Barnett on Missile Defense

Tom Barnett is hoping that Obama gently puts the kibosh on the whole missile-defense thing:
The planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe serves no purpose vis-a-vis Russia’s vast remaining arsenal except to provocatively suggest America is aiming to alter the continental correlation of forces — which it can’t.
In reply, Russian president Dmitri Medvedev now threatens [...]

Sarkozy: Not So Fast

If Google’s Russian and Polish translations are to be believed, French President Nicolas Sarkozy wants both the US and Russia to cool it on the whole missile deployment/missile defense front for six months or so. In other words, let’s wait for Obama. He also wants a Euro security conference. The Poles apparently aren’t thrilled by [...]

Preemptive Strike

Noah Shachtman at Wired and the gang at Inside Defense take note of some incoming potshots the USAF general in command of the missile defense program has lobbed at the incoming administration:
Lt. Gen. Trey Obering appeared to take a veiled shot at the incoming national security team yesterday, calling their knowledge about the interceptor effort “dated.”
Fair [...]

Things Settle

Lots of low-level stuff on Georgia/Russia.

The NYT cottons to the cyberwar. Suspects are plentiful, conviction-level proof minimal.
Just like that, the US and Poland do a missile-defense deal. They deny the Georgia fracas had anything to do with it, but no one believes that. The cherry on top is that we promised to help out the [...]