Missile Defense Briefing Report: No. 288
Moscow strengthens missile shield;
Mapping the Musudan;
Keeping up with the (nuclear) Joneses;
Turkey: the weak link for NATO defenses?;
Rethinking the INF Treaty
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Iran Strategy Brief No. 4: Hezbollah’s Inroads Into The Western Hemisphere
A year after the attacks of September 11th, then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in contextualizing the terrorist threat facing the country, made a telling assessment. “Hezbollah may be the A-team of terrorists,” Mr. Armitage told an audience at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, “and maybe al-Qaida is actually the B-team.” The description was apt, and remains so. With a presence in an estimated forty countries on five different continents, the Lebanese Shi’ite militia represents one of the very few terrorist groups active today that possess a truly global presence and reach.
This footprint extends not only to the greater Middle East and Europe, but to the Western Hemisphere as well. Over the past quarter-century, Hezbollah has devoted considerable energy and resources to establishing an extensive network of operations throughout the Americas. Today, its web of activity in our hemisphere stretches from Canada to Argentina, and encompasses a wide range of illicit activities and criminal enterprises, from drug trafficking to recruitment to fundraising and training.
China Reform Monitor: No. 914
China, HK crack down on triads ahead of University Games;
In Central Asia ethnic tensions flare between Chinese, locals
South Asia Security Monitor: No. 277
JeM making a comeback;
China clears NSG hurdle, will send nuke reactors to Pak;
UN removes Taliban sanctions, but negotiations hit a snag;
Indian gov. under pressure from anti-corruption protesters
How To Help Sink Assad’s Syria
On August 18th, after months of dithering, President Obama finally took a firm stand on the unrest roiling Syria when he announced that “the time has come for President Asad to step aside.” By doing so, the United States has belatedly brought itself in line with the growing number of nations that have abandoned the Syrian dictator as a result of the brutal five-month-old crackdown he has waged against his own people.
But, now that America is well and truly engaged, is there anything that we can actually do to speed Assad’s ouster? In point of fact, there is. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the United States has at least two means at its disposal to pressure the Syrian government—if only it possesses the political will to use them.