Michael Gerson pronounces the Obama Doctrine of engagement DOA: But even lacking an ideology, the administration does have a doctrine. The defining principle of President Obama’s foreign policy is engagement with America’s adversaries. Much of the president’s public diplomacy has been designed to clear a path for such talks — expressing respect for legitimate grievances, [...]

Over the weekend North Korea fired a volley of short range missiles into the Sea of Japan in defiance of UNSC resolutions, heightening tensions between North Korea and its neighbors, South Korea and Japan. The Guardian Council has certified the election results in Iran and President Ahmadinejad and the “hardliners” that he represents seem even [...]

As widely expected, the DPRK fired some missiles on the 4th of July. Apparently, however, they were not aimed at Hawaii. North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day. The [...]

The United States is a very large and diverse country, its people have many differing views as you’d expect in such a country, and, not particularly surprisingly, some of those views are in diametric opposition. That’s particularly apparent in Americans’ views of how we should interact with Iran. Isolationism remains a strong strain of thought [...]

As noted earlier, Michael J. Totten will be on OTB radio in 90 minutes talking about events in Iran and, time permitting, North Korea. He’s mostly blogging these topics at Commentary if you want to catch up on what he’s written. What questions would you like us to ask him?

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be joined by special guest Michael J. Totten to discuss the unfolding events in Iran and North Korea. Please join us. We’ll also be taking calls at (646) 716-7030. Owing to a high [...]

In reaction to yesterday’s UNSC resolution North Korea has vowed to throw off the restraint it has shown so far in its nuclear weapons development program: North Korea has declared it will weaponise all its plutonium stocks and threatened military action against the United States and its allies after the UN security council imposed new [...]

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously today to impose additional sanctions on North Korea: UNITED NATIONS, June 12 — The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Friday to impose a broad range of additional financial, military and trade sanctions on North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests, and called on [...]

Yesterday Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea that the United States would not accept North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons: “We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region — or on us,” Mr. Gates told a major security conference here that [...]

National Security Advisor Jim Jones declared in a speech to the Atlantic Council that the recent testing of a nuclear device and firing of Taepodong missiles by North Korea “are not an imminent threat” to the United States or the regions because “they have a long way to go” in perfecting the technology to weaponize [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler and I will be discussing the latest developments in North Korea, the Sonia Sotomayor appointment, and whatever else comes up. Please join us. We’ll also be taking your calls at (646) 716-7030. You can play the [...]

While we’re on the subject in reaction to North Korea’s nuclear weapons test over the Memorial Day weekend William J. Perry, Brent Scowcroft, and Charles D. Ferguson have an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on reducing the nuclear threat. They note five components for reducing the threat: An effective strategy to reduce nuclear dangers [...]

North Korea has launched a short-range anti-ship missile into the sea and announced that is no longer bound by the 56 year old armistice that suspended the Korean War: May 27 (Bloomberg) — North Korea threatened a military response to South Korean participation in a U.S.-led program to seize weapons of mass destruction, and said [...]

Any number of theories have been advanced for why the North Koreans elected to test a nuclear weapon yesterday. There’s no particular reason for the test to have been conducted for any one reason. It may well have been conducted for domestic political reasons as well as having had the effect of raising the stakes [...]

South Korean and Russian scientists have confirmed that North Korea has conducted an underground test of a nuclear weapon: SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test on Monday, heightening tension in the economic powerhouse of East Asia and prompting U.N. Security Council members to call an emergency meeting. Russia said the nuclear [...]

In an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor Ted Galen Carpenter proposes a solution to our problems in dealing with North Korea that not only shocks me but puzzles me as well: There is a final option that deserves consideration. It would amount to inducing (bribing) China to remove Kim Jong Il’s regime and install [...]

In his column this morning Tom Friedman bemoans the plight of diplomacy in the modern age of piracy: A secretary of state can broker deals only when other states or parties are ready or able to make them. In the cold war, an age of great powers, grand bargains and reasonably solid client states, there [...]

An overwhelming majority of Americans want to go to war with North Korea over Sunday’s missile test/satellite launch, a new Rasmussen poll finds. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of U.S. voters nationwide favor a military response to eliminate North Korea’s missile launching capability. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 15% of voters oppose [...]

North Korea has conducted whatever it was going to conduct and we’re still not sure whether it was a satellite launch or a missile test: SEOUL — North Korea defied the United States, its allies and a series of U.N. resolutions by launching a rocket on Sunday that it said propelled a satellite into space [...]

For the last several months tensions have been mounting over what the North Koreans have said is a satellite launch and South Korea, Japan, and the United States believe is the test of a long range missile. First, word appeared in the South Korean press that the launch was being prepared. Then the North Koreans [...]

North Korea has moved what they have called a satellite launch vehicle and Japan, South Korea, and the United States believe is a long-range missile into position for launching as early as next week. Japan has announced its intention of shooting the missile down should it near Japanese territory. Japan, South Korea, and the United [...]

This morning in an op-ed in the New York Times MIT prof Theodore Postol proposes an approach towards defending against missile attacks from Iran or North Korea that there are reasons to believe would be acceptable to Russia: President Obama has correctly shown skepticism about the missile defense system promoted by the Bush administration: its [...]

North Korea has threatened war if the U. S., South Korea, or Japan were to shoot down its satellite launch which is widely believed actually to be the test of a long-range missile: SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea put its armed forces on standby Monday and threatened “a war” if anyone tries to shoot [...]

The South Koreans are reporting that North Korea is assembling a Taep’o-dong-2 missile for testing some time around the end of the month: SEOUL (Reuters) — North Korea has been assembling its longest-range missile at an east coast launch base and could test-fire the rocket by the end of this month at the earliest, a [...]

What with discussions of whether it would be nice if would-be Obama appointees paid their taxes and which quarterbacks belong in the Hall of Fame, there are some other issues getting short shrift.  For example, as noted over at New Atlanticist, “North Korea about to test a missile that could hit the United States.” The [...]

North Korea is to countries what Alex Forrest was to one-night stands. It will not be ignored: SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea warned Sunday that South Korea’s confrontational policies may trigger a war on the divided peninsula, a message coming two days after the communist country vowed to abandon all peace agreements with its [...]

Barack Obama has been president for more than 24 hours now.  America is once again beloved by one and all.  Hubris and overreach are things of the past, as the inmates of Gitmo have been freed and the troops are all home from Iraq, participating in rebuilding the infrastructure at home.   Or, certainly, change is [...]

In my latest for New Atlanticist, “Preconditions, Preparations, and Posturing,” I argue that Matt Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and perhaps even Nicholas Burns are misreading the now 16-month-old debate over Barack Obama’s pledge to meet “without precondition, during the first year of [his] administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, [...]

North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-Il, has made his first public appearance in 50 days: SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, thought to have suffered a stroke in August, made his first appearance in about 50 days, the state’s media said on Saturday. Last month, U.S. and South Korean officials said Kim, 66, may [...]

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has rejected claims that talks with North Korea about dismantling its nuclear program are in trouble, saying that they are “by no means dead”: NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that North Korea’s actions to reactivate its nuclear plant did not mean an [...]

A North Korean diplomat has announced that North Korea is preparing to restart its nuclear reactor, partially dismantled last year as part of its negotiations over its nuclear program: PANMUNJOM, Korea – North Korea said Friday it is making “thorough preparations” to restart its nuclear reactor, accusing the United States of failing to fulfill its [...]

Speaking of fragility Fox News and Japanese media are reporting that North Korea is reassembling the nuclear facility it began dismantling late last year: WASHINGTON — North Korea, after halting the disassembly of a key nuclear center, is now putting the facility back together in violation of the United States’ conditions for improved diplomatic relations [...]

Said an American politician, speaking to an international audience: “I speak today as both a citizen of the United States and of the world. I come with the heartfelt wishes of my people for peace, bearing honest proposals and looking for genuine progress.” I mean can you imagine? Didn’t this politician know that he was [...]

Readers may be familiar with the Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics (short version: the US can do whatever it wants if it just has even willpower). Now, it appears we can add another member of the Justice League to our understanding of foreign policy. On Friday, author Andrew Klavan had a piece in the WSJ [...]

Christopher Hitchens joins the legions dancing on Jesse Helms’ grave.   Rather than piling on about the racism of a Southern politician whose career began sixty-odd years ago, he instead focuses on Helms’ foreign policy: His chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was a period of national embarrassment and, sometimes, disgrace. The Helms-Burton Act of [...]

The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler and will be joining me tonight to talk about diplomacy in Iran, the dumbing of the presidency, the power of Google, and various other topics. Dumbing the Presidency Google Shuts Down Anti-Obama Blogs Iranian Nukes [...]

John Bolton, President Bush’s former UN ambassador, is not at all pleased with last week’s deal with North Korea on the nuclear stalemate. With much fanfare and choreography, but little substance, the administration has accepted a North Korean “declaration” about its nuclear program that is narrowly limited, incomplete and almost certainly dishonest in material respects. [...]

Kevin Drum awards the world record for fastest flip-flop to Sean Hannity in a show yesterday commenting about the North Korea deal: HANNITY: The news today brings a clear foreign policy victory for the Bush administration. But will the press report it that way? Joining us now for analysis, former ambassador to the U.N. and [...]

North Korea has destroyed the cooling tower at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. In a gesture demonstrating its commitment to halt its nuclear weapons program, North Korea blew up the most prominent symbol of its plutonium production Friday. The 60-foot cooling tower at the North’s main nuclear power plant collapsed in a heap of shattered concrete [...]

The news over the past 48 hours or so about movement in solving the nuclear arms standoff with North Korean has been stunning. Not only is President Bush taking the DPRK off the “state sponsors of terrorism” list but the Kim government has taken major steps to dismantle their program and provide with stringent verification [...]

North Korea gave China the long awaited accounting of its nuclear activities, as agreed in the six-party talks. In return, the US will delist NK as a state sponsor of terrorism and lift some trade sanctions: The United States on Thursday welcomed a long-delayed North Korean account of its shadowy nuclear activities and said it [...]

Matt Yglesias and Charles Krauthammer don’t agree about much but they are in convergence over the origin of Barack Obama’s foreign policy: a gaffe at last August’s YouTube debates wherein he avowed that, if elected president, he would indeed meet, “without precondition … with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.” In [...]

Seen on a beat up Hyundai Sonata driving in to DC this morning: A bumper sticker reading, “Let My People Go! Free North Korean Refugees in China Before the Beijing Olympics.” That’s rather wordy for a bumper sticker, frankly.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is working to change a defense culture that looks too much at fighting the next war to justify expensive, cutting-edge systems that may not be justifiable. Or, as the headline writer of Thom Shanker‘s report puts it, “Gates Wants Weapons to Be Useful in Current Conflicts.” Defense Secretary Robert M. [...]

In the cover story of the new American Prospect, Matt Yglesias describes John McCain thusly: The candidate who, despite his protestations in a March speech that he “hates war,” not only stridently backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq but has spent years calling on the United States to depose every dictator in the world. He’s [...]

“Do satellite photos show Iran ballistic missile facility?” asks a CSM headline. The answer, apparently, is yes. Here’s the photo in question: Can you identify the missile facility? Me neither, aside from the little circle with “CB” in it. Michael Evans of the Times of London, though, says that people who know how to read [...]

Erick Erickson and the gang at Red State join forces with Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi to implore President Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympic opening ceremonies. We know some on the right who tend to view the world mostly in economic terms will disagree with us. Yes, we recognize that China is a large [...]

Richard Cohen sees a lot of parallels between this year and 1968 and thinks the Democrats could easily lose the presidential election. Mostly, he thinks the bitter fight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is hurting the party. But he thinks the Republicans can once again turn the perception that they’re stronger on national security [...]

Richard Fernandez argues that the rioting by Kosovar Serbs was entirely predictable: The wider impact of the Kosovo crisis is the precedent that it sets for many of the “frozen conflicts” of the world, ranging from Azerbaijan to the Basque region. Remarkably, many Muslim countries have refused to recognize Kosovo. And their reluctance is fueled [...]

A joint study of field grade officers by Foreign Policy and the Center for a New American Security finds that the toll of two wars has been a major strain on the American military but that it is not broken and morale remains high. These officers see a military apparatus severely strained by the grinding [...]