PRESS ROOM

Indeed, the U.S. and China can make use of the principle of "win-win cooperation" to lower tensions on the Korean peninsula, diffuse crises and ultimately resolve long-standing hostilities. Presently that corner of the world is the most likely place for large scale warfare that could kill millions while quite possibly involving the use of nuclear weapons. "Win-win" means an outcome good for the United States, good for China and good for both Koreas and Japan, which stand to lose the most if war breaks out... READ MORE »

There is a political myth in Washington that the Senate and House intelligence committees, unlike other congressional committees, have been bipartisan and fair minded in their handling of political matters. Now that the chairman of the House intelligence committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has gone rogue by providing sensitive exculpatory intelligence documents to the President of the United States, the subject of a committee investigation, we are told that the intelligence committee can no longer be considered bipartisan. Well, we learned 25 years ago that the congressional intelligence committees were as politicized as any committee on the Hill... READ MORE »

Less than a week before International Women's day a year ago, Honduran military men trained by the Pentagon burst into her home and assassinated Berta Caceres. Feminist, environmentalist, and anti-imperialist, a charismatic organizer and a staunch opponent of the megaprojects that stole the land and poisoned the earth of indigenous peoples, Berta was the epitome of everything the henchmen of capitalism loathed and feared... READ MORE »

Let’s think about the logic of it all for a moment. The 2016 Pentagon budget came in at just over $600 billion and that royal sum, larger than the combined military investments of the next seven countries, was hardly the full measure of the money U.S. taxpayers spent on what we like to call “national security.” Add everything in -- including funding for the Department of Homeland Security and for veterans affairs -- and you’re approaching a trillion dollars annually, according to the Project on Government Oversight. No other country spends anything faintly like it, which means the United States has a military that, by any normal measure, is unmatched on planet Earth... READ MORE »

President Trump’s choice of H.R. McMaster to replace Michael Flynn as his national security advisor has elicited glowing words and sighs of relief among experienced foreign policy hands and mainstream journalists alike, and rightly so... READ MORE »

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has a well deserved reputation for conspiracy thinking. Presumably he will assume that the U.S. intelligence community, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the former director of National Intelligence, conducted a campaign to force his removal from the Trump administration. Ironically, the Kremlin, which has lived historically in a world of conspiracy thinking, will view the ouster of Flynn as part of a campaign by the U.S. establishment to prevent any improvement in Russian-American relations... READ MORE »

In short, Brexit hurts Britain’s influence, not just in Europe but across the world. While America appears to be disengaged and a bit scary under Donald Trump, and with the threat of Vladimir Putin’s Russia to our security, we need now a sense of common interest with the EU as we head towards even greater disunity... READ MORE »

Daniel May’s essay in the most recent issue of The Nation, “How to Revive the Peace Movement in the Trump Era,” has stirred up a lot of conversation on the left. In the wake of Trump’s election, May argued, “we need a movement that can speak to the anger that so many Americans feel toward the corporate powers that dominate our politics. Such a movement would expose how militarism is not immune to that influence but is particularly beholden to it.” Here we publish responses to May’s argument from five peace advocates.... READ MORE »

The Trump administration on Thursday provided an outline of its first budget, a proposal that will dramatically reshape how the United States spends money on national security and defense. There is no question that the United States’ security spending patterns need to be rebalanced to better address urgent security challenges. The Trump budget will not do that... READ MORE »

U.S. arms sales deliveries jumped to more than $25 billion in FY 2015, increasing the total value of U.S. arms deliveries by at least $5 billion over recent years, according to latest data from several U.S. government reports. The major increase in U.S. arms sales deliveries comes from a relatively new Commerce Department program established in part to help U.S. companies export certain types of military equipment more easily. Some arms industry associations are already urging the Trump administration to further reduce controls on defense companies exporting arms, but it’s too early to tell what specific controls the administration would seek to reduce... READ MORE »

Twenty years ago, Hollywood produced a black comedy, “Wag the Dog,” that involved a sex scandal in the White House less than two weeks before the election. A spin doctor is brought in to distract the public from the scandal by constructing a diversionary war with Albania. When the CIA learns of the plot, it sends an agent to confront the spin doctor, who convinces the agency that revealing the deception would be against the best interests of the United States... READ MORE »

The unanimous rejection of the Trump administration’s efforts to reinstate the ban on travel from seven Muslim countries will lead to the first test between this White House and the intelligence community, particularly the CIA. The three-judge panel indicated that the travel ban did not bolster national security in the United States and that there was “no evidence” that anyone from the seven countries had committed terrorism in the United States. Former intelligence tsar James Clapper has stated that there is no intelligence to justify such a ban. However, the appeals court acknowledged that the president was owed deference on immigration and national security issues, which will compel the White House to tailor intelligence to document a threat... READ MORE »