Features

The Quadrennial Defense Review must stimulate long-term change

The report summarizing the work of the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review will be sent to Congress on Feb. 6. I’ve spent a lot of …

This month’s AFJ marks an initial appearance on these pages by Michael Vickers, whose primary paycheck comes from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C., but whose background makes …

The emergence of a new front in the war on terrorism

Although the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan after Sept. 11, 2001, did not start the deterritorialization of al-Qaida, it certainly accelerated the …

For alliance solidarity. AFJ understands that NATO is supposed to be a big, happy and victorious family in Afghanistan, but sometimes the truth intrudes. The Dutch, for example, are complaining that this …

For not being “an institution at war.” Our reporting here is anecdotal, to be sure, but the pile of war stories is immense from soldiers and commanders deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan …

What does China’s economy mean for U.S. strategy?

Did you know that 220 billion text messages were sent over mobile phones in China last year? Or that one in 10 American jobs …

Is private management of big defense programs out of control?

The U.S. military foresees a future where its enemies are watched by a network of sensors that feed targeting information to a …

Middle Eastern Islam, Darwin and terrorism

As the Christmas holiday approached, it was time to talk about terrorism. I spent part of a December afternoon in a sterile conference room symbolic of …

A stronger Taliban lies low, hoping the U.S. will leave Afghanistan

For the 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the appearance of victory could be a recipe for defeat. American commanders in Afghanistan …

In what we are still prone to call the “post-Cold War period,” Americans continue to have a difficult time sorting their way through first-order strategic questions. At the same time, there is …