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1. Defense Monitor, Volume XXXVII, No. 3 - May/June 2008

Publication Date:
05-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
On July 1, 2008 when France assumes the European Union (EU) presidency for six months, one of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's top priorities will be the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). According to Le Monde, Sarkozy is planning a "Saint-Malo (B)" – a reference to the Anglo- French declaration signed on Dec. 4, 1998, relaunching movement towards an EU defense capacity, and leading eventually to the birth of ESDP.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, War, and Counterinsurgency
Political Geography:
Europe and France

2. The Defense Monitor, Primed and ready

Author:
Philip E. Coyle, Whitney Parker, Bruce Blair, and Brian Ellison
Publication Date:
05-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
American And Russian political rhetoric attaches the highest priority to imposing ironclad control over their nuclear arsenals. The two nations cooperate extensively and devote substantial resources to achieving this aim, but both nations are shooting themselves in the foot by allowing hoary cold War priorities to take precedence. The anachronistic mind-set of the cold Warrior still dominates their nuclear establishments, their agendas, and their relationship in ways that deeply undermine their efforts to contain “loose nukes.” They spend 25 times more money to preserve their c old War nuclear deterrent postures than they spend on shoring up security against theft.
Topic:
Arms Control and Proliferation, Cold War, and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, America, Europe, and Asia

3. The Defense Monitor, U.S. Missile Defenses in Europe: The Putin Alternative

Author:
Philip E. Coyle, Whitney Parker, Theresa Hitchens, and Richard May
Publication Date:
07-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
At the G-8 Summit in early June, the difficulties and complexities of proposed U.S. missile defenses in Europe were on full display. In the weeks preceding the G-8 Summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin had set the Bush administration – and the world – back on its heels with talk of Russian missiles aimed at Europe in retaliation for proposed U.S. missile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic. This set the stage for what the Bush administration thought might be a G-8 confrontation over its proposed missile defense system. Then, on June 7, Putin proposed a smart missile defense technical and policy solution that the Pentagon should have thought of first: establishing a missile defense radar site at the existing Qabala early warning radar station in Azerbaijan.
Topic:
Defense Policy and Nuclear Weapons
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

4. East of the Middle East: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and U.S. security implications

Author:
Tim Murphy
Publication Date:
12-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
The war in Afghanistan represented an eastward shift in the United States' international focus. Previously concentrated on the Middle East, the United States has reconfigured its foreign policy directives to include interests east of the Middle East. The shift was long overdue. Central Asia is a rising regional security concern, and Chinese and Russian actions therein have cultivated robust political ties. Resulting cooperatives and agreements promote Chinese and Russian regional objectives. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) originally consisted of five Central Asian and Asian countries (the Shanghai Five), ostensibly to unify signatories on economic, social and political platforms. However, the SCO is often a proxy to advance Chinese and Russian interests.
Topic:
Security and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Political Geography:
Afghanistan, Russia, United States, China, Europe, Middle East, and Asia

5. Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1998-2005

Author:
Richard F. Grimmett
Publication Date:
11-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
This report is prepared annually to provide Congress with official, unclassified, quantitative data on conventional arms transfers to developing nations by the United States and foreign countries for the preceding eight calendar years for use in its various policy oversight functions. All agreement and delivery data in this report for the United States are government-to-government (FMS) transactions. Some general data are provided on worldwide conventional arms transfers by all suppliers, but the principal focus is the level of arms transfers by major weapons suppliers to nations in the developing world.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Arms Control and Proliferation
Political Geography:
Russia, United States, Europe, and Asia

6. The Defense Monitor: Give Iraqis a Government Worth Dying For

Author:
Chet Richards
Publication Date:
10-2005
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
There is a principle of engineering that says that when what you're doing isn't working, and trying harder makes the situation worse, you may be solving the wrong problem. With the attacks on London proving that occupying Iraq is not making the world safer, it is time for a radically new approach.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Government, Terrorism, and War
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Europe, Middle East, and London

7. The Defense Monitor, Challenging Conventional Threat

Author:
Rachel Stohl, Victoria Samson, Marcus Corbin, and Tomas Valasek
Publication Date:
12-2004
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
This issue of The Defense Monitor presents several of the projects currently underway at the Center for Defense Information, and describes how the work of CDI is making a difference, inside and outside of Washington, D.C. Of the many and varied CDI initiatives, highlighted here are projects on several of the hot topics of the day: the arms trade, small arms and light weapons; security cooperation with Europe; missile defense and space weapons; and, the war in Iraq, the size and shape of the military, and the role of Congress in overseeing and ensuring national security. At a time when too often public debate is cut short and poorly informed, in these and other areas CDI continues to supply the independent information. Its well-grounded analysis, and creative solutions are vital to help policy-makers make sound choices, and to support a healthy discourse on important national security issues affecting the nation and the world.
Political Geography:
Iraq, Europe, and Washington

8. A Swift, Elusive Sword: What if Sun Tzu and John Boyd Did a National Defense Review?

Author:
Chester W. Richards
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
What kind of question is: “What if Sun Tzu and John Boyd did a National Defense Review?” Sun Tzu, if he existed at all, has been gone some 2,500 years. The late Col. John R. Boyd, U.S.A.F., while intimately involved in fighter aircraft design during his active duty years, wrote practically nothing on hardware or force structure after he retired, when he created the strategic concepts for which he is best known today.
Topic:
Foreign Policy and Defense Policy
Political Geography:
United States and Europe

9. The Defense Monitor: Nuclear Recollections

Author:
Bruce Blair
Publication Date:
04-2003
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Center for Defense Information
Abstract:
Rear Adm. Eugene (Gene) Carroll, our beloved colleague who passed away this February, often shared with me his recollections of the role he once played in planning for nuclear war. As quoted in his obituary in the Washington Post, Gene once wrote: “During the horrible confrontation with the Soviet Union we called the Cold War, I frequently stood nuclear alert watch on aircraft carriers. For a period of time my assigned target was an industrial complex and transportation hub in a major city in Eastern Europe … My bomb alone would have resulted in the death of an estimated 600,000 human beings. Multiply that by 40 or 50 times and you can understand what two carriers alone would have done.”
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, and Cold War
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Soviet Union