
Just how tough is it going to be for the Pentagon and other national-security agencies to cut $400 billion from their spending between now and 2023? Those are the marching orders President Obama has given his tea, led by budget-cutting expert Leon Panetta, who has just moved from the CIA to the Pentagon. John Nagl of the Center for a New American Security and your Battlelander discuss the challenge with Dave Barno, retired Army lieutenant general, and Nora Bensahel, a military strategist formerly at the Rand Corp. and now at CNAS.
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When it comes to fingering trouble spots in the arc of crisis that springs from the Middle East and ranges west to Libya and east to India, No. 1 -- with a bullet -- is invariably Pakistan. It's a vexing stew of tribal rivalries, economic stresses, religious hatreds and a perpetual war alert -- perhaps including nuclear war -- against neighboring India. So we wrap up the first week of Command Post with a deeper look into the challenge it poses. Thanks for watching!
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As the U.S. begins pulling troops out of Afghanistan, is Pakistan going to be a help or a hindrance to stability in the region? John Nagl of the Center for a New American Security and your Battlelander discuss the issue with Dr. Nora Bensahel, counter-insurgency expert with CNAS, and Dave Barno, retired Army lieutenant general and commander of U.S. and allied troops in Afghanistan in 2003-2004.
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Since President Obama announced his plan to begin pulling 33,000 troops out of Afghanistan by the end of next summer, there's been a lot of debate over whether this marks the end of a counter-insurgency campaign and the beginning of a counter-terror strategy. Is it really a binary choice -- does it have to be one or the other -- and does it make any difference to the grunts on the ground?
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Here's our second take on President Obama's Afghan policy in our new video series featuring John Nagl of the Center for a New American Security and your Battleland scribe. We're chatting this week with Dr. Nora Bensahel, a noted COIN expert formerly at the Rand Corp. and now at CNAS, and Dave Barno, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan in 2003-2004.
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The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is pleased to announce the launch of Command Post, a new video series from CNAS and TIME. The video series will take week-long looks at key national security issues, with a new angle explored each day in brief video conversations between co-hosts CNAS President John Nagl and TIME national-security correspondent Mark Thompson, and noted defense experts. Command Post will appear on CNAS.org and TIME.com’s Battleland blog.
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On June 23, 2011, CNAS hosted Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead, USN, for a speech on "A Global Navy in a Time of Change."
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CNAS President John Nagl discusses the implications of the Afghanistan troop withdrawal
| more |The "Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Al Qaeda: 10 Years After 9/11 and Beyond," session at the CNAS fifth annual conference featured: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Senior Correspondent and Associate Editor of The Washington Post; Lieutenant General David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Senior Advisor and Senior Fellow at CNAS; Steve Coll, President of New America Foundation; Ambassador Anne Patterson, Former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan; and Bing West, Author of The Wrong War. Watch the video here.
| more |CNAS CEO Nathanial Fick gives opening remarks at the CNAS Fifth Annual Conference on June 2, 2011. Following his remarks is the roundtable discussion, "Reveloution In The Middle East: Democracy In The Digital Domain" featuring: Karen House, Former Publisher of The Wall Street Journal; Andrew Exum, Fellow at CNAS; Richard Fontaine, Senior Fellow at CNAS; Shadi Hamid, Director of Research at the Brookings Doha Center; and Dr. Colin Kahl, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East. Watch the video here.
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