“New START matters to our security, to the security of the alliance, to the cohesion of the (NATO) alliance,” said Tom Countryman, former assistant secretary of State for international security and nonproliferation,

“Every day that goes by makes North Korea a more dangerous country,” John Bolton said at CSIS. “When does it become too late? Today is better than tomorrow. Tomorrow is better than the next day.”

Severe instability in the national security establishment raises questions not about the president’s policy judgements, but about the government’s ability to plan for and implement those decisions.

The Trump administration has watered down U.S. global leadership to coercive deal-making. The dangerous contours of a world in crisis are now coming into stark relief.

In any post-New START nuclear buildup, Russia will “at least initially” have an edge over the US, says retired Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, former head of Air Force Global Strike Command.

TEL AVIV: The Syrian civil war may seem to be winding down, but Israel is increasingly anxious after Russia’s surprise announcement it will give Syria full control of sophisticated S-300 air defense systems that could threaten Israeli aircraft. That’s not just a theoretical concern, because Israel has been hitting targets linked to Iran and its… Keep reading →

CNO John Richardson said Monday that, essentially, the Persian Gulf deployment was business as usual. “The Abraham Lincoln Strike Group was planned to deploy for some time now,” he told the SeaAirSpace conference.

A White House 180-degree turn on nuclear arms control inflicts whiplash on experts. What is real here?

“For far too long, Russia has violated the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with impunity,” a statement from the White House said. Moscow has refused to admit that it has for years been “covertly developing and fielding a prohibited missile system that poses a direct threat to our allies and troops abroad.”

Shanahan spent much of his first formal (albeit off-camera) Pentagon pressroom briefing as SecDef emphasizing continuity with his ousted predecessor, Gen. Jim Mattis. He made a point of praising Mattis’s National Defense Strategy, America’s allies, and even the press – not exactly favorites of President Donald Trump.