Kim didn’t wait for the inauguration, announcing last week that the United States remained his country’s “biggest enemy” and that his government would not give up its nuclear arsenal.
Jan 1, 2021
While the future is always unknowable, in Japan a darker uncertainty than usual hangs over the year to come. Much of the anxiety emanates from the COVID-19 pandemic, a virus that poses profound challenges to a society that privileges person-to-person connections and uses those networks to make critical distinctions between insiders and outsiders. COVID-19 has also magnified developments and accelerated trends both internal and external that work against Japan, exposing weaknesses and vulnerabilities.
The future need not be bleak, however. Japan could use this year to prepare for inevitable changes in domestic and foreign affairs and better position itself for that world. It is unlikely to do so.
Dec 22, 2020
David Cornwell died last week at the age of 89. As John le Carre, Cornwell transformed the spy story. His New York Times obituary credited him with “Cold War thrillers [that] elevated the spy novel to high art by presenting both Western and Soviet spies as morally compromised cogs in a rotten system full of treachery, betrayal and personal tragedy.”
Le Carre’s “heroes” were the antithesis of the spies who dominated the popular and cinematic imagination. They weren’t cartoon action figures, whose shot and chaser was a bullet and a beverage. Instead, explained the Times, they were “lonely, disillusioned men whose work is driven by budget troubles, bureaucratic power plays and the opaque machinations of politicians men who are as likely to be betrayed by colleagues and lovers as by the enemy.” While le Carre gets the credit, other writers Len Deighton (my personal favorite) and Brian Freemantle, to name two created similarly cynical, rumpled
Dec 15, 2020
The U.S. Congress last week passed the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The NDAA is blithely referred to as the defense budget, which it is and a whole lot more. Given the partisan divisions that ensnare most everything in U.S. politics and the readiness of virtually all small-government conservatives to fund the military, the legislation has been increasingly festooned with security-related initiatives. The 2021 bill is no exception.
This year’s NDAA includes the Pacific Deterrence Initiative (PDI), which while a virtual drop in the budget $2.2 billion in a $740.5 billion package is a potentially big deal for regional security. Used properly, the PDI would confirm the U.S. commitment to the defense of the region and significantly strengthen the military’s ability to deter adversaries and maintain the peace. “Used properly …”