Security & Defense

Talking Tohoku in Tokyo

By Julian Lindley-French

Tokyo. What a city of uber-contrast. A concrete-scape beyond an eye’s leap that crawls and then creeps before eventually soaring and swooping around the old Imperial palace at its heart. This mega-city is periodically punctuated by serene oases of intimate greenery in which water, rock, and flora tease the imagination back toward a Japan long […]

The US-Turkey Missile Defense Agreement

On November 9, the Atlantic Council hosted an off-the-record roundtable discussion with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Eric Rubin and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Space and Defense Policy Frank Rose.

NATO’s New Math: 600, 2012, and 0

By Harlan Ullman

Next May, NATO will have its biannual heads of government summit in Chicago. Few Americans are interested in or know much about NATO these days. Fewer are aware of this forthcoming summit and the crucial challenges facing the alliance and threatening its cohesion. The numbers in the headline — 600, 2012 and 0 — reflect […]

Iran Nuclear Watchdog Details Pre-2003 Weapons Research

By Barbara Slavin

A new report on Iran’s nuclear programme provides substantial evidence that Iran carried out extensive research into how to make a nuclear weapon prior to 2003 but is shaky about how much work has continued. Citing “a wide variety of independent sources”, including material from 10 member states and from a foreign scientist who worked […]

Ripples across the sands: The impact of the fall of Gaddafi on security in the Maghreb and Sahel

By Africa Center

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a panel discussion, “Ripples Across the Sands: The Impact of the Fall of Gaddafi on Security in the Maghreb and Sahel,” featuring remarks by Geoff D. Porter, President, North Africa Risk Consulting, Inc.; Fadel Lamen, President, American Libyan Council; Roger J. Peña, Senior Legislative Assistant for Defense and […]

Iran Nuclear Threat: What’s Next?

By Barbara Slavin

A new report released Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency makes clear that Tehran has carried out extensive research into making a nuclear weapon. But it does not explain what the United States and the rest of the world should do.  The Iranian government, according to U.S. intelligence officials, has not yet decided to […]

Israeli Strike on Iran’s Nukes a Real Danger

By Arnaud de Borchgrave

Iran’s nuclear ambitions predate the clerical dictatorship that overthrew the monarchy in 1979. The late last monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, reached the same conclusion when Britain, in 1968, suddenly relinquished all of its geopolitical responsibilities east of Suez — from Singapore to the Suez Canal, including the Persian Gulf and the oil that then […]