BLOG Post #373: Nuclear Politics: The US-South Korea “Washington Declaration” 5 May 20235 May 2023 The US-Republic of Korea (ROK) alliance began in 1953, at the end of the Korean War. Now seventy years later, President Biden and Korea’s Yoon Suk Yeol met to cement…
BLOG Post #367: Deepening Tensions on the Korean Peninsula Demand New Thinking in Washington 18 Mar 202318 Mar 2023 The Mounting Danger Tensions on the Korean peninsula have reached a new level of intensity. North Korea’s foreign ministry issued a statement Feb. 17 in anticipation of another round of…
BLOG Post #360 The Threat Business: China or Russia? 2 Jan 20233 Jan 2023 Dual Enemies For those in charge of US national security, the central challenge is identifying threats and determining how to counter them. The Biden administration has cast China and Russia,…
BLOG Post #352: Can Russia’s Use of a Nuclear Weapon in the Ukraine War Be Prevented? 13 Oct 202225 Oct 2022 (The podcast of this blog is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/76143/62-on-dealing-with-russia-nuclear-weapons-and-the-off-ramp.mp3) President Biden surprised his top advisers along with everyone else when, at a fundraising event, he referred to “Armageddon” in the…
BLOG Post #338:North Korea: Missiles Over Human Security 24 May 202224 May 2022 Omicron Catches Up with North Korea After having proclaimed for over two years that the country was untouched by the coronavirus, North Korea now faces a potential health catastrophe. Its…
BLOG Post #329: Thinking About the Unthinkable in the Ukraine Crisis 11 Mar 202212 Mar 2022 The audio version is at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/54040/38-thinking-about-the-unthinkable-in-the-ukraine-crisis.mp3 We might be inclined to think that the most urgent decisions on Ukraine have been made: decisions on military aid to the Ukraine government,…
BLOG Post #318: Finding Common Ground with China 18 Nov 202117 Nov 2021 Readers note: An audio version of this blog is available at https://www.podserve.fm/episodes/44104/26-finding-common-ground-with-china.mp3 “It seems clear to me we need to establish some common-sense guardrails,” President Biden told President Xi Jinping…
BLOG Post #301: The Pentagon’s Untouchable Budget 11 Jun 20215 Jul 2021 This post is also available as a podcast at https://www.podserve.fm/dashboard/episode_player_2/33010 Did you really think that electing Joe Biden would mean major reductions in military spending and the shift of Pentagon…
BLOG Post #288: A Progressive Agenda for Biden’s Foreign Policy 27 Jan 202126 Jan 2021 (Note to Readers: This overview of the challenging issues faced by the new administration will be followed by other blogs that examine US policy in greater detail, starting with the…
BLOG Post #257: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 2) 17 Mar 202015 Mar 2020 Getting to Zero Where are the Democrats? Why isn’t the present nuclear danger front and center in the Democrats’ presidential debates? I can think of a few reasons. First, Democrats…
BLOG Post #256: NUKES: The Unmentionable Election Issue (Part 1) 9 Mar 20208 Mar 2020 Overkill More is Better One of these days, national security policy will get a few minutes of campaign debate time. And when that day occurs, perhaps—just perhaps—attention will turn to…
BLOG Post #238: Trump-Kim III: Making History Without Making Progress? 2 Jul 20192 Jul 2019 Taking a few steps onto North Korean soil, and posing for pictures with a friendly dictator, seem to fit Trump-era diplomacy better than a carefully laid out process. But unless…
BLOG Post #231: National Security—A Dangerous Confusion 7 May 201927 May 2019 This blog also appeared in Informed Consent, May 6, 2019, https://www.juancole.com/2019/05/backward-ignoring-interference.html There is a dangerous confusion in US national security policy when evaluating relations with Russia and China. The Trump…
APB APB: Trump and Kim, Act II 28 Feb 201928 Feb 2019 Trump was correct to describe denuclearization last June as a lengthy “process” that one summit meeting could not achieve. However, the second summit, in Hanoi at the end of February…
BLOG Post #223: Happy New Year from Kim Jong-un 6 Jan 2019 Kim Jong-un looked quite cosmopolitan on January 1 as he made his annual New Year’s address to the nation from the comfort of a paneled office, wearing a spiffy Western-style…
BLOG Post #216: A Victory for Diplomacy on the Korean Peninsula 29 Sep 20182 Oct 2018 On September 18 leaders of North and South Korea signed a September Declaration to advance inter-Korean cooperation and the possibility of the North’s denuclearization. Critics immediately dismissed the agreement for…
APB “Gangsterism” or “Progress”? Examining North Korea’s Latest Statement on Denuclearization 9 Jul 20188 Jul 2018 Most US news reports are suggesting that the North Koreans may be backtracking on their commitment to denuclearization,calling the US position “gangster-like” following the visit of Secretary of State Mike…
American Politics and the World… Post #140: The Diplomacy of Donald J. Trump 27 Dec 201627 Feb 2017 Oblivious to Tradition and Good Sense Those of us who appreciate the unconventional have to have second thoughts after watching Donald J. Trump in action. All the more so when…
American Politics and the World… Post #130: Notes from the First Debate 28 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 Now that a few days have passed since the first Clinton-Trump debate, I want to offer a few evaluations. Prior to the debate, pundits said that Trump needed to moderate…
BLOG… Post #129: Carrots or Sticks? Addressing North Korea’s Fifth Nuclear Test 20 Sep 201627 Feb 2017 As many experts predicted, North Korea (DPRK) followed another ballistic missile test with its fifth nuclear-weapon test on September 9. The event continues a pattern of testing increasingly sophisticated weapons…
In the Human Interest - Mel Gurtov 