Author Archives: Daniel Gouré, Ph.D.
Defending Taiwan The Hezbollah Way The military balance across the Taiwan Straits appears to be moving inexorably against Taiwan. China continues to expand its array of ballistic missiles pointed at the island. The People’s Liberation Army is rapidly expanding its Navy with five new classes [Read More...]
Defense Business Board Warns DoD Is Heading For Chapter 11 The Defense Business Board (DBB), a panel consisting of senior former defense officials, business executives and economists has just published its study of how the Department of Defense (DoD) can reduce overhead costs and improve business practices. According to the [Read More...]
Obama’s High Speed Train Plan Is A National Security Problem As part of the stimulus package, President Obama provided billions of dollars to develop and operate high-speed passenger rail in the United States. The purpose is to replicate the high-speed rail transportation networks that exist in Europe, Japan and China. [Read More...]
Should Joint Forces Command Be Eliminated? Reports are circulating that the Defense Business Board (DBB), a Pentagon advisory board of retired economic and business leaders, will recommend ways that the Department of Defense can reduce its costs. In keeping with Defense Secretary Gates’ focus on reducing [Read More...]
Taking A Clean Sheet Approach To U.S. Defense Planning The great post-September 11 defense build up is drawing to a close. Over the last decade defense spending doubled. As the threat appears to be diminishing and as domestic economic difficulties loom large there are increasing calls to reduce defense [Read More...]
A Deadline In Afghanistan Is Good, For Us Afghan President Hamid Karzai has proposed a new deadline of 2014 for U.S. withdrawal from his country. The communiqué published this week at the end of an international conference in the capitol of Kabul and attended by Secretary of State [Read More...]
Washington Post Series Criticizing Intelligence Contractors Is Short On Evidence The last two days, Washington has been abuzz as a result of a serialized story in theWashington Post about what is often called the Intelligence Community (IC). The story suggests that the IC is big, expensive, cumbersome and not effective [Read More...]
Small, Modular Nuclear Power Plants Address Future Energy Challenges The Obama Administration has been throwing money at so-called green technologies. Between $80 and $100 billion were included in the 2009 stimulus bill for a wide variety of green initiatives ranging from improving home insulation and high speed trains to [Read More...]
How The Obama Administration Undermines Its War On Terror If we accept the Obama Administration’s characterization of who we are fighting at home and abroad, it is inappropriate to use the military, perhaps even the CIA, to go after them. In a recent interview, Attorney General Eric Holder repeatedly [Read More...]
Sustainable Defense Report Wildly Off Base A recent study by the Sustainable Defense Task Force (which includes prominent intellectuals from the Cato Institute, Center for American Progress and New America Foundation) proposes what it calls a sustainable defense posture that will save around one trillion dollars [Read More...]