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GLOBAL STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT, 2009: 

AMERICA'S SECURITY ROLE IN A CHANGING WORLD

Assessing Complex Regional Trends

Chapter 12:  "East and Southeast Asia"
by Phillip C. Saunders

One critical foreign policy challenge for the
Obama administration will be dealing with a more
powerful China that generally behaves in a restrained
manner and seeks to reassure its neighbors of its
good intentions, while simultaneously developing
advanced military capabilities and expanding its regional and global influence. The United States should
welcome restrained and responsible Chinese behavior,
but must also recognize and prepare for the more
complex policy challenges a strong China will pose.
A more powerful China will have a major impact on
Asia-Pacific security and create new challenges for
U.S.-China relations.  Learn more.....

 

(Dr. Phillip Saunders is the new Research Director of INSS, and Senior Fellow overseeing the Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs.)



    Chinese President shaking hands with Japanese President
Chinese President Hu Jintao (left) with
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda
during Hu's visit to Tokyo, May 2008. 
Kyodo via AP.
 


Strategic Forum 250              
 

Strategic Forum 250

"North Korea: Challenges, Interests, and Policy" 
by James J. Przystup

North Korea poses two distinct but interrelated challenges. The first is external: the challenge posed by its nuclear weapons program and the threat of proliferation off the Korean Peninsula. The second is essentially but not wholly internal: the challenge posed by the pending transfer of power in Pyongyang and potential for instability as the process plays out.....it is the threat, if not the reality, of North Korean instability that ranks among the most complex of contemporary challenges to international security


Learn more....




European Voice News 




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Commentary, Leo Michel, Senior Fellow

"A general to politicians' rescue?"
by Leo Michel

The EU's top military man has an idea that could help move the Union and the broader transatlantic community towards their civilian and military goals. General Henri Bentégeat suggested the EU should create an integrated civil-military ‘command centre'....His proposal of a civil-military command centre offers a compromise that key EU leaders may be ready to accept.

Learn more.....


  
 

Los Angeles Times




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OP-ED  Leo Michel, Senior Fellow

"Keeping our allies on our side in Afghanistan"
by Leo Michel and Robert Hunter

The U.S. must be willing to listen to those nations that are sharing the risks...Bravery is not an American monopoly. Most allies report many soldiers volunteering to return to Afghanistan despite the increased violence. A Canadian officer who lost his leg in a roadside bomb attack in 2007 recently returned to Kandahar, in his words, "to do good."

Learn More...



Strategic Forum 249     

Strategic Forum 249

Burma in Strategic Perspective: Renewing Discussion of Options
Lewis M. Stern, George Thomas, and Julia A. Thompson

U.S. policy has sought to nudge the junta in Burma toward a more reasonable approach to its dilemma, either in the form of managing Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest in a semitransparent fashion, allowing the release of imprisoned prodemocracy activists and the National League for Democracy cadre, agreeing to visits from United Nations special representatives, or accepting regional advice and guidance at critical moments. But Burma is a minuet dramatizing the “one step forward, two steps backward” description of progress. Even as the administration of President Barack Obama commits itself in principle to reaching out to Burma, events conspire against another effort to coax the junta toward a reasonable, regionally acceptable solution to its hard edge.   Learn more...


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Strategic Forum Afghanistan Dr. Lamb           

Strategic Forum 248

Unity of Effort: Key to Success in Afghanistan
Christopher J. Lamb, Ph.D. and Martin Cinnamond, Ph.D.

The U.S. Government strategy for success in Afghanistan unveiled by President Obama on March 27, 2009, emphasized a classic population-centric counter-insurgency approach. Now, however, that strategy is being reconsidered. The latest INSS Strategic Forum by Christopher J. Lamb and Martin Cinnamond, “Unity of Effort: Key to Success in Afghanistan,” makes a contribution to the ongoing debate over U.S. strategy for Afghanistan.  It argues: 1) unity of effort is a more important strategy variable than resources; 2) the counterinsurgency mission conflicts with and should take precedence over the counterterrorism mission; and 3) inadequate unity of effort within special operations has contributed to civilian casualties that cripple public support for international forces. Finding the Obama administration efforts to improve unity of effort laudable but insufficient, the research concludes with recommendations that support and extend the initiatives the administration has taken to date.  

Learn more.....


Strategic Forum 247              

Strategic Forum 247

Radicalization by Choice: ISI and the Pakistani Army
Robert B. Oakley and Franz Stefan-Gady

The Pakistani army and the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate remain essential for the security and stability of Pakistan. Both organizations have deliberately embraced Islamic radicalism as a means to address the conventional military gap between Pakistan and India....Despite U.S. pressure and appeals, Pakistani support has lacked the scope and intensity desired by the United States....Optimists describe Pakistan as a transitional democracy; pessimists call it a fragmented state. 

Learn more.....


JFQ        

 JFQ Article - Dr. Richard B. Andres, Energy Chair

Energy and Environmental Insecurity
by
Dr. Richard B. Andres

Energy has become one of the most pressing problems in national and global security. Over the last decade, significant increases in the price of oil have weakened the global economy, contributed to a sharp rise in global food prices, and transferred trillions of dollars to autocratic oil-exporting regimes....  

Learn more...
                                                                                                          

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   Vehicle in Iraq after roadside bomb       

 Photo: US Army (Ronald Shaw, Jr.)                          

JFQ Article - Dr. Christopher J. Lamb, Senior Fellow

MRAP's, Irregular Warfare, and Pentagon Reform
by
Christopher J. Lamb, Ph.D., Matthew J. Schmidt, and Berit G. Fitzsimmons 

"Mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles offer an excellent case study for investigating the current debate over the Pentagon’s emphasis on developing and fielding irregular warfare capabilities. The debate was highlighted by a series of recent articles in Joint Force Quarterly,1 including one by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who cited the slow fielding of MRAPs as a prime example of the Pentagon’s institutional resistance to investments in irregular warfare capabilities."

Learn more......                                                                      

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