Maritime Security

Artful balance: The future of US defense strategy and force posture in the Gulf

By Bilal Y. Saab and Barry Pavel

A strategic review of US defense strategy and force posture in the Gulf is long overdue. In Artful Balance: Future US Defense Strategy and Force Posture in the Gulf, Bilal Y. Saab, Resident Senior Fellow for Middle East Security at the Atlantic Council’s Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, and Barry Pavel, Vice President and […]

Admiral Locklear Discusses the Future of Asian Security

Not only a vital driver of the global economy, the Asia Pacific is also the most militarized region in the world, containing seven of the ten largest standing militaries in the world together with five declared nuclear nations. The United States maintains a strong presence within this uncertain and dynamic security environment, and its role […]

The Battle of the Atlantic

By Julian Lindley-French

Winston Churchill said “The only thing that ever frightened me during the war was the U-boat peril”. Last Friday in Moscow’s Victory Park I had the honor of an escorted visit to the Hall of Memory and Sorrow in which 2650 ‘teardrops’ commemorate the 26.5 million Russian war dead. It was a truly moving experience. Here in Oslo […]

Europe’s Defense Double Dutch

By Julian Lindley-French

On this anniversary of the 1940 Nazi invasion of the Low Countries it is perhaps appropriate to consider the state of Europe’s defense. Two events highlighted the essential contradiction between resources and commitments that bedevils European defense.  On 29 April the French published their first defense review in over twenty years.  Full of Parisian sophistry it failed […]

Exercise Joint Warrior: At the Tip of the Spear

By Julian Lindley-French

Exercise Joint Warrior 2013 is certainly Europe’s, and possibly the world’s biggest maritime amphibious military exercise this year, and I am having the pleasure to observe and be sea-sick all over it.

Economic, Not Security Strategy, Key for Stability in South China Sea

By Philip Haxel

For all of its economic dynamism, the regional stability of the Asia-Pacific is increasingly threatened by conflicting claims over small rocks and archipelagos in the South China Sea. However trivial these disputes may appear, a breakout into physical conflict would have massive ramifications for the US economy, as each year 1.2 trillion dollars in US […]

Law of the Sea Tribunal Ruling Muddies the Waters Not Just for Ghana

By Peter Pham

Two months ago, Ghana  struck a blow for both the rule of law and fiscal probity when it detained the storied flagship of the Argentine navy as part of court-ordered relief for the Latin American country’s jilted creditors. Over the weekend a somnolent United Nations tribunal has waded into the controversy with a decision that not […]

China’s Bad Diplomacy

By James Clad and Robert Manning

A joke now making the rounds in Asia asks, “who is America’s most effective diplomat in Asia?” The punch line brings knowing laughter: “‘Mr. Beijing.’ Yes, Mr. Bob Beijing is playing America’s best hand.”