WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in a speech billed as all about a new personnel approach for the Pentagon, laid out a clear line in the sand of the temporary islands the Chinese have been building. He reiterated his “deep concern” about  “China’s pace and scope of land reclamation in the South China Sea.” Then he let… Keep reading →

[updated with Adm. Greenert comment] WASHINGTON: While the Navy pivots to the Pacific, the Coast Guard has got their northern flank: the once icebound but now rapidly opening waters of the Arctic Ocean, with its new opportunities for oil, gas, and trade through the fabled Northwest Passage. For the chronically underfunded and “oversubscribed” service, however, the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: At 10 o’clock today, the Administration’s push to pass the Law of the Sea treaty will come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If history is any guide, that’s as far as it will ever get. Committee chairman Sen. John Kerry declined to give odds on ratification, saying that would be “premature”: “I just… Keep reading →

The rare and remarkable case of Bo Xilai, a top Chinese leader embroiled in a corruption and murder scandal, marks the biggest and deepest political scouring of China’s leadership since the Cultural Revolution and it is rippling through the polity, affecting the country’s ability to manage national security and diplomacy. Not since the fall of… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON [updated at 3:10 pm with comment from Heritage Foundation’s Steven Groves] : The Defense Department made a big push to break three decades of stalemate on the Law of the Sea, with Secretary Leon Panetta and Chief of Joint Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey staging a rare joint appearance today to urge the Senate to… Keep reading →

Panetta & Dempsey to push "Law of the Sea" ratification tomorrow @ACUS (http://bit.ly/K8Nl7O) — pros & cons of LOS @ http://bit.ly/IHWF2v SydneyFreedberg

Breaking Defense’s February 29 piece, “Hill Turns Up Heat On White House Over ‘Law Of The Sea’” gives a good presentation of the reasons supporters believe the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) should be ratified, but it doesn’t talk about why the treaty was deep-sixed some 30 years ago — and has remained… Keep reading →

CORRECTED CAPITOL HILL: Debate over a little-known international maritime treaty is heating up on Capitol Hill in light of the Pentagon’s military buildup in the Western Pacific. Senate Armed Services Committee member Jim Inhofe said yesterday he plans to call formal hearings on the Senate’s decision not to ratify the so-called “Law of the Sea.”… Keep reading →