The Universal Postal Union sets the rates and regulatory requirements governing the shipment of packages internationally. The Lexington Institute’s Paul Steidler spoke with postal expert Jim Campbell about the organization’s September 24-26 Extraordinary Congress at which the U.S. is pushing for major reforms and threatening to leave the organization if these reforms are not enacted. Mr. Campbell has been an observer at Universal Postal Union meetings for decades. The U.S. delegation to the upcoming Extraordinary Congress will be led by [ Read More…]

The U.S. military has become alarmed by threats to its space systems, and most of the danger originates in China. The Pentagon doesn’t disclose intelligence about the vulnerability of America’s orbital assets or what “counterspace” initiatives it believes Beijing is pursuing. However, it is clear the Air Force is organizing and equipping for a much more robust, resilient posture in space — one that includes both offensive and defensive capabilities. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.

By poking at historical wounds to consolidate domestic support, South Korea and Japan risk more than just diplomacy. The escalation of tensions between Seoul and Tokyo is couched in terms of contested historical memory, but its effects have more direct economic consequences. The collapse of the GSOMIA intelligence pact and a cycle of retaliatory trade restrictions are among the casualties of their diplomatic fallout. Given the growing anger among the electorate in both countries, stoked by incendiary rhetoric and historical [ Read More…]

The Trump Administration has a plan for returning U.S. astronauts to the Moon, and there’s no evidence that Democratic presidential candidates are going to support it. President Obama gutted his predecessor’s effort to do something similar. However, failing to back NASA’s human spaceflight program could sink Democratic prospects in the 2020 election, because U.S. astronauts fly out of Florida, which has has more electoral-college votes than any state other than California and Texas. Sunshine State elections are often decided by [ Read More…]

The U.S. Congress is weary of the heavy lift of postal reform even though a smooth functioning Postal Service is vital to American commerce. Fixing the debt-ridden and chronically troubled government agency with unfunded liabilities of more than $140 billion requires an unpleasant mix of higher prices and reduced service. Nearly nine months after a Presidential task force made sweeping and comprehensive reform recommendations, neither chamber has given birth to a reform bill, or begun the subsequent arduous process to [ Read More…]

The Republic of Poland is rapidly becoming the critical member of the NATO Alliance in its increasing efforts to deter Russian military threats and counter Moscow’s attempts to subvert European democracy. Poland is no free rider when it comes to European security. It is spending more money in terms of a percentage of GDP than most NATO countries. The Polish military has a modernization program underway that over time promises to make it a serious counterweight to the Russian Army. [ Read More…]

Japan’s Ministry of Defense has proposed a 1.2% military spending increase in 2020, taking the annual budget to a record 5.32 trillion yen (about $50 billion). If approved, the budget would mark the eighth consecutive hike in military spending since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in 2012, a clear signal that Japan is slowly abandoning the pacifism of its postwar years. The budget announcement comes amidst a period of fracture in Indo-Pacific diplomacy. Japan is engaged with hostile territory disputes [ Read More…]

There has been a lot of speculation lately about how China’s heavy investment in new military capabilities might be compromising the survivability of U.S. aircraft carriers in the Western Pacific. In reality, though, the carriers are less vulnerable today than at any time since Communists came to power in Beijing. Which leads to a surprising insight: carriers may actually be the most cost-effective tool for deterring and/or defeating Chinese aggression. The total carrying cost of the Navy’s 11 carriers and [ Read More…]

Last year, Congress directed the U.S. government to remove all Chinese-made surveillance cameras from their networks and security systems. Congress and many experts believed that these devices or their components had so-called back doors that allowed the companies that made them, and hence the Chinese government, to collect the imagery. The deadline for removing these cameras was August 13. Now that the deadline has passed, how can we be sure that federal agencies and departments were successful in removing these [ Read More…]

When it comes to China, all Americans should be able to agree that China must do much more to stop the flow of deadly opioids to the United States. This is not a trade issue; it is an issue of basic decency. The President should continue to pound on China to do more. Near term, there are several actions, such as refusing to accept mail and packages from China that do not have advanced electronic data, that the U.S. can [ Read More…]