GENEVA: The marathon nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva last week faltered because of fundamental differences — not because the French are spoilers. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters upon arriving in Geneva that “nothing is settled” and then was blamed for imposing new conditions that torpedoed an all-but-written settlement that Iran would not… Keep reading →

UPDATE: Aircraft carrier USS George Washington underway to disaster zone. It is more than a little ghoulish to look at a tragedy that may have killed 10,000 people and see a strategic opportunity. But that’s how strategists have to think. After all, what is war itself but human tragedy exploited for strategic advantage?  And that’s… Keep reading →

GENEVA: Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is confident an agreement to end the Iranian nuclear crisis will be reached soon and that he would be able to sell it back home in Tehran despite hardline opposition there, he told Breaking Defense in an exclusive interview. “I would not agree on something if I didn’t believe… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: We’ve had nearly two years of hearings about how hard the automatic budget cuts called sequestration would hit the Department of Defense. Yesterday, we saw something new. For the first time, the uniformed chiefs of all four services publicly told Congress that they have big problems with their civilian bosses’ plan to cope… Keep reading →

GENEVA: Iran and six major powers appear close to a deal on Iran’s nuclear program, with US Secretary of State John Kerry set to join the talks Friday, a late-breaking surprise here. It could signal the beginning of the end of the decade-old crisis sparked by fears Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. US… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Acquisition reform. It almost makes you feel good to hear those words. They connote improvement, reason and good government. But the more acquisition reform America gets from Congress and the Pentagon, it seems, the less return we get on each dollar we spend. Estimates of the cost of government oversight of Pentagon acquisition range… Keep reading →

GENEVA: The United States and Iran head into Thursday negotiations full of growing optimism that a deal can be reached on the future of Iran’s nuclear program. One of the key reasons for this optimism is the apparent willingness of the US Congress and of major American Jewish groups to refrain from demanding new sanctions… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: You didn’t hear much about them during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but DARPA, small businesses, and universities were the people who most impressed retired Gen. Hoss Cartwright when he was vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as he and the services scrambled to find weapons to give American troops a… Keep reading →

UPDATED: Adds Details, Context From Hagel’s CSIS Speech WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel grabbed the bull by the horns and warned Congress and the American people against slipping into isolationism as we withdraw from the wars we have fought for the past dozen years, saying “looking inward is just as deadly a trap as hubris.” “More Americans,… Keep reading →

PORTSMOUTH, VA: For decades, America’s Pacific strategy has focused on the northeast corner of that vast theater, with major forces and bases in Korea and Japan. But as economies boom and tensions rise in Southeast Asia, the Pentagon has played catch-up, deploying more forces to Australia, Singapore, and Guam. At a conference here last week, the… Keep reading →