Fortune (April 24)
“National governments are spending a record amount of money on defense and arms, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a more complicated geopoltical environment push countries to buy more military equipment.” All told, defense spending grew by 3.7% in 2002. Roughly “half of that increase was due to a 640% surge in military spending by Ukraine, as the country quickly expanded its armed forces to defend against the invasion.”
Tags: Arms, Complicated, Defense, Environment, Geopoltical, Governments, Military equipment, Record, Russia, Spending, Ukraine
Washington Post (March 9)
European leaders may “attest to a continent fully awakened to the reality of the war. But the truth is that Europe has not taken its defense seriously before now, and it cannot be strategically ‘autonomous’ until it does.” Home to 450 million people with a $17 trillion GDP, defense spending in excess of $200 billion annually, the EU needs to get its act together. “A strong, autonomous Europe benefits the United States as much as it does Europe itself: Partners working in tandem present a more formidable front against any military threat.”
Tags: $17 trillion, Autonomous, Awakened, Defense, Europe, GDP, Leaders, Partners, Reality, Spending, Strategic, U.S., War
The New Yorker (February 14)
“Trump’s defense was an insult to the impeachment proceedings and an assault on reason…. Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial was an artifact of his Presidency. It was a battle of meaning against noise, against nothing-means-anything-and-everything-is-the-same nihilism—and nihilism won.”
Tags: Assault, Defense, Impeachment, Insult, Meaning, Nihilism, Noise, Proceedings, Reason, Trump
Deutsche Welle (June 7)
“Donald Trump seems to finally be making good on his threat …. to punish Germany.” The sudden move to remove 9,500 troops is “misguided.” It “does not make military sense” and “has shown once again that NATO’s European members cannot rely on the commander-in-chief in the White House. It is a wake-up call for Europeans to take the initiative when it comes to their own defense, and actually spend more money on it.”
Washington Post (January 15)
“China’s drive to acquire cutting-edge weaponry and establish itself as a global military power poses an increasing threat to American defense superiority.”
Tags: China, Cutting edge, Defense, Military power, Superiority, Threat, U.S., Weaponry
Korea Herald (June 7)
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system “reminds us of the need for self-reliant defense. President Moon should know that he is in a much weaker position” than previous presidents “because the North now has bigger rockets and nuclear bombs. Kim will demand more than his father did if he ever comes to dialogue with us thanks to the ‘Sunshine Policy’ of the new government.”
Tags: Defense, Kim, Moon, North Korea, Nuclear bombs, Rockets, South Korea, Sunshine policy, THAAD, Weaker
CNN (December 23)
“President-elect Donald Trump long ago earned a reputation for being unpredictable in his statements, but he outdid himself on Thursday. In the span of just a few hours, Trump shook international relations by undercutting the Obama administration over a UN resolution on Israeli settlements, indicated he would ramp up nuclear competition with Russia and then jolted a major defense contractor — and its shareholders — by suggesting he would ask Boeing to replace a fighter jet being made by Lockheed Martin.”
Tags: Boeing, Defense, Israel, Lockheed Martin, Nuclear, Obama, Russia, Shareholders, Trump, UN resolution, Unpredictable
Wall Street Journal (April 23)
North Korea’s nuclear arsenal may be larger than previously thought,” as many as 40 warheads by the end of next year, according to Chinese nuclear experts. “A well-stocked nuclear armory in North Korea ramps up security fears in Japan and South Korea, neighboring U.S. allies that could seek their own nuclear weapons in defense.”
Tags: Allies, China, Defense, Experts, Japan, North Korea, Nuclear arsenal, Security, South Korea, U.S., Warheads
Washington Post (February 8)
“The central budget issue of our time” is quite simple, but overlooked. “Spending on the elderly and health care is slowly overwhelming the rest of the federal government. Spending on other vital activities (from defense to financial regulation) is being sacrificed to cover the growing costs of a graying nation.”
Washington Post (February 27, 2014)
“The United States is committed by treaty to defend Japanese administrative control in the Senkaku Islands…．But the United States doesn’t want to get dragged into war over a few crags of rock, either, so Washington is also urging caution to Tokyo.”
Tags: China, Defense, Japan, Senkaku islands, Tokyo, Treaty, U.S., War, Washington
