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  • Asad Under Fire: Five Scenarios for the Future of Syria
    Asad Under Fire: Five Scenarios for the Future of Syria
    Author(s): Melissa Dalton
    Type of Publication: Policy Brief
    Date: 09/10/2012

    The brutal conflict underway in Syria jeopardizes key U.S. strategic interests, but leaves Washington with few attractive options to protect them and little leverage over the future of the country. In Asad Under Fire: Five Scenarios for the Future of Syria, Visiting Fellow Melissa Dalton argues that the United States must prepare for a range of potential future scenarios and implement policies now to mitigate future risks to its interests in the event of a transition of power from Syrian President Bashar al-Asad.

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  • Influence for Sale? China’s Trade, Investment and Assistance Policies in Southea
    Influence for Sale? China’s Trade, Investment and Assistance Policies in Southeast Asia
    Author(s): Shanthi Kalathil
    Type of Publication: Flashpoints Bulletin
    Date: 09/05/2012

    In Influence for Sale? China's Trade, Investment and Assistance Policies in Southeast Asia, author Shanthi Kalathil argues that while China's significant investment in Southeast Asia has improved relations with Vietnam and other Southeast Asian neighbors in some ways, it has proved less effective than is commonly perceived. Kalathil contends that China’s development projects have often alienated local populations, and its nationalistic rhetoric over the South China Sea has increasingly strained its relations with other South China Sea claimants.

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  • The Sansha Garrison: China’s Deliberate Escalation in the South China Sea
    The Sansha Garrison: China’s Deliberate Escalation in the South China Sea
    Author(s):
    Type of Publication: Flashpoints Bulletin
    Date: 09/05/2012

    In The Sansha Garrison: China's Deliberate Escalation in the South China Sea, CNAS Fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro argues that China is conducting a coordinated and deliberate campaign of coercive diplomacy in the South China Sea. Mastro discusses how China's recent decision to build a military garrison in the city of Sansha challenges two key aspects of the conventional wisdom in Washington about China’s South China Sea strategy: that China’s assertive behavior results from actions taken by the civilian and military agencies independently of the central government and that China has been moderating its policies toward the South China Sea since 2009.

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  • Little America, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Afghanistan
    Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan
    Type of Publication: Book
    Date: 06/26/2012

    In Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former CNAS Writer-in-Residence and senior correspondent and associate editor at The Washington Post, discusses the complex relationship between America and Afghanistan reaching back to the Cold War.

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  • Employing America's Veterans: Perspectives from Businesses
    Employing America's Veterans: Perspectives from Businesses
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/11/2012

    Employing America’s Veterans: Perspectives from Businesses provides empirical data representing the experiences of 69 companies of varying size, location and industry.  In this report, authors Dr. Margaret Harrell and Nancy Berglass discuss to what extent, and for what reasons, employers think it is good business to hire veterans.  Additionally, from the experiences of those employers who hesitate or have concerns about hiring veterans, Harrell and Berglass also describe the challenges to veteran employment and make recommendations for policy changes to improve the employment situation of veterans. 

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  • Risk and Rivalry: Iran, Israel and the Bomb
    Risk and Rivalry: Iran, Israel and the Bomb
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/06/2012

    As Iran's nuclear progress continues and negotiations fail to reach a breakthrough, the threat of an Israeli preventive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities grows. In Risk and Rivalry: Israel, Iran and the Bomb, authors Dr. Colin H. Kahl, Melissa G. Dalton and Matthew Irvine argue that despite the abhorrent threats by some Iranian leaders to "wipe Israel off the map," the actual behavior of the Islamic Republic over the past three decades indicates that the regime is not suicidal and is sufficiently rational for nuclear deterrence.

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  • Strategic Adaptation: Toward a New U.S. Strategy in the Middle East
    Strategic Adaptation: Toward a New U.S. Strategy in the Middle East
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 06/06/2012

    In Strategic Adaptation: Toward a New U.S. Strategy in the Middle East, authors Dr. Bruce W. Jentleson, Dr. Andrew M. Exum, Melissa G. Dalton and J. Dana Stuster chart the fundamentals of a revised strategy for U.S. Middle East policy, starting with a reevaluation of U.S. interests and an assessment of the evolving strategic context. The approach they propose is one of “strategic adaptation” to meet immediate challenges while simultaneously responding to regional trends that will affect the region – and U.S. engagement – for decades to come.

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  • America's Path: Grand Strategy for the Next Administration
    America's Path: Grand Strategy for the Next Administration
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 05/31/2012

    In America’s Path: Grand Strategy for the Next Administration, editors and CNAS experts Richard Fontaine and Dr. Kristin M. Lord bring together four strategists - Dr. Robert J. Art, Dr. Richard K. Betts, Dr. Peter Feaver and Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter - with diverse backgrounds and perspectives to advance a common mission of promoting informed debate about America’s role in the world and the best ways to fulfill it.

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  • U.S. military, responsible defense, hard choices, defense budget, strategy
    Sustainable Pre-eminence: Reforming the U.S. Military at a Time of Strategic Change
    Type of Publication: Report
    Date: 05/23/2012

    Maintaining the U.S. military’s global pre-eminence is vital to protecting American interests and promoting American values. However, the Pentagon still has not enacted the types of reforms that are necessary to sustain that pre-eminence into the future. In Sustainable Preeminence: Reforming the U.S. Military at a Time of Strategic Change, CNAS experts LTG David W. Barno, USA (Ret.), Dr. Nora Bensahel, Matthew Irvine and Travis Sharp argue that DOD should organize and operate America’s armed forces in new ways. Click here to read the transcript from the May 29 live web chat with the authors of Sustainable Pre-eminence.

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  • Don't Forget About the East China Sea
    Don't Forget About the East China Sea
    Author(s): Michael Auslin
    Type of Publication: Flashpoints Bulletin
    Date: 05/03/2012

    The East China Sea may be the most strategic location in all of Asia. While the media and policymakers have paid considerable attention to the geopolitical significance of the South China Sea, the East China Sea deserves equal attention. Like the South China Sea, it is rife with contested territorial claims, larger military buildups among the principal players of the region and a geopolitical significance that impinges even more directly on long-standing U.S. security commitments.

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