Gary J. Schmitt testifies before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on security issues in Europe and Asia.
It has become a Washington commonplace that the federal government's fiscal problems increasingly are becoming a strategic problem for the United States.
The United States has no choice but to become more involved in conflicts abroad. Given the crisis in the Middle East and disaster in Japan, cutting defense and military spending is the last thing America should be doing.
China's military buildup will likely incur greater costs down the road for both the United States and its allies.
America's freedoms aren't in danger from Islamists, but we can't ignore Islamist influences on Muslim-American organizations.
The US has been slow to meet the challenge of China's growing economic and military power, and key allies have questioned whether or not the US will ever be able to step up.
Any prudent U.S. policy would recognize that abandoning Taiwan is highly unlikely to lead to greater stability in the Asia-Pacific region.
In an effort to create competition for the US Air Force's tanker fleet, Congress ended up reducing market freedom and delaying the process, adding to costs.
With popular revolts toppling long-standing Arab dictatorships, Obama wants to know why the intelligence community was once again taken by surprise.
After nearly five years of Taiwan trying to procure more than five dozen F-16s from the US, it's time to move on.
Britain is modifying its counterterrorism laws, but they continue to reflect the serious threat of terrorism.
National defense is one indispensable task of the federal government--and indeed a principal reason why the Founders felt the need to replace the Articles of Confederation with the Constitution.
The budget submitted to Congress today by the Obama administration includes significant cuts to the Department of Defense that appear divorced from America's current strategic reality.
The FBI during the Obama Administration has stopped many would-be attacks, but it is still a work in progress.
Preventing future terrorist attacks from Islamic radicals depends on the willingness of the local Muslim communities to turn in their neighbors they suspect are up to no good and the police's ability to use undercover assets.
In the name of Muslim unity, many Muslim-American leaders and organizations have been less than coherent when it comes to violent extremism.
China has increasingly stepped up its game in the air supremacy race, America needs to respond.
The Medium Extended Air Defense System should be terminated in favor of investment in the Patriot Missile Air Defense System.
Achieving formal recognition for ROTC on elite campuses will be an important victory. It will reduce many of the administrative hurdles and eliminate some of the more backhanded arrangements the various universities created to justify their acceptance of ROTC dollars.
Do conservatives just want to cut government willy-nilly, not only reducing its overall size but endangering its ability to carry out its proper functions?
The debate in Washington about reducing America's deficit is gathering steam and there are increasing calls to make deep cuts in the defense budget.
Before taking a further hatchet to defense, Congress could make a more serious effort to reverse increases in domestic spending put in place by the Obama Administration.
By making the most significant cuts in military spending since the end of the Cold War, Britain's military capability will matter less because it will be less, which means Washington's attention span will undoubtedly be less.
If America's allies want a say at the table when it comes to security matters and, more importantly, want to be listened to, they cannot assume that the United States will always pick up the check to maintain global order.
AEI Online
September 30, 2010
This report from the AEI Program on American Citizenship investigates what our schools are teaching today about citizenship, based on the views, thoughts, and frontline observations of our nation's high school history and social studies teachers.
What comes across time and time again is that domestic politics overrides President Obama's responsibilities as commander-in-chief, and Bob Woodward's latest book may confirm that winning the war seems to be the last thing on the president's mind.
From 2001 until now, both the United States and its allies have taken an economy of force approach to the war in Afghanistan, as there have never been enough forces to defeat the Taliban and stabilize the country.
Our military, including its leadership, should reflect that we as a nation are at war, which is healthy for our Armed Forces and for the civic life of our country.
Preemption is the key to keeping Americans safe from future attacks, so President Obama should point to the successes of the counterterrorism policies that he has continued from his predecessor.
While there has been growing pressure within Congress to cut defense spending in order to control an exploding deficit, the United States needs a military at least as large as the one it currently employs if it hopes to retain its long-standing posture of global leadership.
Chronic underfunding of core defense capabilities will cause the United States to inadvertently slip into a posture of strategic retrenchment.
Britain has been successful at preventing another major terrorist attack since the suicide attacks in London on July 7, 2005, but there is an ongoing debate in Britain about amending, or doing away with altogether, some of the counterterrorism authorities that have been put on the books since 2005.
Taiwan is about to deepen economic ties with China. With good reason, critics worry they're constructing a one-way bridge.
The United States is at a critical juncture with defense resources, but the Obama administration is mistakenly choosing to cut the defense budget, which will lead to a declining American role in the world.
A new book by Gabriel Schoenfeld thoughtfully outlines the tension between a free press and government secrecy and the importance of preventing the press from revealing real, necessary secrets and endangering national security.
While federal spending must be reduced, spending on the U.S. military must be increased to maintain the military as the preeminent global force that it is today.
Barack Obama is repeating the same error with Dmitry Medvedev that George W. Bush made with Vladimir Putin by trusting that a personal relationship with a Russian leader is a sufficient foundation for U.S.-Russia relations.
Despite Russia's willingness to support Iran's nuclear regime, the Obama administration has happily turned the other cheek toward Moscow.
Unconventional gas could free the European Union from dependence on Russian gas supplies.
Marc Thiessen's book, Courting Disaster, is the most detailed and comprehensive brief of the CIA terrorist detention and interrogation program to date.
The German government has slowly begun to accept the reality that to save Afghanistan from the return of Taliban rule some real fighting will have to take place.
Defense dollars will be the real test of whether there is an Obama doctrine that is more than just words.
The United States needs to look for ways to maximize its influence in the Asia-Pacific region through region-wide forums and institutional arrangements, especially given the rise of a still-autocratic China.
President Obama's speech in Oslo makes sound arguments about the need to use force at times for the purpose of maintaining peace. The problem is, his examples are either simply wrong or, at best, dubious.
We are in bad need of intelligence reform, but Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, is too far removed from the agencies that might need changing.
This year's report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission includes a new section on the PRC's efforts to control "information" about China, both inside its borders and abroad.
The Obama administration hopes to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world and achieve global nuclear disarmament.
In little over a week, a modern French warship is scheduled to visit St. Petersburg. Should the sale go through, it will be the first ever arms sale of its kind to Russia from a NATO member.
The Constitutional Presidency
October 29, 2009
At a time when presidential powers of war and peace are under scrutiny, it is useful to look back at the nation's first national security crisis and examine how Washington exercised those authorities in the face of that crisis.
Is President Obama's foreign policy toward Asia radically similar--or radically different--from that of previous administrations?
The Constitutional Presidency
September 9, 2009
Something important is missing in our treatment and understanding of the constitutional presidency, something that a careful analysis of Article II can help us uncover and recover.
Gary J. Schmitt reviews The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking, edited by Paul Dragos Aligica and Kenneth R. Weinstein.
How will a sea change in Japan's politics affect U.S.-Japanese relations? A bumpier road for sure, but opportunities as well.
A new study examines the efforts by British and Spanish governments at reconciling their own insurgencies to the existing political order.
AEI Online
August 3, 2009
This report is designed to help generate serious reflections on how best to preserve the ROC's own accomplishments as a people and a government and to enable it to choose its own future as free of coercion as possible.
While the Pentagon is being told to shut down programs, the Obama team is encouraging the rest of government to spend like drunken sailors.
Although there are many reasons for the existence of the "special relationship" between Washington and London, the cornerstone of that relationship from its first days has been shared "hard power" in the areas of intelligence and defense.
The Obama administration, in an effort to "hit the reset button" when it comes to relations between the two countries, has in fact hit the delete button when it comes to ties with friends and allies in the region.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates's new budget will leave us weaker to pay for the president's domestic programs.
Lower expectations regarding Afghanistan would lead to lesser results.
Defense programs have been conspicuously absent from all the talk of economic stimulus in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
In times of war, when U.S. security is threatened, presidents typically push their executive powers forward. This is something the Founders surely understood.
The Bush administration released a new set of attorney general guidelines for the FBI's domestic operations.
There are plenty of soft-power tools at hand for making Moscow pay a price for its actions in Georgia.
The United States should rush military and medical supplies to Tbilisi and aid Georgia.
A great movie like High Noon can still raise important questions and make us more reflective and better citizens.
Two recent books on American foreign affairs suggest that a dramatic shift in U.S. national security policy come January 2009 is both imprudent and unlikely.
The Bush administration blocked a major arms deal to Taiwan, effectively strengthening Beijing's influence in the region.
Yes, Ronald Reagan wanted to rid the world of nuclear weapons, but he was a stickler for verification.
The U.S. military has adjusted its tactics to become an effective force in Iraq and has been more successful with the implementation of the surge.
France is the world's most sophisticated practitioner of counterterrorism. TheUnited Statescan learn from her experience.
Do not look now, but our planes are falling out of the sky.
Celebration in Washington over the January 2008 election results for Taiwan's legislaturewould be premature.
AEI Online
January 9, 2008
Can crisis management literature help us prepare for managing a potential crisis between Taiwan and China?
A personalaccount of what really happenedin the story of Charlie Wilson's War.
Due to its failings, theForeign Intelligence Surveillance Act should be ammended tomaintain proper checks.
France's counterterrorism efforts are the most effective in the world. The United States would do well to adopt some of France's strategies.
President Bush has more options in Iraq than people think.
The UN breaks its own rules--again.
Is American foreign policy marked more by continuity or change, by hegemony or balancing?
China's behind-closed-doors military buildup reveals the full extent of its great power ambitions.
A new Senate Intelligence Committee report on prewar intelligence on Iraq is misleading and based onfaulty analysis.
Amidst tense relations with both the United States and mainland China, Taiwan picks its presidential candidates.
China stands poised to challenge U.S. primacy in the coming years.
A debate on the wisdom of global primacy.
The number of soldiers in the U.S. Army, both active and reserve, will continue to be a critical determinant of America's ability to win future wars and, above all, the peaces that follow them.
Taiwan views itself as less and less "Chinese," but Beijing does not take kindly to the distance.
The European reaction to Iran's nuclear threat could prevent the United Statesand Israel from attacking.
A more pro-American France--a surreal idea for many foreign-affairs practitioners in Washington--may not be that far off.
Would Seoul behave differently if Asia, like Europe, had a regional security organization committed to the survival of freedom and democracy?
AEI Online
October 31, 2006
Our military commitments demand substantial increases in defense spending.
Conventional wisdom misreads the nature of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nationalism and the positive effects it could have on Asia.
Conventional wisdom misreads the nature of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's nationalism and the positive effects it could have on Asia.
As close as Polish and American relations are, Washington has been a bit slow to see that maintaining the relationship will require more effort on its part.
Washington has a vital interest in encouraging Taiwan to improve its defensive capabilities.
Treating the talks with North Korea as virtually an end in themselves has accentuated China's role in the region at the expense of our most important Pacific ally, Japan.
Chinese banks have become the world's largest ATMs for China's political and business elite.
If the British public wants "greater assurance against the possibility of attacks,""some increase in intrusive activity by the UK's intelligence and security Agencies is the inevitable consequence."
A review ofLawrenceFreedman's Deterrence.
Gary Schmitt examines the concept of China's theory of "peaceful rise."
AEI Online
April 13, 2006
There are steps Washington and its allies can take to significantly reduce the problems of energy security and national security associated with America's growing dependence on natural gas.
Even while attention was focused on the more positive theme of US-India relations, a potential new crisis was brewing elsewhere in Asia, this time around Beijing and Taipei.
A book review of Robert Lieber's, The American Era: Power and Strategy for the 21st Century.
Doing business with Beijing is one thing; allowing China to borrow and steal the technology that keeps us pre-eminent globally is just bad business.
Obviously there is no neat solution to the problem of power and responsibility.Oursystemis the worst possible solution--except for all others that have been tried.
Even as federal courts balance Fourth Amendment rights with security imperatives, they have upheld a president's "inherent authority" under the Constitution to acquire necessary intelligence.
Financial Times
December 5, 2005
The best thing Japan's friends can do is support the country's efforts to play a bigger role on the world stage--including its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
The 9/11 Commission's legacy when it comes to intelligence analysis may be much different from what the Commission intends.
The Future of American Intelligence
November 1, 2005
The idea that the Chen administration is not serious about defending Taiwan is largely a tale told by sinologists andofficials who wantan excuse for the problemof Taiwan to go away.
The United States is at a strategic crossroads when it comes to China, and not the other way around.
In light ofthe ongoing development of China’s military power,removing an outdated restriction on defense cooperation with Taiwan is a sensible step to take.
On his visit to China, KMT chairmanLien Chan will be discussing mattersthat fall clearly within the authority of the democratically elected government of Taiwan president Chen Shui-bian.
If we can provideIraq with security, Iraq has a good chance of creating a decent, representative government that takes its responsibilities at home and abroad seriously.
Does the United States have the right military strategy in place to defeat what its own generals admit is an increasingly sophisticated insurgency?
Are we willing to face the fact that most terrorism consists of acts of war being waged by identifiable nations?
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