Micah Zenko

Politics, Power, and Preventive Action

Zenko covers the U.S. national security debate and offers insight on developments in international security and conflict prevention.

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Showing posts for "Conflict Prevention"

A Primer on Military Force

by Micah Zenko
U.S. Sheridan tanks mothballed at Fort Irwin, California Army National Training Center (Courtesy Reuters/Rick Wilking). U.S. Sheridan tanks mothballed at Fort Irwin, California Army National Training Center (Courtesy Reuters/Rick Wilking).

As I’ve written previously, policymakers and pundits have some pretty silly proposals for the use of military force. Whether it’s President Clinton,“[It would] scare the shit out of al Qaeda if suddenly a bunch of black ninjas rappelled out of helicopters into the middle of their camp,” or uberconservative Pat Robertson, “We really ought to go ahead and [assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez]…It’s a whole lot cheaper than starting a war,” such harebrained schemes lack a basic understanding of military strategy, geography, and logistics, not to mention international law. Read more »

You Might Have Missed: Drones, Afghanistan, and the North Korean Nuclear Program

by Micah Zenko
U.S. Army soldiers shield themselves as a Medivac helicopter takes off from Arghandab Valley, Afghanistan (Courtesy Reuters/Bob Strong). U.S. Army soldiers shield themselves as a Medivac helicopter takes off from Arghandab Valley, Afghanistan (Courtesy Reuters/Bob Strong).

The Power of Witness: Imagery and Mass Atrocities

by Micah Zenko
A monument with the names of victims in Potocari Memorial Center near Srebrenica (Courtesy Reuters//Marko Djurica). A monument with the names of victims in Potocari Memorial Center near Srebrenica (Courtesy Reuters//Marko Djurica).

* coauthored with my research associate, Emma Welch

Warning: This blog post contains graphic images.

Last week, I was fortunate to attend a workshop at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, “Power of Witness: The Use of Technology in Preventing Mass Atrocities.” Among the topics discussed were the current and potential use of journalists, victims’ reporting, satellites, aircraft, and drones (presented by myself) to reveal to the outside world what is happening on the ground. It was remarkable to hear from a wide range of dedicated people who utilize innovative technologies and collaborative arrangements to document prospective war crimes for dissemination to the media, people in the target country, foreign leaders, criminal tribunals, the global public, and others. Read more »

The 2012 Nuclear Security Summit: Obama’s Work in Progress

by Micah Zenko
U.S. President Obama during a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev before the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea (Courtesy Reuters/Larry Downing). U.S. President Obama during a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev before the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, South Korea (Courtesy Reuters/Larry Downing).

An edited version of this post originally appeared on CFR.org as a First Take.

On his first foreign trip as a U.S. senator in 2005, Barack Obama accompanied Senator Richard Lugar on a week-long tour of WMD facilities in the former Soviet Union. Afterward, Senator Obama often spoke about the trip, in particular the vast amount of poorly secured lethal materials that he witnessed at the sites. As a presidential candidate, Obama declared, “The single most serious threat to American national security is nuclear terrorism.” While President George W. Bush deserves credit for highlighting the seriousness of nuclear terrorism and committing the resources to work with Russia to secure nearly all of its potentially loose nukes, nuclear security has been a top-tier priority for Obama.  As early as July 2008, he vowed to “lead a global effort to secure all loose nuclear materials around the world during my first term as president.” Read more »