Ashton Carter
The Pyongyang-Tehran Axis
Defying precedent and conventional wisdom, President Trump says he’ll meet in May with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. Mr. Trump wants a sustainable deal that leads to North Korean denuc...
Op-eds
Resolving the Conflict in Yemen: U.S. Interests, Risks, and Policy
Download the full testimony here. ...
Congressional Testimonies
Pentagon Walks Back Promise to Attack ISIS Capital ASAP
Defense Secretary Ash Carter’s claim last week that the assault on Raqqa, the capital of the so-called Islamic State, was “within weeks” was a surprise to the commanders plannin...
Op-eds
Turkey Welcomes US Defense Secretary By Slaughtering US Allies
Turkey struck hundreds of U.S.-backed Syrian rebels Thursday, just a week before a visit by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. ... Erdogan also recently finalized...
Op-eds
Report: Pakistani officials deny al Qaeda’s hostage exchange story
On Sept. 2, The Long War Journal reported on a ...
Op-eds
G.I. Who?
Most military budget reformers focus on the technology and hardware we will need for future conflicts. Few address the military’s most important asset: its people. Over th...
Op-eds
America’s Dangerous Bargain With Turkey
After a year of intense diplomatic negotiations, the Turkish government is now permitting the United States to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, which will allow American aircraft to fly...
Op-eds
If the Kurds Go Broke, It’s Lights Out for Obama’s War on the Islamic State
Here’s a worrying bit of news: America’s best ally in the war against the Islamic State, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), is nearly broke. That’s a major proble...
Op-eds
Gulf States Pledge Forces for Syria, but Challenges Remain
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates made new military commitments this week at a defense summit in Brussels,...
Policy Briefs
Can the Pentagon Still Save the U.S. from Obama’s ISIS Failure?
It's about time. More than three weeks after the massacres in Paris, four days after the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11, and only after he’d completed a foreign jau...
Op-eds
How Turkey’s Porous Border With Syria Ties Into Islamic State Financing
Turkey must “do more within its own territory, so it controls its border, whic...
Op-eds
Bearing Witness To A Nuclear North Korea
It’s a long way from Paris to Pyongyang, but as the world ponders the jihadi attacks on France, let us not lose sight of the menace emanating on the other side of the globe from a nuclear-a...
Op-eds
Obama’s Talk and Putin’s Blitz: A Russian Middle East Coup in Three Acts
In New York, the United Nations is still lumbering through its Sept. 28th – Oct. 3 general debate. But even with today’s declaration by aging potentate Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestin...
Op-eds
A Friend in a Friendly Country: Saudi, U.S. Seek Common Ground
Sitting in the White House Oval Office, King Salman ...
Op-eds
Defeating Civilization’s Enemies
“The enemy has to be defeated,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter last week told American forces stationed in the Middle East. That is a simple truth, one that, regrettably, is...
Op-eds
‘Peace for Our Time’
Banner headlines in a prominent national newspaper read “NUKE DEAL PAVES WAY FOR NEW ERA: Sworn Foes U.S., Iran Aim To Bury Hatchet” — without sarcasm. For critics of the Iran n...
Op-eds
Defense Secretary: Obama Administration Will Not Oust Assad
In an exchange yesterday at a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham asked Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter if he thought that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would remain...
Op-eds
U.S. to Provide Troops, Weapons to NATO for Russian Threats
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday committed U.S. troops and military hardware to NATO’s very high readiness task force, a move designed to both reassure allies and deter Russia from...
Op-eds
Troubled Waters
“Creating facts on the ground” means changing reality through actions rather than diplomacy. China’s rulers have gone further: Over the last 18 months they have been creating gr...