2012 looks to be an interesting year for the already complex political triangle among the United States, Taiwan and China, what with each country undergoing political transitions. Should we expect policy continuity from President Ma Ying-jeou and the likely new Chinese leader Xi Jinping? What about continuity in the United States?

American Enterprise Institute (AEI) introduces the new Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies, made possible by a generous gift from the former U.S. Ambassador to Finland and AEI trustee, Marilyn Ware. The new center greatly enhances the capacity of AEI to address security and defense issues affecting American interests around the world.

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey is getting an appetite for political controversy.

AEI scholars Thomas Donnelly and Gary Schmitt, authors of "The Path to Security", are available to comment on defense and spending.

Washington can ignore the world for only so long before the world comes knocking on its door. And while getting America’s fiscal house in order has to be the priority for any new president elected in 2012, his or her administration will be faced with a growing list of foreign-policy issues hardly any less important.

AEI scholars Thomas (Tom) Donnelly, director of AEI's Center for Defense Studies, and Gary Schmitt, Director of AEI's Advanced Strategic Studies, are available to comment on Defense Secretary Robert Gates's announcement that the Pentagon will cut $78 billion in spending over the next five years.

The absence of defense spending in the NATO draft "Strategic Concept" is indicative of NATO countries' unwillingness to address the accelerating decline in their defense budgets.

The fact is, the government had been deferring “recapitalizing” its military for more than a decade and a half and that bill came due precisely when the economy went into recession, government revenues declined precipitously and the deficit exploded.