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TOKYO — When President Bill Clinton signed a 1994 agreement promising to “respect” the territorial integrity of Ukraine if it gave up its nuclear weapons, there was little thought then of how that obscure diplomatic pact — called the Budapest Memorandum — might affect the long-running defense partnership between the United States and Japan. But now, as American officials have distanced themselves from the Budapest Memorandum in light of Russia’s takeover of Crimea, calling promises made in Budapest “nonbinding,” the United States is being forced at the same time to make reassurances in Asia. Japanese officials, a senior American military...

The contempt with which Vladimir Putin holds President Obama and his entire foreign policy team fairly oozes out of the Kremlin. Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast noted "sarcasm and derision from Russia’s Twitter-happy deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozi," including a Tweet mocking "Comrade @BarackObama." Putin's speech yesterday was full of venom towards the U.S., as have been most Russian media outlets. But the key detail is how Putin played Obama, as the Wall Street Journal noted this morning: Mr. Obama in four phone calls with Mr. Putin over the past month totaling 4½ hours also failed to make headway...

It happens after every war. America disarms. And so invites the next attack, and next war. The same haphazard pattern is emerging now -- even before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are over, much as this administration pretends they are in order to cut the defense budget. On both those fronts, the enemy is rushing to fill the vacuum left by the American withdrawal. This country's retreat has allowed al-Qaida, its branches and assorted allies and successors, whether the Taliban in Afghanistan or freelance terrorists in Iraq, to advance. At this rate, it may be only a matter of...

Teeing up what could be a politically explosive fight before the midterm elections in November, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Monday will recommend billions of dollars in annual budget cuts that would reduce housing allowances and other benefits, increase health-care premiums, and limit pay raises, CBS News confirms. The recommendations, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, are part of a broader effort to trim the Pentagon's budget while minimizing the impact on preparedness and capability. But they're likely to provoke fierce opposition from veterans' interest groups and lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The Pentagon argues that personnel costs are simply...

Ukraine Defense Minister Pavel Lebedev has refused to take multiple phone calls made personally by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the Pentagon said Thursday. "Secretary Hagel has been trying, himself, since early this week," Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters. Lebedev refuses "to communicate, to accept a phone call" from Hagel or the Pentagon.

...[Ma]ny observers across the political spectrum argue that there’s no coherent American Middle East policy at all....[C]olumnist Charles Krauthammer argues that Obama is simply presiding over a decline in American influence, while Democratic[s]...like Sen. Robert Menendez apparently can’t make heads or tails of the White House’s Iran policy. If sanctions got the Iranians to the negotiating table...then why is the White House fighting against a further round of sanctions that would give Washington more leverage? Because it’s part of the Administration’s grand strategy. As Obama explained to David Remnick in a recent New Yorker interview, the goal is to create...

President Barack Obama can be heard whistling moments before a cabinet meeting Tuesday at the White House.

Threatening lawsuits and protests, opponents are gearing up to fight a decision by Okinawa’s governor that could pave the way for a new U.S. military base on the southern Japanese island. U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel welcomed Friday’s decision, calling it “the most significant milestone” so far in a long-running battle to realign U.S. forces in Okinawa. The new base is designed to reduce the impact of the heavy U.S. military presence in Okinawa by replacing another base in a more congested area, but opponents want the operations moved off Okinawa completely. …

United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that his country would continue to support “moderate” rebel forces in Syria, but will withhold non-lethal assistance to the rebels until it can assess who is in control of arms depots and border crossings. According to AFP, Hagel told reporters that setbacks for Syria’s Western-backed opposition are a “big problem” and the United States is assessing the damage. …

The second round of talks between Iran and six world powers - Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany - began Wednesday at the United Nations in Geneva. During the last round of talks three weeks ago, Iran unveiled a general proposal that would limit its nuclear program. Iranian negotiators then said Tehran would be willing to implement the steps as a trust-building measure as the talks toward a permanent solution continued. Last week, teams of nuclear experts from Iran and the world powers met at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to discuss Iran's proposal. Tehran...

The US will fast-track delivery of six V-22 Osprey helicopter-plane aircraft to Israel, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said Thursday in his address to the Anti-Defamation League's centennial conference in New York. NBC News reported that the Pentagon agreed to send Israel the next batch of Ospreys to come off the production line after Israel requested this week that the delivery of the aircraft be expedited amid threats from Iran and Syria. The next group of Ospreys had originally been slated for assignation to the US Marines, a Pentagon official told NBC. "Israel will get six V-22s out of...

The Georgia National Guard this afternoon indicated it intends to ignore a directive from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and will continue to send same-sex spouses of National Guard personnel elsewhere for benefits guaranteed by the Pentagon. Here's the statement received late Friday from Joseph Quimby, deputy director of public affairs for the state Department of Defense: “The State of Georgia does not recognize same sex marriages and is not authorizing the Georgia National Guard to process the applications for same-sex married benefits at state facilities. Any personnel seeking to apply for same-sex married benefits will be referred to federal facilities.”...

- Rep. Duncan Hunter was on with Megyn Kelly again tonight to discuss the fact that Obama and Harry Reid had a change of heart and tonight Obama signed a bill to ensure military families get the death benefits they so deserve. Megyn Kelly made a great point during this, that if it was really a concern for the DoD that death benefits weren't going to be paid out to military families, that they would have come back to Congress 9 days ago and said fix it. But they never did, according to Hunter, who says that someone made a...

<p>SEOUL, South Korea - Pentagon and administration lawyers are looking for ways to expand the number of Defense Department civilians who are exempt from furloughs, amid worries that the government shutdown is damaging U.S. credibility among its international allies, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday.</p>

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel hailed the proposed US attack on Syria as “a bargain.” “The display of force contemplated can be accomplished at a very low cost to us,” Hagel contended. “The millions we'll spend on ordinance and the few casualties we may incur will be a very reasonable price to pay for defending the credibility of the nation's Commander-in-Chief.” “Look, given what's already been said, a failure to carry through with at least an air strike would make the President appear as a blow-hard issuing empty threats,” the Secretary added. “We are confident that the American people...

Secretary of State John Kerry revealed that Arab countries were offering to bear all the financial costs of unseating President Assad if the United States took the lead on military action during Wednesday’s House hearing on the Obama Administration’s proposal for Syrian intervention. The hearing, held by the House Committee of Foreign Relations, hosted Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey to provide testimony on the Administration’s proposed resolution to use military force against the Assad Regime for its use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians....

Syria's butcher Bashir Assad could end up toppling British Prime Minister David Cameron and not the other way around, while also giving Russia a big boost back on to the Great Power stage and green lighting Tehran's most ambitious and sparky plans in its mountain tunnel complexes. Along the way he has exposed President Obama as feckless and fearful. The president and his team are scrambling to remind lawmakers of what the Commander-in-Chief ought to have long ago argued to the country: When the good guys blink, the bad guys notice. Lots and lots of blinking. Most of the people...

The Obama national security team that wants to go to war with Syria and demonizes President Bashar Assad is the same group that, as senators, urged reaching out to the dictator.As a bloc on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, President Obama, Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Vice President Joseph R. Biden all opposed the George W. Bush administration’s playing tough with Mr. Assad. None grew closer to Mr. Assad and promoted him in Washington more than Mr. Kerry.“President Assad has been very generous with me in terms of the discussions we have had,”...

Either Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has some interesting superstitions regarding his wardrobe and Middle East invasions, or he was on his way to an open-bar boat naming party when President Barack Obama called in his National Security Council:

Secretary of State John F. Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel are scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senate aides said Monday. The appearance by Kerry and Hagel will be one of the most public parts of an intense lobbying effort underway by the Obama administration to garner congressional support for a resolution authorizing U.S. military intervention in Syria. The lobbying campaign includes in-person briefings for lawmakers, phone calls and meetings at the White House.