What we are reading

Nuclear Energy Must Be Part Of The National Mix

CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN AND JAY TIMMONS
/ Investors.com

The United States is poised for a manufacturing renaissance. Now it’s up to policymakers to make sure that this country’s policies match our goal of a revitalization of manufacturing.  One of the keys to U.S. competitiveness is a pro-growth energy policy. To reach their fullest potential, manufacturers need reliable and secure sources of energy — a challenge that will only grow in the coming years.

Gulf oil spill: Two years later, safety lessons ignored

Andrew Holland / Christian Science Monitor

In its rush to pump more oil, America is ignoring the key lesson of the Gulf oil spill two years ago. Complex drilling, wherever it occurs, comes with unknowable risks.

Farewell, the New Frontier

Charles Krauthammer / Washington Post

As the space shuttle Discovery flew three times around Washington, a final salute before landing at Dulles airport for retirement in a museum, thousands on the ground gazed upward with marvel and pride. Yet what they were witnessing, for all its elegance, was a funeral march.

Fear Itself: Americans Believe Iran Threat On Par With 1980s Soviet Union

Max Fisher / The Atlantic

A new poll shows that Americans today are more afraid of Iran than they were of the USSR in 1985, a peak of the Cold War.

….This sort of coverage could explain why 84 percent of Americans believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons and 71 percent believe Tehran already has them. By comparison, zero percent of U.S. intelligence and military chiefs believe either of these things. Could the sorts of information these two groups consume play a part in their divergent understandings of the world?

House Panel Would Protect Domestic Fusion Program

Adrian Cho / Science Mag

The details won’t be out for another week, but in their version of the 2013 budget for the Department of Energy (DOE), legislators on a spending panel in the House of Representatives would reverse dramatic cuts to the U.S. fusion research program that the White House proposed in February. They would, however, take a big bite out of DOE’s fledgling Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which aims to quickly develop the most promising energy-related basic research for technological exploitation.

Pentagon: America will be ready if needed in Syria

DONNA CASSATA 
/ Associated Press

U.S. military leaders clearly expressed reluctance about using American might to stop the unending violence in Syria, insisting that diplomacy remains the best option to force President Bashar Assad to end the brutal crackdown on his own people.

Missiles of the world – a look at countries’ arsenals

Hindustan Times

Before India entered into the elite club with the Thursday launch of Agni-V missile, only five countries – the US, Russia, China, France and Britain – had the capability to launch nuclear capable long range missiles.

Afghanistan’s Unfulfilled Marshall Plan

Katherine Brown / Bloomberg

The week began with a reminder that springtime in Afghanistan is fighting season. But it also marks the anniversary of a forgotten episode in U.S.-Afghan relations: Ten years ago Tuesday, President George W. Bush delivered a speech at the Virginia Military Institute in which he likened U.S. aid efforts in Afghanistan to the Marshall Plan.

Russia, China seek info on US drone held by Iran

AP

Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency says Russia and China have asked Tehran to provide them with information on a U.S. drone captured by the Islamic Republic in December.

At a glance: How the French election works

THOMAS ADAMSON  / Associated Press

France holds the first round of its presidential elections nationwide on Sunday, which – provided no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote – will be followed by a second and final round on May 6. Here is how the first round works and what’s at stake:

On Our Flashpoint Blog 

Guest Post – Shivers: A War Lesson to Learn, Still

We need to seriously invest in correcting this critical shortfall in our national security capabilities.  Soft power needs to become a whole-of-nation effort.  This is a skill set we’ll surely need for the rest of this century.

Cheney: Time to Ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

In order for the United States to gain greater advantage for our no testing policy we should ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). This would institute a worldwide ban on nuclear tests and the use of networks to apply pressure against states like Iran and North Korea. 

Dorsk: Italian Energy and Environmental Technologies

I recently came back from a trip to Italy, during which I observed several interesting devices that meet energy and environmentally conscious needs. These technologies are present in the everyday life of Italians, due to  the higher costs of energy. living are greater they try to maximize on what is available to them. The commonality I saw between all of them is infrastructure, which ties everything together, specifically electricity, transportation, plumbing, and waste disposal.

Holland: Running on Empty: How Both Parties Fail to Offer Policies to Effectively Address High Gas Prices

Political shortcomings by both parties on gas prices have lead to paralysis on the issue.

The Law of the Sea is needed

The Deputy Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. James Winnefeld,  explains why the Law of the Sea Convention is important to the US military during his keynote speech to the 2012 CSIS Global Security Forum on April 11, 2012

Wallin: Goodbye Discovery

As onlookers crowded the grounds of the National Mall this morning, eyes across Washington turned to the skies for perhaps their first, and definitely their last glimpse of Space Shuttle Discovery perched majestically atop a modified Boeing 747.

ASP Reports: 

Cause and Effect: U.S. Gasoline Prices

This ASP “Perspectives” paper examines the causes of America’s soaring gasoline prices. The paper underscores that the price of gas is intimately interconnected with crude oil prices, which are set by global markets. America is critically dependent upon oil for its economic well-being and the only solutions are long-term methods to reduce the amount of oil we use across the country.

Backgrounder: What to know about the upcoming P5+1-Iran summit

The Iranian nuclear program is one of the most polarizing issues facing the international community since its public disclosure in 2002.  Over the past decade, the program has significantly expanded and tensions over it have continually increased.  Both Israel and the United States have declared that Iran will not be permitted to produce a nuclear weapon and that “all options are on the table” to prevent it from doing so.

AMERICAN SECURITY QUARTERLY – April 2012

About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges.

For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org. info@americansecurityproject.org

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