America’s huge budget for electronic reconnaissance might have come in for scrutiny after the Cold War. But the few in Congress who are supposed to watch over the world of spy finance are also big beneficiaries of it.
National Security
Posted inBooks
How We Lost the Peace Dividend
After every previous war, we sent troops home and cut defense spending. The Col War is over, but real spending still runs 85 percent of the Cold War average.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Did the U.S. Military Plan a Nuclear First Strike for 1963?
Recently declassified information shows that the military presented President Kennedy with a plan for a surprise nuclear attack on the Soviet Union in the early 1960s.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Secret Justice: When National Security Trumps Citizen Rights
A series of recent court decisions upholds star-chamber proceedings.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Conversion Then and Now
Turning swords into plowshares requires a plan.
Posted inBooks
Domestic Urges, Foreign Obsessions
Constructive engagement with the post-Cold War world requires both a stronger America and clearer global goals. Domestic reconstruction must be a priority—but beware isolationism.
Posted inAmerica and the World
Collateral Gains
Even before the jubilation in Kuwait City died down — indeed, even before the Gulf War ended in a decisive allied victory — many who warned that the war would go badly were warning that the war’s aftermath would go badly. That is a safe prediction. No one has ever won a nickel betting on […]
Posted inAmerica and the World
Beyond the Guns of August
At this writing, American and Iraqi forces still face each other warily across the Saudi sands. Sooner or later, Iraq will likely have to reverse course. But beyond the question of how and when the immediate military crisis will be resolved, the Iraqi annexation of Kuwait has given momentum to the development of a post-Cold […]