China: Enemy Du Jour? But Why?

Arms control and disarmament were central to launching a detente with the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s; the environmental challenge could be the key to a serious and institutionalized Sino-American dialogue.

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Repairing Trump’s Carnage: Fixing Our “Democracy”

President-elect Biden will inherit a crisis worse than those facing Barack Obama in 2009 or Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. The international situation is dominated by a raging nationalism, a climate catastrophe, and a devastating pandemic. At home, we have a dysfunctional Congress, a struggling economy, and social tensions worsened by institutional racism. Biden’s cabinet appointments reveal his recognition of these domestic challenges as he has appointed experts prepared to address a damaged public health system, immigration system, and the environmental program.

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Trump’s Carnage: Testing America’s “Democracy”

Trump’s inauguration speech in January 2017 was bizarre, particularly the reference to “American Carnage,” which was designed to be descriptive, but turned out to be predictive. Trump has been America’s most shameless president, politicizing the military and intelligence communities; corrupting the legal and judicial communities; and weaponizing various departments and agencies to do his bidding.

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Revisiting “Seven Days in May”

One of the occupational hazards of a 24-year career as an intelligence analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency is the tendency to anticipate the dark side. Whenever I see a floral arrangement, for example, I expect there to be a corpse nearby. Now if I were still an intelligence analyst at the CIA and watching events in a Third World democracy that resemble the goings on taking place in the United States of America, I would be deeply concerned.

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Recent News and Latest Book

Deal With Iran Politically and Diplomatically, Not Militarily

There is a consensus on the right and the left that the only way to deal with Iran is with military force.  The conservative Chicken Hawks in the Senate and the House of Representatives believe targeting Iran—and not merely Iranian proxies—is essential.  Senator Lindsay Graham (R/SC) wants to “hit them hard.” The conservative newsmagazine, The…

Why Are Our Regional Experts Expecting More War in Every Corner?

“Kim Jong-un has made a strategic decision to go to war.  The danger is already far beyond the routine warnings in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo about Pyongyang’s ‘provocations’.” – Robert Carlin (former State Department analyst) and Siegfried S. Hecker (nuclear scientist and former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory), Stimson Center website 38 North,…

Containing the National Security State

Containing the National Security State