Articles for Center for a New American Security

WASHINGTON, Aug 20, 2008 (AFP) - The United States has ruled out the use of US military force in Georgia, but the Pentagon will almost certainly be looking for other chess pieces to move to check a more aggressive Russia, analysts say.

NATO foreign ministers strengthened their ties to Georgia and called for Russia to observe a ceasefire and to immediately withdraw its troops, vowing that until it does the alliance “won’t continue with business as usual” in its relations with Moscow.

Whether the next president is named McCain or Obama, he must make clear to Iraqi leaders that the era of unconditional support is over—or risk seeing the recent security gains evaporate faster than a snowflake in a Baghdad summer.

In the next few weeks, Gen. David Petraeus will recommend whether or not to pull more American troops out of Iraq. Lawrence Korb, who helped lead the Pentagon during the Reagan administration, and retired Lt. Col. John Nagl, who helped write the Army's latest counterinsurgency manual, discuss how many troops should leave and how fast.

At first, the cyberattacks that accompanied Russia’s Aug. 8 invasion of Georgia raised the ominous specter of cyberwar. But as the attacks on Georgian Web sites progressed, it became clear they were of little military significance, U.S. Internet security experts and military officials said.

Senior Pentagon officials have prepared a memo for Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ signature that would give U.S. Special Operations Command the lead in overseeing U.S. efforts to train foreign security forces, defense officials tell Inside the Army.

U.S. officials privately admit being concerned that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki has become "overconfident" about his government’s ability to manage without U.S. combat troops, according to an Iraq analyst who just returned from a trip to Iraq arranged by U.S. commander General David Petraeus.

John Nagl, Senior Fellow with the Center for a New American Security, reviewed Bing West's new book, "The Strongest Tribe," in Sunday's Washington Post. Nagl writes, "We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atla

Three senior fellows of the Center for a New American Security, John Nagl, Colin Kahl, and Shawn Brimley, held a press briefing Aug. 13 at the center's headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, in which they recounted their observations on a recent trip to Iraq. The three traveled to Iraq on the invitation of Gen. David Petraeus, received high-level briefings, visited multiple Iraqi provinces, and spoke with a number of Iraqi politicians and citizens, according to CNAS.

Colin Kahl, an Iraq expert at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, said the incident at the school and others were the first evidence of a long-standing fear: that the elections could be sabotaged by parties currently in power. "The U.S. says these elections are essential to get (Iraqis) … who have taken risks and stopped fighting into the political system," Kahl said. "Well, what happens if the political system is rigged against those people? I think some of those

Robert Kaplan is interviewed on the "simmering" Georgia-Russia crisis.

August 14, 2008- Lost in the news cycles of presidential politics, the Olympic Games and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars is a brewing crisis in South Asia. The United States' strategic posture toward South Asia has largely focused on terrorism in Afghanistan and Pakistan and on nuclear proliferation. This approach has largely ignored the historical conflict over Jammu and Kashmir, which has sparked two major hot wars in the last 60 years. Growing unrest in Kashmir is threatening to cause open con

Robert D. Kaplan, Senior Fellow with Center for a New American Security and Correspondent for The Atlantic writes about Burma, "As China and India vie for power and influence, Burma has become a strategic battleground. Four Americans with deep ties to this fractured, resource-rich country illuminate its current troubles, and what the U.S. should do to shape its future."

Robert Kaplan, "The Russian military, having now secured complete control over the autonomous territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, appears increasingly engaged in an assault on Georgia proper. Distinguished commentators and Western governments alike have demanded action and called for transatlantic unity in the face of the Russian assault."

Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier write, "Over the past year, the Bush administration has moved left on foreign policy -- negotiating with governments it previously shunned and abandoning its long-standing preference for unilateral action. Over the last year, the Bush administration has undergone a sort of deathbed conversion to a traditional diplomacy characterized by working with allies and negotiating with enemies. None other than John Bolton, once Bush's UN ambassador and now one of his ha

August 8, 2008- he Iraqi parliament failed to bring the draft election law to a vote today, almost surely dashing the much-anticipated prospect of provincial elections. This is very bad news, and threatens the fragile and reversible security gains seen in recent months.The provincial council elections are seen by many, including the United States, as a crucial step toward reconciliation among Iraq's political factions. The negotiations are being closely watched in the United States, and Preside

According to U.S. intelligence sources, Pakistan's intelligence service provided support to pro-Taliban insurgents responsible for the July 7 bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul, which killed more than 40 people. Shocking though Pakistani involvement may seem to some, it is thoroughly predictable, given the worldview and interests of Pakistan's Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Unless we address what's angering the ISI, we won't be able to stabilize Afghanistan or capture

August 2008 - Michčle A. Flournoy, President & Co-Founder of the Center for a New American Security, is featured in The Washington Diplomat's section, "People of World Influence." Flournoy discusses the president she most admires, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Flournoy told The Washington Diplomat that one aspect of the Eisenhower leadership model she most admires was his commitment to careful planning and rigorous evaluation of policy alternatives. The next president, she said, will need these skill

July 21, 2008- If rising waters and violent storms whipped into oblivion a key U.S. military base on the island of Diego Garcia, would such a catastrophe qualify as a national security crisis or as a climate change scourge? These what-if scenarios help illustrate why any plans to tackle the nations energy security challenges also require a sound strategy for averting the devastating impact of climate change, experts caution. The temptation today is to address oil dependence and climate change as

July 21, 2008- Climate change is a threat to the nations security. Politicians and environmentalists who want to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions pumped into the atmosphere are using this argument to woo conservative skeptics to their side in the ongoing energy/global warming debate. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, is among those who are convinced. Shortly before a recent Senate debate on the issue, he and two retired military leaders held a