Richard Weitz

This week’s NATO Summit was less ambitious than some recent summits. With regard to the alliance, the summit announced no new members, or even a timetable for the four aspirant countries, and raised no funds for collective missions. But if the alliance made no policy changes in Chicago, the gathering did allow the allies to renew their mutual solidarity amid recent talk of the U.S. pivot to Asia.
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An important challenge for U.S. diplomacy during the upcoming NATO summit is to ensure that the lack of a decision to enlarge NATO does not become a defining outcome of the gathering. NATO leaders have always emphasized that the alliance maintains an “open door” to new members, and the Chicago summit should be no exception. Perhaps nowhere is this more relevant than in the case of Georgia. more

On May 2, the U.S. and Afghanistan signed a new Strategic Partnership Agreement that, although not legally binding, yields advantages to both parties. Nonetheless, the accord left several questions unresolved, including how many U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan after 2014. Its ultimate value will also depend on future U.S. commitments to support Afghanistan's security forces and economic development.
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One issue that warrants greater attention from Washington policymakers moving forward is how relations between Russia and China will affect those two countries’ policies relating to nuclear arms control. In particular, the next administration needs to consider how the U.S. can help shape this evolving relationship so that it moves in benign directions, while hedging against possible adverse outcomes. more

The Missile Defense Conference currently taking place in Moscow demonstrates the wide gap that continues to separate Russia and the West on the issue of ballistic missile defense. The issue has divided the two sides since the 1980s. If there is one thing these years of frustrating experience should have taught us, it is that missile defense is the wrong issue to make the centerpiece of the Russia-NATO reset. more

News reports indicate that the U.S. and Russia are close to reaching an agreement that would expand a secure communications channel originally established to avert misunderstandings that might lead to nuclear war to the domain of cyberconflicts. Such confidence-building measures are useful tools given the uncertainties regarding cyberconflicts and the poor prospects of negotiating cybersecurity treaties. more

Earlier this month, the U.S. Army War College's annual Strategy Conference sought to analyze how the U.S. military needs to adapt to an era of constrained resources and a changing global security environment. Titled the "Future of U.S. Grand Strategy in an Age of Austerity: Challenges and Opportunities," the conference comes at a time when the U.S. is undertaking its fourth post-World War II defense drawdown. more

As NATO member states prepare for next month’s heads-of-state summit in Chicago, the alliance faces a number of difficult decisions on a variety of issues that will determine its deterrence and defense posture moving forward. And while NATO is often stymied by internal divisions among its members, in this case the major obstacle to any bold policy shifts is disagreement with a nonmember: Russia.
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When the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established in March 2003, one of the new department’s primary goals was to enhance U.S. cybersecurity. The fundamental problem the department faces is that it has responsibility to protect all nondefense public- and private-sector networks from cyberattack, but until Congress acts to give it more teeth, it will lack the authority to accomplish this mission. more

One issue left unresolved by last week’s Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul is how to integrate the summits with several similar initiatives that have emerged to respond to a new threat not anticipated by the architects of the original nuclear nonproliferation regime: nuclear terrorism. These processes now need to be better integrated to overcome gaps, reduce redundancies and exploit synergies among them. more

The main objective of this week’s Nuclear Security Summit is to prevent nonstate actors, including terrorists and criminals, from acquiring dangerous nuclear materials, as the greatest obstacle to nuclear terrorism is not designing a weapon, concocting a plot or recruiting volunteers willing to suffer martyrdom -- it is acquiring the fissile nuclear material needed for a nuclear explosive device. more

For the past few years, the Russian government has made the unprecedented decision to purchase expensive Western military equipment, in part to fill gaps in Russian defense capabilities, but also to induce Russia’s military industrial complex to modernize its means of production and contain its costs. For NATO countries, there are benefits but also potential pitfalls to Moscow's approach. more

India’s behavior regarding Iran highlights a problem with the sanctions regime: Many countries face a different set of calculations than the United States, Israel, Europe and Persian Gulf countries. An Iran that possesses nuclear warheads represents a plausible military threat to the latter group. But for India, China and Russia, an Iranian attack on their own countries remains a remote contingency. more

In contrast to the preordained outcome of this weekend's Russian presidential election, the winner of this November’s U.S. presidential election is not yet known. But whoever occupies the White House in 2013 will need to consider the bilateral arms control relationship with Russia in coming years. While the New START agreement is going well, there are sharp differences over where to go next. more

This month marks the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, a country that is currently playing a vital role in supporting a number of U.S. policy objectives. But Washington needs to prioritize ties with Baku to strengthen the partnership and to make sure that Azerbaijan and its fragile neighbors in the geopolitically vital South Caucasus remain strong and stable. more

Russia has blocked a U.S. initiative to build a network of U.S.-supported counternarcotics centers in Central Asia. In public, Russian officials denigrate the effectiveness of such programs and have favored concentrating on fighting opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan itself. But some Russian officials’ opposition to the initiative is driven by their desire to minimize the U.S. presence in Central Asia. more

In the Senate and House intelligence committees’ recent hearings on threats to the United States, the question of reaching a peace agreement with the Taliban was raised repeatedly. Congress is rightly concerned about the situation in Afghanistan. So it is important to understand the risks involved in negotiating with the Taliban before Congress’ last annual hearing on worldwide threats Thursday. more

Russia has adopted a surprisingly firm stance regarding the ongoing violent crackdown on domestic opposition in Syria. Despite facing a solid bloc of Western and developing nations calling for strong action against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow defiantly vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution this weekend. But in winning this battle at the U.N., Russia risks losing the war in Syria.
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On Jan. 26, the Pentagon released further information about how the new Defense Strategic Guidance will be reflected in the Defense Department’s future spending priorities. The changes, designed to meet the White House’s mandate to cut $37 billion from its previously planned Fiscal Year 2013 defense budget, conform with the strategic guidance document, but they leave several questions unanswered. more

On Jan. 15, in polling that the OSCE characterized as not meeting the “fundamental principles of democratic elections,” the ruling Nur Otan party won more than 80 percent of votes cast. Though Kazakhstan has developed the administrative machinery necessary to hold free and fair elections, further changes in its electoral procedures are needed to increase the prospects of this breakthrough occurring. more