New Atlanticist

Cyber-something: It’s Not Cyberwar, Exactly, But It’s a National Security Priority

By Derek Reveron

 With cyberattacks gaining increasing media attention, it soon becomes apparent that our language does not quite match reality. War, for example, is understood to be state-directed violence to achieve political purposes. Adding a qualifier like a “one thousand battle deaths annually” certainly excludes every reported incident of cyberwar, which more closely resembles espionage, sabotage, or […]

Why Mitt Romney Needs a Picture with Lech Walesa?

By Daria Dylla

For his first overseas trip, Mitt Romney chose to visit three countries: Israel, Great Britain and Poland. Whereas choosing Israel and Great Britain did not surprise anyone, there is room for speculation about the decision to visit Poland. 

A Continuing Misalliance?

By Shuja Nawaz

The tattered relationship between the United States and Pakistan has been patched up yet again—with the political equivalent of duct tape. A low-level Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by bureaucrats, not political leaders, to provide a diplomatic fig leaf.

North Korean Makeover: Reminiscent of Post-Mao China

Radical changes are taking place in North Korea. It’s been seven months since the state commissioned new leader Kim Jong-Un, and now the Supreme Leader is challenging military control, exposing the Kim family to the public, and reassessing North Korea’s economic strategy and its approach to external cultural influences. We may be seeing the beginnings […]

Diplomacy Is the Best Tool for Iran

By R. Nicholas Burns

Are we are on a collision course to war with Iran? With negotiations flagging, sanctions inconclusive, and an intransigent Iran speeding boldly ahead with its nuclear enrichment program, the US government appears determined to stop Iran one way or another. My Harvard colleague, Graham Allison, calls it “a Cuban missile crisis in slow motion.” Iran […]

The End of the Old World

By Kenneth Weisbrode

Europe, or rather the idea of Europe, has long been a part of American politics. In fact, Old World/New World distinctions—embodying the doctrine of the two spheres—predate the independence of the United States. Americans for most of their history have been identified—and have identified themselves—in contradistinction to Europe.

How Much Is Enough?

By Harlan Ullman

During the Kennedy-Johnson-McNamara years of the Cold War, the ritualized question over national defense was “how much is enough?” The “how much” referred to what military capability was needed to defend and deter against the Soviet China and Red China, largely measured in numbers of nuclear weapons, and what should be spent on acquiring the […]

Pakistan’s Unfinished Challenges

By Shuja Nawaz

As it completes its 65th year as an independent state, Pakistan faces a host of challenges that only it can resolve, if its people and leaders have the will to do so.