Set The Direction

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who’d know a thing or two about dysfunctional national-security teams, is arguing quite strongly that Obama needs to be vocal about setting the direction:
[He is]  making what is, I think, an important point — if Barack Obama wants, as it seems he does, to appoint a national security “team of rivals” then he [...]

How To Deal With Iran

Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has a few pointers on handling the Iranians, among them:
Washington should refrain from making any grand overtures to Tehran that could redeem Ahmadinejad’s leadership and increase his popularity ahead of the country’s June 2009 presidential elections. Since assuming office in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has used his [...]

Gates Stays

It’s all but official now that Robert Gates will be staying on as secretary of defense after Obama takes office.:
[Senior adviser David] Axelrod said Obama enjoys and invites strong opinions and there will be no “potted plants” in his Cabinet. 
Gates has been negotiating with Obama emissaries over his deputies — some will be retained, and some [...]

Ahoy, Galrahn

Galrahn weighs in with a provocative analysis of the situation at sea around the Horn of Africa and declares that the USN’s approach is working precisely because it’s encouraging other counties to deploy ships and work together:
The US policy has been to do nothing and allow the development of an international response. We are witnessing [...]

Closet Enemies

The NYT looks at Obama’s diplomatic challenges vis-a-vis Pakistan. They don’t seem to get that the army there sparked the terrorism related to Kashmir, or that it’s hostile to us because we won’t side with Pakistan against India. But the Pakistanis have a few blind spots too:
Exhibit A for the Pakistanis is India’s nuclear deal [...]

Supply Issues

The US is trying to find new supply routes into Afghanistan because the Taliban and their friends are causing trouble for convoys on both sides of the Khyber Pass:
A week ago, a bold Taliban raid on a NATO supply convoy on the Pakistani side of the pass forced authorities to temporarily close traffic through Torkham [...]

Buy Them Off?

Naval War College faculty member Nikolas K. Gvosdev has an idea for dealing with the pirates:
It is interesting to note that the historical comparison with the Barbary Pirates gives us both models–force and accommodation. President Washington, for instance, did negotiate tribute arrangements to protect American shipping. Even after the “shores of Tripoli” incident, the U.S. would [...]

Al-Qaeda PR Department

Our old friend Ayman Zawahiri certainly showed himself fit for a KKK grand dragon’s robe with his offensive, race-based characterization of the president-elect. But I’m afraid commentators like Evan Kohlmann who are predicting blowback are a tad optimistic. Zawahiri is an Arab nationalist who cares little for how his words play outside of the Arab world. [...]

Pirate Petri Dish

Josh Marshall, no military guru he, is nonetheless onto something as he looks briefly at the piracy situation:
Historically, the rising incidence of piracy has frequently, if not always, been a sign of the receding reach of whatever great power has taken on responsibility for policing the sea lanes. The decline of the Hellenistic monarchies in [...]

Brainwashed

American Prospect offers a look at the development of counterinsurgency doctrine. Some of the analysis is highly debatable. One particularly interesting tidbit is that defense guru Edward Luttwak favors junking the Afghan war for reasons and in favor of a strategy I agree with:
“What the fuck are we doing there?” he asks. “Much better to [...]