Sun Tzu

August 14, 2024 | Clifford D. May |

Taiwan, under the guns

The most powerful Communist regime ever threatens its democratic neighbor

August 9, 2024 | Peter Doran |

Why Ukraine’s Kursk incursion may be a game-changer for Putin

Ukraine has launched a major military operation to stab, grab and hold territory inside Russia. The move is historic, marking the first time since World War II that the armed forces of a sovereign country...

August 14, 2023 | Elaine K. Dezenski, Ted Shepherd

The Corruption War: Russia Is Losing The War For The Same Reason It Started It

On Feb. 21, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin cited corruption as a motivator for his decision to invade Ukraine.  While complaining about Ukrainian corruption in his televised speech on...

January 28, 2023 | Dr. Georgianna Shea, Annie Fixler

If China Cracked U.S. Encryption, Why Would It Tell Us?

Assuming the math works (which it doesn’t), why would China sacrifice significant strategic advantage for academic bragging rights?

February 20, 2022 | Behnam Ben Taleblu, Saeed Ghasseminejad

Making Sense of Iran’s Three-Pronged Nuclear Fork In The Road

US officials have deployed an impressive array of metaphors over the past 10 months – from dwindling patience, to a diminishing runway, to a closing window – to describe the Biden administration’s...

April 12, 2021 | David Maxwell |

Anticipating the Biden Administration’s New North Korea Policy

The heart of the administration’s new Korea policy will likely focus on implementing the relevant UN Security Council resolutions to achieve North Korea’s verifiable nuclear dismantlement.

September 2, 2020 | Cleo Paskal |

Protection from China’s Comprehensive National Power Requires Comprehensive National Defense

Those trying to describe China’s strategy often invoke the two-thousand-five-hundred-year-old Art of War. But some more recent sources might be helpful as well – in particular documents looking at...

August 18, 2020 | Jonathan Schanzer, Mark Dubowitz

The Dangerous Illusion of Restraining U.S. Power

Isolationists among both Democrats and Republicans want to withdraw from foreign entanglements. That would make the world much less safe.

June 18, 2020 | Craig Singleton |

In Confronting Beijing, Let’s Not Hold Ourselves Prisoner to the Cold War

China’s efforts to withhold critically important, time-sensitive information about COVID-19 and its recent provocations in Hong Kong and the South China Sea have gripped Washington in recent weeks,...

February 27, 2020 | David Maxwell |

China’s political warfare strategy takes hit from coronavirus

The Wuhan coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2 as the World Health Organization has named it and the Chinese would prefer it to be called, may be on the verge of becoming a pandemic. If it continues to spread,...

October 23, 2019 | Behnam Ben Taleblu |

Tehran’s tyrants have been provoked

Excerpt “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak,” notes the famed Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops...

November 22, 2017 | Clifford D. May |

The battle for the lands of the caliphate

Soon after taking office, President Trump ordered his national security advisers to provide “a complete strategi...

April 12, 2017 | Clifford D. May |

The (limited) mission accomplished in Syria

If you’re still unsure about whether President Trump did the right thing when he launched 59 cruise missiles at Syria’s Shayrat air base last week, consider the alterna...

August 31, 2016 | Clifford D. May |

Iran and the future of the Middle East

Nixon went to China. Obama will not be going to Iran. The 1972 visit of President Richard M. Nixon to the People’s Republic included meetings with both Chairman Mao Zedong, the com...

June 3, 2015 | Clifford D. May |

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...

June 30, 2011 | Clifford D. May

Self-Deception

When it comes to the jihadi threat, we’re now way beyond willful blindness.

April 6, 2011 | Standpoint

Too Little, Too Late

A no-fly zone over Libya may still turn the tide, lead to the ousting of Colonel Gaddafi and facilitate an orderly transition to democracy led by the rebel forces based in Benghazi. At a minimum,...

June 17, 2010 |

Bon Jovi Islam

We’ve tried “radical Islam,” “extremist Islam,” “fundamentalist Islam,” and “sharia Islam.” Inevitably, political correctness gave us “...

April 15, 2010 | Clifford D. May |

The Obama Doctrine

In recent days, the Obama administration has fired a salvo of national security initiatives: a new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), a new National...

January 24, 2007 | Clifford D. May

Diversity Can Pave the Road Toward Energy Security

You don't have to be a military strategist on the order of Sun Tzu or Carl von Clausewitz to understand this: It is a bad idea to fund your enemy's war effort. But every time w...