I assume we'll be closer to an answer when I get up.The North Korean news agency KCNA says its country has successfully conducted an underground nuclear test."Our science research section has safely and successfully conducted an underground nuclear test on October, 9," it said.It added that there was no leak or danger from the test.There are no more details at this stage.The South Korean News Agency Yonhap is also carrying reports that Pyongyang may have carried out the test.Neither US intelligence sources nor South Korean defence officials can confirm at this stage that a test has taken...

Feeling safe? You shouldn't-- its the threatdown!I'm teaching a National Security Policy class this semester, and last week our topic was Threats. The assignment that day was for each student to write a Threatdown--an ordered, annotated list of the top 10 threats facing American.Two things struck me in reading the threats my students identified.First, most--like on the order of 60% - 70%--were non-state threats. Things like Global Warming, Pandemic Disease, Natural Disaster, Economic Collapse, Oli, and Global Terrorist Networks figured prominently in many papers. Of the states that did...

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and publicly post a response to a debate that I've been having with a friend on email for a while now. Moreover, I'm going to go even more out on a limb and argue, well, you saw the title. The beauty of a blog.Background: What got this started was my earlier post where I concluded that withdrawal from Iraq was the least-bad option. My friend replied, yes, but isn't that just leaving a mess that will do further, future damage? In a way, he echoed David Ignatius's point:Many Democrats act as if that's the end of the discussion: A mismanaged occupation has...

The ongoing VDH war at Lawyers, Guns, and Money has, at least for the moment, degenerated into an exercise in CV parsing. No. I'm not joking. The question: does Rob Farley's status as an Assistant Professor at the University of Kentucky automatically make his arguments concerning President Carter's defense policy less compelling than those of someone who is a Professor Professor Emeritus at Stanford Senior Fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, a former Visiting Professor at Stanford, and a Professor Emeritus at CSU-Fresno? Here's a multiple-choice version:A. Yes. If someone is at Stanford...

All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets. -Matthew 7:12What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. - Talmud, Shabbat 3idI have little to add to the cogent analysis of those who still believe in the bedrock principles of the United States. The bill that passed the Senate, by definition, establishes tyranny. Not the kind of tyranny that settles like a haze over our daily lives or leaves us, like subjects in a totalitarian state, afraid to speak our minds. This is...

This looks like an amazing major. Check out the Department and the course offerings.Note the disclaimer. And take a look at the markup.Thanks to Alex M. for bringing this to our attention.Filed as: miscellany

There are about 5 things I want to write about, maybe I'll have the time to get to some of them this weekend-- Iraq, the NIE (though Dan has a nice post on it), what in the world was Musharaf doing on the Daily Show....But, I can't resist yet another Defense Spending post....This one from the F-22 files (and yes, its also an excuse to post a cool picture).Congress just voted to buy way more planes than the Administration wants, adding Billions of dollars of defense expenditures to the budget when the Military already has heavy demands on its budget for weapons, personnel, and ongoing...

Steven Taylor approving quotes James Joyner's dismissal of the ruckus over the NIE:One would be remiss for failing to note that these are the same intelligence agencies who failed to predict the Iranian Revolution, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the war in the Balkans, Pakistan’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons, the 9/11 attacks, London bombings, Madrid bombings, and other major events. Or that they opposed the Iraq War to begin with and that this finding vindicates their position.But did the intelligence agencies fail to predict everything on...