For much of the cold war, the major strategic and security paradigm between east and west was largely (and misleadingly) defined as an era of mutual assured destruction or MAD. MAD meant both sides could assure the near total destruction and defeat of the other in a nuclear or thermonuclear war.  Today, despite the presence weapons of mass destruction, the era of MAD is over.  But a new strategic mindset is now needed. The demise of the Soviet Union is one reason.  As important is the erosion of the Westphalian system of state-centric politics.  Through a combination of the diffusion of all forms of power and globalization, individuals and small [...]

Arguably, August is in the finals as potentially the most dangerous month of the year.  On August 4th a century ago, Britain went to war to honor an 1839 treaty immediately after the Kaiser’s army invaded that Belgium.  Fifty years ago, on the same date in 1964 (following an attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on a U.S. Navy destroyer two days before), a second incident occurred in the Tonkin Gulf.  Two Navy destroyers radioed that both were under torpedo attack.  No such attack took place.  But the incident was enough for the U.S. Congress to pass the Tonkin Gulf Resolution that began a decade of war in Vietnam, the [...]