North Korea Releases Theme Song for Kim Jong-un

By Harrison Moar, on July 6th, 2012

Via the Guardian, North Korea has stepped up their propaganda game, releasing a new song (music video?), titled “Onwards Toward the Final Victory.” It is unclear what the “final victory” entails, but I hope it at least involves more food.

The video—aside from the substance and what I assume is a most compelling message—presents a fascinating microcosm for North Korea’s stagnant, totalitarian existence. Every aspect of the video makes it seem as if it was produced 30-40 years ago. It is fascinating until you remember that citizens watching this on state TV do not have any alternative viewing options. In . . .
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Leave a comment   Korea   , , ,  

John Bolton: Still Wrong About Nuclear Weapons

By Matt Fay, on September 1st, 2011

Everybody’s favorite former ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, is back with his second op-ed on nuclear policy in as many weeks (h/t Greg Scoblete).  This time, writing in the Washington Times, Ambassador Bolton frets that the Obama administration’s commitment to New START and the negative security guarantees made in the administration’s Nuclear Posture Review are going to make American allies uneasy—despite all available evidence suggesting that they are not.

Apparently Ambassador Bolton is worried that reductions in America’s strategic nuclear arsenal and declarations in the 2010 Nuclear Posture Review that forgo nuclear retaliation against chemical and . . .
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Leave a comment   Nuclear Strategy   , , , , , , , , , , ,  

Using Straw Men and Questionable Strategic Assumptions to Defend Profligate Defense Spending

By Hans-Inge Langø, on July 13th, 2011

Max Boot is Unamerican! OK, that might be pushing it a bit too much, but it never ceases to amaze me how weak these so-called hawks think the United States is. Any strategic restraint is a French surrender, and every minor budget cut is a disaster. This blog post could be written about Max Boot just about anytime, but I was particularly inspired to write something today because Boot is at it again. This time it’s ‘weak’ Republicans who are in his sights–Republicans who are considering making substantive, though far from brutal, cuts to defense spending over the next . . .
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Leave a comment   U.S. foreign policy   , , , , , , , , ,  

Wanting it All: The Heritage Foundation’s Flawed Missile Defense Recommendations

By Matt Fay, on May 19th, 2011

The Heritage Foundation has released a new report [pdf] on President Obama’s missile defense strategy by Baker Spring.  Unfortunately, as with most of Heritage’s material on missile defense, Spring’s report has a fatal flaw that makes it unrealistic:  wanting it all.  The strategy proposed in the report goes far beyond what is necessary based on existing ballistic missile threats and is based on technologies that have proved neither reliable nor cost effective.  The report also goes beyond merely honest disagreements about strategic necessities.  It is riddled with factual errors and makes assertions about the Obama administration’s missile defense policy . . .
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4 comments   China, Defense Policy, NATO, Russia, Weapons   , , , , , ,