*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on February 19, 2018. It can also be found online here. I love the Olympics, in part because they seem to defy reality as a place where dreams really do come true. But geopolitics doesn’t stop while the Olympics are on – countries always use…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. I think a lot about the Korean peninsula. When news emerges from there, I take note. Like recently, when both the commandant of the Marine Corps and the secretary of defense made ominous statements that signal the serious likelihood of…
*Note: This essay was published in the Colorado Springs Gazette print edition on October 4, 2017. It can also be found online here. A recent Gazette story on the risk of North Korean nuclear weapons included the opinions of a retired Air Force general who minimized the threat, calling it “nowhere near as scary as it was…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the (Australian) Lowy Institute’s commentary and analysis site – The Interpreter. The recent news that two-thirds of United Nations member states negotiated a treaty that bans nuclear weapons was undoubtedly met with enthusiasm in much of New Zealand, which reportedly had a leading role in shepherding the talks…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Last night, HBO aired the seventh season premiere of Game of Thrones—a season for tens of millions of fans to contemplate the looming threat north of The Wall. While a considerable amount of America and the world fixes their gaze…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. What primary capability has each American adversary invested heavily in over the past decade? (Hint: it’s not better bayonets.) Standoff fires of all kinds. Russian long-range artillery. A Chinese carrier-killing missile. Iranian short- and medium-range strike capabilities. And most prominently,…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. He did it. Kim Jong Un defied the world, again. Despite the American warships, despite the Chinese pressure, North Korea’s leader tested another illicit missile. Even if the practice launch “fizzled,” as with gifts, it’s the thought that counts—and in…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. You know there’s a national security problem brewing when in the space of seven weeks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs opines on the widespread challenges North Korea presents, followed closely by visits to South Korea from the secretaries of…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. North Korea’s aggressively destabilizing behavior has hit the headlines again, this time several unannounced, unsanctioned missile tests—part of a national double-time march to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead capable of striking the United States by 2020.…
*Note: This essay was originally published at The National Interest on February 8, 2017. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis spent the tail end of last week in Seoul and Tokyo conferring with allies about the extreme challenge posed by a belligerently nuclear North Korea. When he gets back, Secretary Mattis should provide President Donald Trump with an option to straitjacket…