Few sights in Washington are more familiar than an intellectual urging “total war” from the safety of the keyboard…
Mark Episkopos: Joe Biden’s Pick of Victoria Nuland Means Relations with Russia Could Get Worse
Reports of Nuland’s future appointment are sure to come as a source of elation to the government in Kiev. By the same token, they send perhaps the clearest message yet to Moscow that the prospects for meaningful U.S.-Russian rapprochement under a Biden administration appear exceedingly slim.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos: 10 questions Congress must ask secretary of defense candidate Lloyd Austin
Many of Austin’s positions on a wide variety of national security and foreign policy issues have yet to be known.
AP: Russia withdraws from Open Skies Treaty after U.S. departure
Russia said Friday it will withdraw from an international treaty allowing observation flights over military facilities following the U.S. exit from the pact.
Natylie Baldwin: On the new amendments to the Russian constitution
It is important to note the contextual background of law in Russia and the differences as well as similarities compared to what many westerners are used to…
Anatol Lieven: A lesson in cyber spying vs. cyber attack
This distinction is crucial. An attack on the citizens or infrastructure of another state has traditionally been considered an act of war. Actions by the United States, Russia, Israel and other countries in recent decades have somewhat blurred this distinction.
Paul Robinson: Fascist Blindness
Yale historian Timothy Snyder was out banging the fascist drum again this weekend in The New York Times. In the aftermath of the Washington riot by America’s version of the old Russian Black Hundreds, Snyder warns of Donald Trump’s ‘pre-fascism’. This builds on his previous work, which portrays Trump as tool of the not pre- but very genuinely ‘fascist’ Valdimir Putin.
Graham Fuller: Bill Burns, Biden’s savvy choice for CIA Director
A responsible and wise DCI like this is vital if the United States wishes to avoid more foolish and ill-conceived failing policies and military operations overseas. Biden has made a savvy choice.
John Kiriakou: Biden’s Nominee for CIA Director
President-elect Joe Biden has finally named a new CIA director, one of the final senior-level appointees for his new administration. Much to the surprise of many of us who follow these things, he named senior diplomat Williams Burns to the position. Burns is one of the most highly-respected senior U.S. diplomats of the past three decades. He has ably served presidents of both parties and is known as both a reformer and as a supporter of human rights.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: An expert proposal: How to limit presidential authority to order the use of nuclear weapons
In the United States, the president has sole authority to order the use of nuclear weapons, for any reason and at any time. This arrangement is both risky and unnecessary.