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The New York Times reported that it required 150 interagency meetings, including 30 by the National Security Council, to produce the new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and START follow-on treaty. Give the guys on the E-Ring credit for holding out as long as they did. In the end, however, the Defense Department was reduced to agreeing to the following extraordinary decisions: c The United States will not design, produce or test any new nuclear weapons. This condemns the nation to relying for the indefinite future (Mr. Obama says for more than his lifetime, and he's a fairly young man) on...

Their assignment: Come up with a national security strategy for the United States. So a group of 15 military officers and government employees at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces studied the issue for months -- and decided that, first, consideration had to be given to the economy, which they found is heading toward disaster, even as the recession eases. The economy, the Seminar 11 group agreed in its report last month, is "the foundation for everything else." With the nation's yearly deficits running at about $1 trillion and the national debt expected to more than double by 2020,...

The United States announced this week a new strategic policy for its nuclear weapons that puts unprecedented emphasis on the nuclear threat from terrorists and rogue states, as opposed to traditional nuclear powers like Russia and China. Some analysts see the new policy as an important step in meeting the changing international situation. But critics call the move reckless and irresponsible. The Nuclear Posture Review - the third since the end of the Cold War - limits the circumstances under which the United States would use nuclear weapons, with a long-term goal of achieving a nuclear-free world. The Obama administration's...

ANNAPOLIS, MD - Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Wednesday that the Obama administration has failed to issue a national security strategy report because the deadline set by Congress "is a completely unrealistic requirement."

SNIP Obama said last month the new plan, delayed by months of internal deliberations, would "reduce the number and role of nuclear weapons in our National Security Strategy, even as we maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent." He now faces the challenge of lending credibility to his arms control push while not alarming allies under the U.S. defense umbrella or limiting room to maneuver in dealing with emerging nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea. SNIP

Spencer Ackerman has offered a thoughtful response to my earlier post on the lack of strategic thinking emanating from the Obama Administration and his comments give me an opportunity to clarify my thoughts. Spencer, perhaps in a glass half full sort of way, sees a method to the Obama Administration's madness, but I think he tends to place far too much on emphasis on words rather than actions. One can certainly argue that Bob Gates has talked about re-calibrating civilian and military elements of national security, but if you read between the lines what you might actually see is a...

There was a pretty interesting article in the Washington Post today about Hillary Clinton's tenure at State Department and it pretty much confirmed my suspicions about our Secretary of State - she's a great public diplomat and administrator, but not much of a strategic thinker. As Stewart Patrick noted, she struggles with priorities and questioned whether she has a "grand strategic vision." This was basically part of the deal when Obama picked her; Hillary would serve as a great "face" for America to the world; she would invest time and energy in public diplomacy, something that was critically important after...

Why do the United States and its military/political leaders and strategists still languish in failed strategies from World War II to the present? Fact: Jihadists with small arms and IEDS in faraway places cannot harm the United States so there is no reason to order massive armies that require large and extensive bases and massive logistical support to fight them on their home turf. But that is the essence of failed “counterinsurgency” (COIN) strategies that have bewitched US military political leaders. Yes, we have made great and innovative technological advances in weapons systems in the air, sea, and ground, in...

Abstract: The Obama Administration has proposed an FY 2011 defense budget that is inconsistent with U.S. security commitments and the Administration's own Quadrennial Defense Review. Under the Administration's current budget outline, total defense spending would decline from $722.1 billion (4.9 percent of GDP) in FY 2010 to $698.2 billion (3.6 percent) in FY 2015. Inadequate funding will lead to shortfalls in manpower levels, modernization, operational capacity, strategy, and/or force structure, thereby exposing the American people and U.S. friends and allies to an unacceptable level of risk. On February 1, 2010, the Obama Administration released its defense budget proposal as part...

The nation’s main counterterrorism center, created in response to the intelligence failures in the years before Sept. 11, is struggling because of flawed staffing and internal cultural clashes, according to a new study financed by Congress. The result, the study concludes, is a lack of coordination and communication among the agencies that are supposed to take the lead in planning the fight against terrorism, including the C.I.A. and the State Department. The findings come just weeks after the National Counterterrorism Center was criticized for missing clear warning signs that a 23-year-old Nigerian man was said to be plotting to blow...

Barack Obama may be playing defense on the domestic front, but he’s clearly taken the offensive in an area not normally a source of Democratic Party strength — national security and foreign policy. In recent days and weeks, administration efforts have resulted in the deaths of 12 of the top 20 al Qaeda leaders, the result mostly of attacks by pilotless drone aircraft over Pakistan; the capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, number two Taliban boss in Pakistan and leader of the military campaign in Afghanistan; and the launch of a 15,000-troop attack against the principal poppy-rich Taliban stronghold in...

The facts do not suggest that America is any less safe under the leadership of President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday. Powell said that a number of security programs set up under former President George W. Bush, including the Transportation Security Administration, are working well and the U.S. troops are aggressively pursuing the enemy. “I don’t know where that claim comes from,” Powell said. “The bottom line answer is that the nation is still at risk..but to suggest that somehow we’ve become much less safer because of the administration isn’t born out by the facts.”...

The politics of national security has become more volatile lately. Republicans are increasingly emphasizing national security in hopes of electoral gains in 2010. Their push has raised fears that existentially important security issues have become too political for the nation's good. Whether or not that's true, Democrats will have to push back, and liberals are worried that they are struggling. GOP Splitting Congressional Dems from Obama Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent writes, "Congressional Dems have no message or strategy on national security, and they’re getting badly outworked by the GOP on the issue." Republicans have a "very specific strategy" with...

The Obama administration’s latest Quadrennial Defense Review relies on flawed climate science. The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report gives unprecedented attention to the issue of climate change. Previous QDR reports did not identify climate change, global warming, or other environmental issues as major concerns for U.S. security. The 2010 QDR, by contrast, dedicates three of its 105 pages (plus executive summary) to the issue, highlighting it (along with energy) in a section dedicated to its impact on the “future security environment.” All in all, the report mentions “climate change” 19 times. China is mentioned only eleven times, Iran five times,...

Alice, from "Through The Looking Glass" provides insight on Obama's National Security Policy. President Obama and his administration along with the liberals in Congress have only themselves to blame for the uneasiness in the minds of the American people when it comes to national security and battling terrorism. From day one since taking office they have taken a "Tweedledum-Tweedledee", approach to the problem. I have said often that Obama complicates simplicity, and turns the obvious into the ludicrous. It is an understatement to say their logic is flawed. Every action they have taken, from announcing the closing of Guantanamo, right...

President Obama's foreign policy agenda may have "run out of steam" and he must now take risks and provide effective leadership, former U.S. National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said Friday. In an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Brzezinski said Obama's foreign policy agenda is suffering from gridlock in Washington. "I have the feeling that because of domestic problems, he has run out of steam, and I don't know really how determined he is to resume what he started doing so well, which is to engage the world constructively," Brzezinski said. Brzezinski, who is now at the Center for Strategic and...

The Obama administration is aggressively pushing back against Republican criticism of its handling of terrorism suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, sharpening a partisan debate about national security policy, which is likely to be a major issue throughout the midterm election year. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs issued a rare point-by-point critique of a statement by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who said Wednesday that "there was no consultation with intelligence officials before the Department of Justice unilaterally decided to treat Abdulmutallab as if he were an ordinary criminal." Gibbs released a list of senior intelligence officials involved in the decision to...

Perhaps I should have subtitled my address "How do you celebrate the first anniversary of the Second Coming?"-- a conundrum that has confounded theologians for centuries. Six months ago, when I was thinking of my subject for this address, President Obama was halfway on his trajectory--downward trajectory--from divinity to mortality. But now that we've arrived at the last day of his first year at precisely the point where the magic has worn off and the charisma grown cold, where Massachusetts--bluest of blue--is even thinking of electing an obscure Republican to the U.S. Senate seat traditionally reserved for the Kennedy family...

Yesterday, the President issued his Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 defense budget request to Congress, and the Pentagon provided the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) to Capitol Hill. The request builds upon last year's defense budget that began to chip away at core defense capabilities. These capabilities should be the mainstays of strategic planning, and include: strategic defense; control of the seas; air superiority; space control; projecting power to distant regions; and information dominance throughout cyberspace. The QDR is intended as a major defense strategy that looks forward 20 years and delineates how the U.S. will structure its armed forces. The QDR...

With the FY2011 budget and QDR expected to be released next week, there is almost no point discussing the speculation beginning to pop up in draft versions the media has obtained. A good example is this Defense News article, which is certainly a topic worth diving into - if we weren't only a few days from seeing the real thing. I am one of those who believes this QDR will end up prompting more questions than answers. Over the last several years, those in defense policy have continuously stressed the environment of uncertainty. It has left me with the impression...