American assistance programs aimed at helping Yemen build and maintain counterterrorism forces will not suffice in the face of a real and growing al Qaeda-affiliated insurgency.

The Obama administration knows full well what the state of the military is. However, because it would rather shift the country’s spending priorities to domestic programs long favored by Democrats, it has willingly accepted, indeed gone beyond, what the 2011 Budget Control Act required in cuts to national security programs.

President Obama today unveiled a new national defense strategy  creating a "leaner"  force that Secretary of Defense Panetta allows will create "some level of additional but acceptable risk."  Moving away from the traditional two war strategy, and hinting at substantial reductions in Europe, the President presented a dramatic shift in global posture for the United States.

The threat of a $500 billion defense sequestration looms as a result of the Super Committee failure - a prospect that Secretary Panetta has called "potentially ruinous." Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon and some of his Senate colleagues have promised...

The North Korean challenge is complex, but by now all too familiar. Nearly two decades of negotiations have failed to resolve the nuclear problem, and North Korea has been carrying out aggression against the South for much longer than that. It is time for the allies to try something new.

The United States and its allies and partners must not only understand Iran’s regional strategy and influence but also develop a coherent strategy of their own with which to confront them. Considering the relative economic, political, and diplomatic power of the two sides, it is unacceptable for the United States and its allies to allow Iran even such progress as it has made in these realms.

U.S. under secretary of defense for policy Michèle Flournoy will deliver an address on the new Afghanistan policy.