“So let us today drudge on about our inescapably impossible task of providing every week a first rough draft of history that will never be completed about a world we can never really understand.”
Philip Graham,
Former President & Publisher
The Washington Post
By James Kitfield Last September the terrorist group al-Shabab came out of the shadows in Somalia to launch a coordinated assault on an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people and wounding many more…
By James Kitfield As the ink dries on the historic “first step” agreement to freeze parts of Iran’s nuclear program, and negotiators prepare for much tougher talks on a comprehensive deal that rolls back Iranian…
Liberal lawmaker Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, and libertarian Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky have apparently found common cause in opposing what they see as unchecked and excessively secret communications intercepts by the National Security Agency that…
“CSIS was founded 1962, the year of the Cuban missile crisis at the depths of the Cold War. Back then the principle measure of strength and vulnerability was nuclear throw-weights and the destructive power of…
The call to the White House situation room at 3 o’clock in the morning reports that Chinese and Japanese boats have collided off a contested island in the South China Sea claimed by both nations.…
“We’re seeing a series of potentially important geopolitical rivalries developing in Eurasia. In my view it’s not so much a matter of connectivity between the Far East and the West…but more a matter of determining…
Projected defense budget cuts of $1 trillion during the next decade are “too fast, too much, too abrupt, and too irresponsible,” said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week at the Center for Strategic and International…
The announcement that 11 of the largest armed factions among the Syrian rebels have united under an Islamist umbrella held aloft by Jabhat al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist group, represents a potential game-changer. The unlikely…
This week Al Shabaab came out of the shadows in Somalia to launch a coordinated assault on an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, killing 67 people and wounding many more in the worst terrorist attack…
Steering the U.S. military through the difficult transition between war and what comes after has historically proven a daunting challenge for Pentagon leaders. After every “war to end all wars,” the American people have demanded…