Government Accountability Office, State and DOD Face Challenges in Finalizing Support and Security Capabilities, June 28, 2012.

The Departments of State (State) and Defense (DOD) planned for a civilian-led presence in Iraq consisting of more than 16,000 personnel at 14 sites in fiscal year 2012. As of May 2012, State and DOD were reassessing the Mission Iraq presence, and State had a plan to reduce the presence to 11,500 personnel at 11 sites by the end of fiscal year 2013. Even with the reductions, Mission Iraq would remain the largest U.S. diplomatic presence in the world. State and DOD allocated an estimated $4 billion for the civilian-led presence for fiscal year 2012, 93 percent of which was for security and support costs. In addition, State requested $1.9 billion in police and military assistance and $471 million in other foreign assistance for fiscal year 2012. Read more »

Nick Paumgarten, “The World of Surveillance,” The New Yorker, May 14, 2012.

Patrick Egan, president of the Silicon Valley chapter of the Association for Unmanned Systems International: “The first time a drone Tases the wrong dude at a Phish concert, you’re going to have problems.” Read more »

• Greg Miller, “Broader Drone Tactics Sought,” Washington Post, April 19, 2012.

The CIA is seeking authority to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen by launching strikes against terrorism suspects even when it does not know the identities of those who could be killed, U.S. officials said. Read more »

• “Piracy and Private Security,” The Economist, April 14, 2012.

Private security teams patrol the decks of around 40% of large vessels in the “high-risk area” that stretches from the Persian Gulf to the Seychelles in the south and the Maldives in the east. When pirates attack, these armed guards respond with flares or warning shots. This usually scares off assailants (or sends them in search of easier prey). If it fails, they fire at an attacking boat’s engine, before finally turning their sights on the pirates. No ship carrying armed guards has so far been hijacked. Read more »

On February 15, General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the House Armed Services Committee: “I can’t impress upon you that in my personal military judgment, formed over thirty-eight years, we are living in the most dangerous time in my lifetime, right now.” Two weeks later, during a House Budget Committee hearing, when asked to expand upon his earlier statement, he replied: Read more »

• Peter Cynkar, “Opinion Briefing: Mexico’s Drug War,” Gallup, April 4, 2012.

Mexicans personally feel less safe in their own neighborhoods in 2011 than they did at the onset of the drug war. While perceptions about safety have fluctuated, the 42% who said they feel safe walking alone at night in 2011 is down 15 percentage points from 57% in 2007. Read more »

This is a guest post by CFR senior fellow Frank Klotz.

The National Research Council (NRC) released its long-awaited update on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) last Friday. Given the renown of the scientists and former officials who authored the report, it is likely to have an important impact on the longstanding debate over whether the United States should ratify the CTBT. Read more »

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 »

Hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, “The Situation in Syria,” March 7, 2012.

SENATOR WEBB: I want to ask you about one thing that you said, because I think we all need to think about it. You said: Any government — I think this is a direct quote; I’m an old journalist here, I can write fast: “Any government that indiscriminately kills its own people loses its legitimacy.” Read more »

During an interview with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in March 2011, Piers Morgan posed a serious question:

MORGAN: Do you have nuclear weapons?

NETANYAHU: Well, we have a longstanding policy that we won’t be the first to introduce nuclear weapons into the Middle East, and that hasn’t changed. Read more »