New Pentagon Manual Declares Journalists Can Be Enemy Combatants
The Pentagon’s new thick book of instructions for waging war the legal way says that terrorists also can be journalists. The description appears in a 1,176-page, richly footnoted “Department of Defense Law of War Manual” that tells commanders the right and wrong way to kill the enemy.
The Grand Dilemma: What Is the Most Dangerous Threat to America?
From ISIS and Iran, to China and Russia, which threat should America focus on? In formulating its defense policy, the United States has to face four separate security challenges simultaneously: China, Russia, Iran, and Sunni jihadism. This is very different from the Cold War era when…
America’s Return to Iraq
President Barack Obama’s decision to increase the number of American troops on the ground in Iraq, and to base them in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, has sparked wide discussion. In the United States, the public debate has turned to the lessons of Vietnam, where incremental deployments led to…
The Kurds Are Building a Country With Every Victory Over ISIS
Syrian Kurds take a town 30 miles from the ISIS capital, but their goal of their own nation complicate the fight Ethnic Kurds—who on Tuesday scored their second and third significant victories over ISIS in the space of eight days—are by far the most effective force fighting ISIS in both…
U.s. Says Drone Killed an ISIS Operative
An American drone strike last week killed a midlevel operative with the Islamic State who had been a conduit for the militant group’s outreach to extremists in North Africa, Defense Department officials said on Monday.
U.N. Report on Gaza Finds Evidence of War Crimes by Israel and by Palestinian Militants
A United Nations Commission of Inquiry on last summer’s war in the Gaza Strip — taking pains to be evenhanded — found that both Israel and Palestinian militants were responsible for violations of international law that could amount to war crimes. But each side interpreted the commission’s long-awaited report according to its…
Toward a New Foreign Policy
Despite glimmers of hope — a tentative nuclear agreement with Iran, for one, and a long-overdue thaw with Cuba — we’re locked into seemingly irresolvable conflicts in most regions of the world. They range from tensions with nuclear-armed powers like…
The Geopolitics of American Global Decline
For Professor Alfred McCoy, the United States continued their naval power strategy as the world has changed. Now China is building land traffic corridors. Inevitably, Washington will lose its advantage over the rest of the world.
David Cameron’s Victory and Bahraini Fiscal Reform
As he basked in the glory of an unexpectedly strong victory in the 2015 UK General Election, Prime Minister David Cameron could reflect upon an especially rare occurrence: the incumbent party strengthening its Parliamentary position after a first term.
French Worries Over Islamic State Point to Syria
Six months after the Jan. 7 attack on the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, Paris remains a city on guard. Black-uniformed military police of the Republican Security Companies patrol tourist sites with submachine guns. Museums, concert halls and even bookstores funnel visitors through…
