Earlier this month, President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced a new U.S. defense strategy, shaped in large part by projected Pentagon budget cuts. According to the New York Times (Elisabeth Bumiller & Thom Shanker, “Obama Puts His Stamp on Strategy for a Leaner Military,” New York Times, 5 January 2012), the new […]
An American activist coalition, War is a Crime, is circulating a petition opposing President Obama’s renomination until he ends the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, reverses a number of draconian war policies, and drastically cuts military spending. The list has grown to include the names of many activists, professors, journalists, and politicians. The petition criticizes […]
On Wednesday, June 23rd, President Obama announced the dismissal of General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal was terminated due to comments reported in an article in Rolling Stone magazine, in which he and his staff insulted Obama’s National Security Advisor and Vice-President Joe Biden and even mocked the President himself. […]
When asked to rate the importance of ten issues, respondents overwhelmingly focused on the environment. “The right to clean water” (91%) and “global warming” (86%) were chosen most often as “very important” topics for leaders to discuss, followed closely by “food security and hunger” (85%) and “global peace and nuclear disarmament” (77%).
The United States and Russia signed the “New START” strategic nuclear arms reduction treaty today in Prague (Peter Baker, “Russia and U.S. Sign Nuclear Arms Reduction Pact,” New York Times, 8 April 2010). Text of treaty (17 pages) Treaty protocol (165 pages) Ceasefire.ca comments on the treaty (bottom line: a modest, but still important, step […]
The United States will reduce the role assigned to nuclear weapons in its national security strategy, the New York Times reports (David E. Sanger & Peter Baker, “Obama Limits When U.S. Would Use Nuclear Arms,” New York Times, 5 April 2010). The Obama administration’s much-delayed Nuclear Posture Review is to be formally released on Tuesday, […]