No Win In Syria: We’ll Be Glad To Keep Assad

No Win In Syria: We’ll Be Glad To Keep Assad
No Win In Syria: We’ll Be Glad To Keep Assad

It seems just like old times: the Turk is back in the Levant, Aleppo is under siege, and the ikhwan (Muslim Brotherhood) is dispensing justice. When did it all go wrong?  When the Americans decided the stuttering ophthalmologist wouldn’t play rough like his fighter pilot dad had. As Donald Trump would tweet: Sad! Sadder still is…

Clinton’s Defense Spending: Vague But More Hawkish Than Obama

Clinton’s Defense Spending: Vague But More Hawkish Than Obama
Clinton’s Defense Spending: Vague But More Hawkish Than Obama

This completes our series on the initial defense plans of the major presidential contenders for the 2016 election. Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies will keep his eye on Clinton and Trump’s campaign as we get more details (presuming we do) and analyze them. Read on. The Editor Hillary Clinton really,…

Arab Spring To Paris Fall: A Strategic Shift in the Works

Arab Spring To Paris Fall: A Strategic Shift in the Works
Arab Spring To Paris Fall: A Strategic Shift in the Works

President Francois Hollande of France arrives Tuesday in Washington for talks with President Obama. Top of the list will be how much America is willing to commit to destroying Daesh, the terrorist group we used to call ISIL. Robbin Laird, Ed Timperlake and Harald Malmgren explore in detail what America’s options are, what France wants and…

NATO Wargame Proves Better Networks Needed To Deter Russia

NATO Wargame Proves Better Networks Needed To Deter Russia
NATO Wargame Proves Better Networks Needed To Deter Russia

WASHINGTON: At a recent wargame in Germany, slow communications between the US and an allied unit meant we would have killed our own allies. We saw “what happens when we don’t get it right”  the Army Vice-Chief of Staff said last week. When an allied unit called for artillery support, Gen. Daniel Allyn said that “by the time that…

France, Eager To Boost Exports, Touts ‘Combat Proven’ Gear

France, Eager To Boost Exports, Touts ‘Combat Proven’ Gear
France, Eager To Boost Exports, Touts ‘Combat Proven’ Gear

PARIS AIR SHOW: Crowds thronged around the French Defense Ministry pavilion today, chatting with Rafale fighter pilots and the engineers who helped build the planes. It was a most unusual sight, all those civilians — with a fairly high percentage of women — listening intently to and then chatting with the pilots, who also stood in…

European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook

European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook
European Air Power: A Grizzly Outlook

Douglas Barrie knows aerospace. He was the European mastermind of Defense News when I was editor and now he works for the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies. The core of his job there is analyzing global air power capabilities for IISS’ flagship publication, Military Balance. He’s authoritative. Here he writes about the Paris Air Show and the very uncertain state…

US Flying Blind To Looming Terror Plots

US Flying Blind To Looming Terror Plots
US Flying Blind To Looming Terror Plots

There’s an old trope in intelligence circles that defenders have to be right all the time, while the terrorists only need to get lucky once to execute a successful attack. The knowledge that no one is right all the time makes most counterterrorism experts cautiously pessimistic about the likelihood of another successful terrorist attack on…

Will Syrian Civil War Mark End to American Militarism?

Will Syrian Civil War Mark End to American Militarism?
Will Syrian Civil War Mark End to American Militarism?

This is James Kitfield’s first piece for Breaking Defense since his departure from his award-winning tenure at National Journal. As one of the best defense reporters around, Kitfield’s specialty has always been spotting the big strategic trend first and writing clearly, simply and persuasively about it. Following is a classic example of his work, which…

Sen. Graham Slams Hold On ALL Nominations Til Admin Names Benghazi Folks

Sen. Graham Slams Hold On ALL Nominations Til Admin Names Benghazi Folks
Sen. Graham Slams Hold On ALL Nominations Til Admin Names Benghazi Folks

WASHINGTON: In a broad exercise of the senatorial privilege of temporarily stopping a nomination, known as a “hold,” Sen. Lindsey Graham announced this morning that he will not allow any Obama administration nominations to proceed.until he is told the names of those he calls the “Benghazi survivors.” RT @GrahamBlog: Where are the #Benghazi survivors? I’m…

Nuclear Weapons Critics Suffer Cold War Brain Freeze; Deterrence Works, Argues Top Air Force Official

Before his latest State of the Union speech, President Obama was widely reported to be ready to propose a significant reduction in nuclear weapons. Then North Korea conducted a nuclear test the day before the address. (The photo above shows Kim Jong-Un smiling after his country’s recent successful ballistic missile test.) In his speech, President…

Can NATO Get Its ACT Together? Alliance’s Only US-Based Command Takes On New Role

HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED COMMAND TRANSFORMATION, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: A new era is dawning for NATO — though no one knows quite what it means. Now Allied Command Transformation, the only NATO organization headquartered on US soil, is driving an overhaul of how the alliance trains, strategizes, and shares the burden among its increasingly cash-strapped members in a…

Reagan ‘Would Be Horrified’ By Republicans Who Want To Cut Defense: Kelly Ayotte

Rising Republican star Sen. Kelly Ayotte said her “libertarian” and “isolationist” Senate colleagues who would cut defense spending to help solve the budget deficit have abandoned the principles of conservative icon Ronald Reagan. Speaking at the conservative American Enterprise Institute late Wednesday afternoon, the junior Senator from New Hampshire said that “with the issues that…

Sen. Ayotte Pledges Hold On Amb. Rice Nomination For State

[After meeting this morning with Amb. Susan Rice, Senator Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, spoke to reporters today at a 12noon roundtable at the Foreign Policy Institute’s annual conference, where she promised there “absolutely” would be a hold if Amb. Rice is nominated for Secretary of State — and potentially, a hold on any administration nominee for…

Obama Is Missing in Action So Here’s A Libyan Transition Strategy

Libya has become the Obama administration’s Iraq. Enthusiasm for intervention without clarity of strategy after intervention is common to both the Bush and Obama administrations. What is different is that George W. Bush took ownership of the Iraq crisis; Barack Obama has not. In the Libyan case, the dynamics are occurring in the background of…