Given how the US reacted to the traumatic 9/11 attacks -- wars against Afghanistan and Iraq that are still ongoing and adoption of a dangerous public doctrine of "preemptive" action that openly embraces preventive war -- security scholars ought to be thinking seriously about India's possible reaction to this week's Mumbai commuter train bombings. Indeed, this should be a central concern to security strategists as well. Why? Though the Indian...

Foreign Affairs magazine has been running both a print and on-line forum on the future of US policy towards Iraq. If you haven't read it yet, get yourself over there and take a look.In my second experiment in videoblogging, I take issue with Chaim Kaufmann's contribution to the original forum. To be fair to Kaufmann, my response is oriented more towards his broader argument about ethnic partition as a solution to ethno-nationalist civil war...

Israel's graduated "massive retaliation" against the Lebanese government continues.Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut's airport in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. Four dozen civilians had died in the violence following the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, officials said.After warplanes punched holes in the airport's runways just south of Beirut, Israel's army...

My commentary on the unfolding Israeli-Hezbollah crisis. This is a bit rough and a bit long.One of the problems with doing this without a script is that it can be easier to make factual errors. For example, I mention Israeli military capacity in the 1970s even though the invasion of southern Lebanon dates to 1982.UPDATE: my wife is already on my case about moving around too much and about speaking more slowly. I'll correct these problems in the...

I saw two movies recently: Superman Returns and An Inconvenient TruthSuperman was good, summer super-hero action fun, though probably just a bit too long. My favorite part-- the music. They were loyal to the original John Williams score, and really, nothing beats heroic John Williams music.Al Gore's movie was surprisingly good. To borrow from the line from John Stewart, the "film combines the mainstream appeal of climate science with the...

Breaking news (via Chirol), and it isn't good:"At least 20 people have been killed in at least seven blasts on trains in the Indian financial capital, Mumbai (Bombay), police say."If confirmed, these strikes are reminiscent of the Madrid and London bombings. But, as Chirol notes, the added danger of these attacks is that if any links are established between the bombs and Pakistan would likely spark an international crisis between the two...

In the comments section to Peter’s latest post about the after-effects of North Korea’s missile test I noted that I was puzzled as to why China has not done more to compel Kim Jong-Il. Given the steps suggested in Japan recently to shift their defensive posture to one that would operationally and legally allow them to carry out preventive strikes against the North (not to mention grumblings about a Japanese nuclear program) it would seem that...

As the response to North Korea's missile launch last week heats up, its clear that Japan was really spooked by what happened.The AP reports, via ABC news: Japan said Monday it was considering whether a pre-emptive strike on the North's missile bases would violate its constitution, signaling a hardening stance ahead of a possible U.N. Security Council vote on Tokyo's proposal for sanctions against the regime.Japan was badly rattled by North...

In today’s Washington Post Jon Wolfsthal writes that the key to stopping North Korea’s missile program is good old-fashioned deterrence. Wolfsthal writes:"Over the long run, how can Americans be sure that some future "test" missile won't be fitted with a nuclear weapon and targeted on a US city? The short answer is they can't. But through a straightforward policy of deterrence we can eliminate any thought in North Korean minds that they can...

I'm becoming a fan of Amazon's "search inside" feature. Much like Google's variant, it provides a quick way to check the accuracy of citations. But it also can turn up some rather random stuff. Forgotten stuff.Here's Martin Gardner in his collection, Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience:The Skeptical Inquirer published in its March/April 1997 issue two angry letters from readers who accused me of unfair attacks on John Dewey...

I fail to understand why this concept is so hard to get one's head around. Like Steve Clemons says, taking issue with the Iraq conflict (and leaders who supported it)"has nothing to do with being 'anti-war', it has everything to do with being 'anti-Iraq War' and trying to prevent the same kind of dangerous calculus from being followed in the future."Seems pretty simple to me.Maybe we ought to use smaller words to get the point across.Filed as:...

As you've seen and heard, North Korea tested its missiles. They launched the Taepo-Dong 2 multi-stage missile as well as 6 short and medium range Nodong missiles and Scud variants.What first strikes me as interesting about this is the sheer number of missiles launched--7 overall. The first volley included 5 short / medium range missiles along with the Taepodong 2. Then, a few hours later, they fired off a 7th missile, also of the short-range...