News
Search News
In the News
It’s Time for the US to Penalize China Where It Hurts
I think risk aversion partly explains the timid U.S. response to China. In particular, fears of provoking China probably influenced the Obama administration’s decisions.
Several interrelated assumptions underpinned this reluctance to confront China more forcefully. It should be noted that these assumptions informed Obama’s predecessors as well. First, the United States assumed that engagement could coax China into becoming a responsible stakeholder. Second, Washington was convinced that it needed China’s cooperation on a host of global challenges, ranging from climate change to nonproliferation to North Korea. Not surprisingly, preserving stable Sino-U.S. relations was the prime directive while confrontation with China was anathema.
In the News
B-52, B-2 and B-21 Bombers Are Getting Nuclear-Tipped Cruise Missiles
“DoD [Department of Defense] should no longer assume that its strike aircraft will always be able to use short-range, direct attack ‘gravity’ weapons against targets that are covered by advanced point defense systems,” Mark Gunzinger, a former B-52 pilot and current analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said. “This applies across the spectrum of conflict, not just conventional warfare.” Gunzinger notes that even for a stealth bomber, a standoff weapon will likely be a necessity. “Attacking these defended targets will require medium-range standoff attack weapons,” Gunzinger said.
In the News
CSBA’s van Tol on USS John McCain Collision, Preventing US Navy Accidents
Capt. Jan van Tol, USN Ret., senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, says the USS John McCain’s capabilities as a destroyer should have allowed it to avoid its Aug. 21, 2017, collision “even at the last moment,” and discusses its aftermath and how to break the US Navy’s pattern of accidents during an interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian. The interview was conducted at CSBA’s Washington headquarters.
In the News
Bryan Clark: What’s going on with all these Navy collisions?
One grounding might be an isolated incident. Four ship collisions and 17 sailors dead in the span of eight months, that’s a trend. And not a good one. With some insight into what might be going on inside a troubled Navy, Federal Drive with Tom Temin turns to Bryan Clark, former special assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations and now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
In the News
No easy answers for what’s wrong with the Navy
In an interview with Bryan Clark, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, I learned a couple of things. Including that while Navy tradition lays responsibility at the commander’s feet, the move doesn’t fix what’s wrong.
In the News
Trump’s Afghanistan plan to be injected into already complicated budget fight
Kate Blakeley, a defense budget analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said she thought the requested OCO increase would be more like $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion "as soon as the administration has settled on an end-strength for Afghanistan and funded as part of a continuing resolution at the end of September."