuff out disaffection and the terrorism spawned by poverty.
Taiwan’s March 20 election provides fresh evidence of the extent to which the "one China" policy and “strategic ambiguity” have passed into the realm of anachronism.
Washington Post
March 28, 2004
Tony Blair was right to say that Moammar Gaddafi's rehabilitation is "a very, very important signal for the whole of the Arab world."
New York Sun
March 22, 2004
Review of Surprise, Security and the American Experience by John Lewis Gaddis.
If the Bush administration wantsa "forward strategy of freedom" for the Muslim world, it cannot turn a blind eye to Libyan president Gaddafi's internal repression and international adventurism.
The Weekly Standard
February 9, 2004
Our armed forces are still too small; the gap between America's strategic grasp and its military reach remains.
AEI Online
February 1, 2004
The invasion of Iraq marked the a new era of Pax Americana, distinguished by the energetic exercise of U.S. power not simply to protect the status quo of American global preeminence.
Navy News Week
January 26, 2004
The invasion of Iraq marked the energetic exercise of U.S. power not simply to protect the status quo of American global preeminence but to extend the current liberal international order.
AEI Online
January 1, 2004
The invasion of Afghanistan in the autumn of 2001 and that of Iraq in the spring of 2003 together mark a significant departure from longstanding American strategy in the greater Middle East.
The Guardian
December 16, 2003
Fifteen people with different perspectives discusshow the fallen Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein should be brought to justice.
The Weekly Standard
December 1, 2003
The blind spots in the Pentagon's new plans.
AEI Online
December 1, 2003
If the United States is to succeed in creating a different kind of Middle East, it must create a different kind of military, redefining defense transformation to meet the strategic challenge.
The Weekly Standard
November 17, 2003
What the Pentagon's troop rotation plan tells us.
AEI Online
November 1, 2003
To prevail in Iraq,the U.S. military must develop an effective counterinsurgency strategy.
Does the United States have the right military strategy in place to defeat what its own generals admit is an increasingly sophisticated insurgency?
AEI Online
October 1, 2003
What is at stake in Iraq defines what sort of world the American superpower wants--and what sort of sacrifices it is willing to make to create it.
The Weekly Standard
September 15, 2003
The goal of creating a stable environment in Iraq is a moving target. The longer decisive action is postponed, the harder it will be to achieve.
AEI Online
September 1, 2003
Britainhas released a report on Operation Iraqi Freedom,that suggests that London may be ahead of Washington in identifying some of the toughest lessons for the war on terrorism.
Wall Street Journal
August 14, 2003
We would be wise to invest more in long-range bombers, since the ability to operate globally on short notice will be vital to winning the war on terror.
AEI Online
August 1, 2003
America cannot afford to lose the struggle between the forces of political liberty and the forces of repressive Islamism.
The Weekly Standard
July 21, 2003
The thugs are fighting, the troops are tired, and some doubt our determination--but we're winning.
Washington Post
July 7, 2003
The Defense Department has begun to recognize that U.S. security interests in Africa cannot be ignored.
Among the most vital components ofdefense transformation is the radical overhaul of America's overseas force structure.
The Weekly Standard
June 2, 2003
Can the Saudi kingdom extricate itself from terror?
Operation Iraqi Freedom gives substance to the Bush Doctrine in ways that the war in Afghanistan did not.
Tom Donnelly assesses the impact of the Iraq campaign on NATO from a US perspective.
The Weekly Standard
May 5, 2003
U.S. bases are the surest guarantor of Iraqi freedom--and an essential underpinning for our ability to sustain a larger struggle.
The real question now is how the United States can leverage its victory in Iraq to uphold, expand, and institutionalize the Pax Americana.
The Weekly Standard
April 28, 2003
The stunning success of the "combat portion" of Operation Iraqi Freedom challenges any understanding based upon previous military history.
The Daily Standard
April 8, 2003
Planning for the worst case has always been a source of military wisdom, but the war in Iraq reminds us that planning to exploit the best case is also a wise thing to do.
San Diego Union Tribune
April 6, 2003
A free Iraq will send a message to others in the region: there is no room in the post-9/11 world for regimes that support a culture of international terrorism.
The battle between American primacy and multipolarity is nearing an end--and what is to come is a world that no one ever imagined.
The Daily Standard
March 30, 2003
Forget the New York Times and the rent-a-generals, they're all you need to sort out how the war is progressing.
Financial Times
March 26, 2003
Even seasoned observers have had a difficult time keeping things in Iraq in perspective.
The Daily Standard
March 25, 2003
The U.S. invasion force is relatively small. The nature of war may be changing, but Americans need to realize that in the military, size still does matter.
The Daily Standard
March 24, 2003
There is an important difference between war and battle.
The Daily Standard
March 21, 2003
The air campaign now underway is flashy and exciting. But look at what's happening with coalition forces on the ground.
The Daily Standard
March 20, 2003
Last night's surgical strikes were just a prelude. And if Saddam survived them, it may turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Many U.S. politicians are beginning to ask the question: Is it time to move our forces in Europe?
Relocating and reconfiguring our garrisons in Europe and elsewhere abroad is as fundamental an element in the post-cold-war "transformation" of U.S. military forces as the acquisition of new weaponry.
AEI Online
February 1, 2003
The Bush Doctrine, which is likely to shape U.S. policy for decades to come, reflects the realities of American power as well as the aspirations of American political principles.
AEI Online
January 1, 2003
The Bush administration has been reluctant to discuss or define its view of a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.
Weekly Standard
December 9, 2002
President Bush so bestrides the American political landscape that his power exceeds his agenda.
AEI Online
December 1, 2002
Even if U.S.-European affairs can be patched up, it is time for the Bush administration to play the field and come up with some new geopolitical partners.
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