The notion of a democratized Korean Peninsula with U.S. troops positioned directly along the Chinese border — one scenario in a North Korean collapse — is threatening to China because of Washington’s other moves in the region. The Obama administration, describing the United States as a new “Pacific power,” has in recent months strengthened economic ties with the Southeast Asian countries it once neglected; it has also built relationships with some...]]> Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500

Given all the buildup heading into this week's nonstop summitry on climate change, peace in the Middle East, and the global economy, it's kind of depressing that all three efforts yielded a lot of bold but unenforceable pledges and not much else. (I'm still not buying President Obama's nuclear disarmament utopia, even if he wants to claim victory on that front today.) The standard-issue, let's-agree-to-keep-talking outcome may be underwhelming as far as the future of CO2 buildup and a potential two-state solution, but it was a result that anyone who's not a Jew-baiter or charter-chucker should have seen coming.

But the G-20, which began in Pittsburgh this morning, deserves our...]]> Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500

The more and more I talk to people around Washington these days — fellow security guys, policy consultants, health-care experts, parents — the more I realize that the next wave of the H1N1 virus ("swine flu," if you must) is going to be a bigger deal than even the mask-wearing paranoiacs at the county fair will let on. And the more I pour over the new H1N1 report released to the White House from President Obama's seriously legitimate science-and-technology advisory council, its worst-case scenario seems even more frightening than the one from Stanley McChrystal that landed on his desk yesterday.

The Obama geek panel's "plausible scenario" suggests an early flu season...]]> Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0500

On Monday, the latest video surfaced from Osama bin Laden's longtime deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, featuring his usual sermon on the state of the radical Islamic struggle against the United States. The gist: Al Qaeda is winning hands-down, natch. Trouble is, it's not.