US-China Maritime Disputes: Too Close for Comfort

by Mel Gurtov Two recent close encounters between US spy planes and Chinese jets spell trouble for relations between Washington and Beijing. The first, between a US EP-3 spy plane and two Chinese jets over the South China Sea (SCS) near… Continue Reading

America’s Sinkhole Wars

by Andrew J. Bacevich We have it on highest authority: the recent killing of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour by a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan marks “an important milestone.” So the president of the United States has declared,… Continue Reading

Toward a World Free of Nuclear Weapons?

by Peter Jenkins President Barack Obama claimed in The Washington Post on March 30 that the United States had made important progress under his leadership toward the vision he outlined in Prague nearly seven years ago: a world free of… Continue Reading

Spoiling the Pentagon

by William Astore The word “affluenza” is much in vogue. Lately, it’s been linked to a Texas teenager, Ethan Couch, who in 2013 killed four people in a car accident while driving drunk. During the trial, a defense witness argued… Continue Reading

Syria: Pro-Regime Rampage in the North

by Wayne White A Middle East Institute (MEI) study on Russia’s aims in Syria (much of which I wrote) predicted on November 10 what the Russo-Syrian-Iranian forces are doing right now: seeking to overrun most rebel holdings in the northernmost… Continue Reading