Q1: How did this impasse come about?

A1: In 2006, the United States and Japan reached an agreement on the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, including the relocation of U.S. forces on the island of Okinawa. The latter involved a...

Q1: What were the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, and the new EU high representative for foreign policy, Lady Catherine Ashton, doing in Washington last week?

A1: Unfortunately, the understandable and extensive media...

Q1: What is the London Conference?

A1: It is an international meeting that the British government is hosting, in partnership with the government of Afghanistan and the United Nations. Scheduled for Thursday, January 28, 2010, it...

As Americans we naturally focus on the most direct threats to the United States, and what all too many in the West have seen as a clash between civilizations. It is important, however, to keep what is happening in perspective. The latest State Department report on terrorism...

The Transnational Threats Update is produced by the Transnational Threats Project and provides monthly reports and analysis on terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime, money laundering, and arms trafficking. The newsletter draws on several U.S. and...

Defense systems are rarely acquired rapidly. Even programs addressing urgent warfighter needs, such as countering Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) with Armored Security Vehicles (ASVs), can take years to fulfill.  Yet, some orders are being fulfilled remarkably...

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered an important speech at the East-West Center in Hawaii on Tuesday explaining the United States’ enduring interests in the Asia-Pacific region and the intention of the Obama administration to play a leading role in constructing an...

In the 18 months since Ma Ying-jeou’s inauguration, Taiwan’s relations with mainland China have improved at a rapid pace. The resumption of quasi-official talks between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait has led to a series of landmark agreements. Among...

Nine months after President Obama announced a new strategy in Afghanistan, the US still seems undecided as to how to actually shape and implement that strategy and how to measure its success. President Obama may have made his decisions, but it is far from clear that his...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will visit New Zealand January 15–17, 2010, as part of her fourth visit to the Asia-Pacific region in her first year in office. She will also make a major policy speech addressing Asian architecture for security and trade...

The general judgment of scholars and policy experts is that the United States-Japan alliance has been unsuccessful at thinking innovatively about architectural design and the role of China in Asia.  On the one hand, the United States, unlike China, has eschewed ...

Iran’s apparently clandestine efforts to build a nuclear weapons program are a major foreign policy challenge for the Obama administration. Last year, President Obama challenged the Islamic republic to cease its nuclear program by the end of December or the United...