As President Obama has hastily drawn down forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to meet arbitrary timelines, he has taken the opportunity to ramp up rhetoric on a strategic military shift to the Asia–Pacific region. He recently made it clear in the new defense strategy guidance that military focus will be directed toward emerging threats in […]
Iranian Ambassador to South Korea Ahmad Masoumifar on Wednesday said there is a high demand for Iran’s crude oil supplies and Tehran has no problem maintaining exports. Masoumifar also shrugged off Iran’s shrinking pools of customers, saying “we (Iran) are producing about 80 million barrels [of oil] and there is demand for about 90 million.” […]
To assume that Iran will not close the Strait of Hormuz is to assume that primitive religious fanatics will perform cost-benefit analyses the way they are done at Wharton. They won’t, especially if the oil that is their life’s blood is threatened. If Iran does close the strait, we will fight an air and naval […]
The elections in Taiwan are over and incumbent president Ma Ying-jeou has won a second and final term of four years. In addition, his Kuomintang Party (KMT) preserved its legislative majority. In the post-election aftermath, attention shifts from who will win and by what margin to the question of what these elections meant. While President […]
Washington on Thursday placed sanctions on three companies from China, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates for selling refined oil products to Iran, AFP reported. The Treasury placed sanctions on Zhuhai Zhenrong Co. of China, which it called the largest supplier of refined petroleum products to Iran, the report said. The sanctions came a day […]
President Obama’s new national defense strategy is a budget-driven exercise masquerading as a strategic plan, writes Heritage’s Kim Holmes, former Assistant Secretary of State, in The Washington Times. In trotting out the new strategy, President Obama said the “tide of war is receding.” Accordingly, U.S. forces will “no longer be sized to conduct large-scale, prolonged […]
The new US defense review combines politics, economics and ideology. The decision to make cuts in the US military forces will obviously appeal to President Obama’s base. Obama has announced that the US is ending a decade of war and is effectively going to concentrate on rebuilding the United States domestically. The administration has renounced […]
U.S. intelligence agencies forecast beyond the next five years any possible threats to US interests. Robert Gates, serving as U.S. secretary of defense, noted two months into NATO’s intervention in Libya, “If you’d asked me four months ago if we’d be in Libya today, I would have asked, ‘What were you smoking?’” The U.S […]
The Japan India summit has concluded with both sides boosting security cooperation and Japan helping India out economically. This is what emerged from a joint statement by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh. The two leaders announced said that the Maritime Self-Defense Force and the Indian Navy will conduct joint exercises […]
At The Heritage Foundation, our experts work tirelessly to produce relevant research on the big policy questions facing Congress. This year was no different, and Members of Congress, their staff, journalists, researchers, and Heritage members and readers turned to our experts for their analysis. Listed below are the top 10 papers of 2011, covering everything […]
