William Hartung

There have been so many bad proposals on defense issues thrown around in the House of Representatives lately it's hard to know where to start. Build a costly, unworkable missile defense system on the East Coast? Check. Try to undermine the President's ability to implement the New START...

Wednesday Lockheed Martin delivered the last of 187 F-22 Raptor fighter jets to the U.S. Air Force at a ceremony at the company's plant in Marietta, Georgia. The roll out -- attended by Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) -- prompted Lockheed Martin executives...

House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan's new budget plan has received far more respect than it deserves. The myth of Ryan as the one who is willing to make the "tough choices" on the deficit continues to be perpetrated in many corners. But his plan doesn't hold up to scrutiny.

A Lesson in Republican Math

Cross-posted with TomDispatch.com

If you've been fretting about faltering math education and falling test scores here in the United States, you should be worried based on this campaign season of Republican math. When it comes to the American military,...

Just when you thought there were enough arms industry front groups pushing for higher Pentagon spending, there's a new kid on the block: the Coalition for a Common Defense. Leaders of the group include Frank Gaffney, whose Center for Security Policy has long enjoyed the support...

The Obama administration's defense strategy review, unveiled at the Pentagon on January 6, is under attack. Republican front-runner Mitt Romney has argued that the plan is naive and dangerous, while numerous independent experts have rightly criticized the plan for being too timid in its...

In the proliferation of punditry that has accompanied the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, much has been said about the prospects for a chaotic transition, and even about the need to prepare for military action in case his son, Kim Jong Un, engages in saber-rattling (or...

Your government is slated to spend hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade to purchase, maintain and operate our massive nuclear arsenal. The costs include everything from new nuclear bombers, submarines and bomb factories to the huge but unknown costs of deploying and maintaining thousands of nuclear weapons.

As the Congressional super committee moves towards its deadline for developing a deficit reduction plan, we need to make sure that its decisions reflect the national interest, not special interests. If there is to be a deal at all, it should include substantial reductions in military spending. That will mean...

When the arms industry starts crying poverty, hold onto your wallet. The 2000s have been a great time to be a weapons maker, but you wouldn't know it from reading the industry's latest PR pieces. Major players like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and General Dynamics have seen their

Opponents of proposed reductions in the Pentagon's spending plans have increasingly settled on one frightening phrase to sum up their arguments: the danger of a "hollow military."

No one wants a hollow military. Thankfully, there is no danger that we will have one under any current budget-cutting plan....

The good news is that the Pentagon budget is finally on the table in deficit reduction talks. But it will take a lot more hard work to ensure that it is truly reduced as part of ongoing negotiations over the size and shape of the federal budget.

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While Congress has debated the merits and political legitimacy of the Obama administration's intervention in Libya, other Mideast democracy struggles have received far less scrutiny than they deserve.

One area that needs greater attention is Bahrain, which recently sentenced 21 people to prison -- including eight life...

Amid reports that President Obama and House Republicans may be zeroing in on a budget deal that could cut as much as $700 billion from the Pentagon's proposed budgets over the next decade, the "spend now, ask questions later" crowd is poised to make a political counterattack. Whether...

President Obama's long-awaited announcement of a troop drawdown in Afghanistan was in part driven by budgetary concerns.

Public opinion is turning against the war, and its immense costs are part of the reason. For example, a recent Pew poll found that...

My colleague Jeff Abramson of the Arms Control Association calls it the Obama arms bazaar -- tens of billions of dollars of new weapons export deals concluded over the past two years with the assistance of the U.S. government. Many of these deals involve sales to...

At last Thursday's confirmation hearings for Leon Panetta's nomination to serve as Secretary of Defense, one question loomed over the proceedings: will he be as good as Robert Gates? The assumption behind the question -- an assumption shared by virtually every member of the Senate Armed Services...

The Independent Institute has released a timely report on the costs of war in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond. Among the findings:

-- Thus far, increases in spending on the war in Afghanistan have consumed the bulk of the savings from the drawdown in Iraq. The combined...

One of the messages of Stanley Kubrick's anti-nuclear classic Dr. Strangelove is that policy makers can become addicted to the bomb and the various fear-driven rationales for keeping it. One of the more absurd examples comes near the end of the film when General Buck Turgidsen (played by...

This week's U.S. visit by People's Liberation Army Chief of General Staff Chen Bingde has sparked an outpouring of conventional wisdom about the alleged "Chinese threat." One summary of the pertinent points came in a Reuters piece published last week:

The United States, and others in the region,...