Ideas

The Contradiction at the Core of Trump's North Korea Strategy

The president’s national-security advisers say they’re running out of time to do something extremely time-consuming.

Ideas

Let's Walk This Through: If North Korea Launches An ICBM, Then...

It takes a lot of rosy assumptions to get to President Trump’s 97% chance of success.

Ideas

Two Nuclear Deals, Two Countries, Three Decades Apart

Does the failed nuclear agreement with North Korea have lessons for the Iran deal?

Science & Tech

North Korea Is Testing Not Just Bombs, But the Entire Global Nuclear Monitoring System

It is a miracle of statecraft and science that this collaborative international infrastructure has actually come into being.

Ideas

Waltzing Toward a Two-Front Global War

The U.S. just might be one step away from a war with North Korea, and two from a fight with Iran.

Threats

If North Korea Fires an ICBM, the US Might Have to Shoot It Down Over Russia

Missile-defense physics may require interceptors to fly into ‘the teeth of the Russian early warning net.’

Threats

How to Tell If North Korea and America Are Actually Headed to War

Watch what Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un do, not just what they say.

Threats

Could North Korea Shoot Down US Warplanes?

Some of Pyongyang's surface-to-air missiles are old, but its newer ones could threaten American aircraft.

Threats

Dunford: Six Months From Now, ISIS Will Have ‘Less Credibility’

But they — and four other major threats to the U.S. — aren’t going anywhere, the Joint Chiefs chairman says.

Ideas

The Trump Administration Must Stop Being Unserious about North Korea

Off-the-cuff and over-the-top threats have accelerated Kim's nuclear efforts. It's time to think, plan, coordinate — and open talks with Pyongyang.

Ideas

A Presidential Misunderstanding of Deterrence

But Trump’s bellicosity undermines his ability to deter the Kim regime’s nuclear weapons and missiles programs.

Ideas

No, We Cannot Shoot Down North Korea’s Missiles

It's time national leaders speak realistically about missile defense.

Ideas

How Black-Market Tobacco Funds the World’s Bad Actors

It’s time to focus the world’s attention on a smuggling enterprise that helps underwrite North Korea’s nukes and Taliban terror.

Threats

‘Is There Something Going On?’: On Scene at STRATCOM As North Korea Launches Missile

The head of U.S. Strategic Command is whisked to his operations center as a missile flies over Japan.

Ideas

Can North Korea Drag the US and China Into War?

History offers clues about the likely course of a dangerous dynamic in east Asia.

Ideas

What the Iran Deal Can Teach America About North Korea

If credibility depends in part on a country’s willingness to follow through on military threats, surely it also depends on whether it abides by diplomatic commitments.

Ideas

On North Korea, More Missile Defense Is Not the Answer

Buying more unreliable interceptors would be a wasteful invitation to disaster.

Ideas

South Korea Is Right

Trump has characterized its policy as “appeasement.” But Seoul’s approach is far more sensible than Washington’s.

Ideas

Building an H-Bomb in Plain Sight

Usually countries build nuclear weapons in secret—but not North Korea.