Michael O'Hanlon is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, specializing in defense and foreign policy issues, and author of the Great Decisions 2012 article Exit from Afghanistan and Iraq. He spoke with Sarah Marion Shore about the current state of the drawdown in both countries. 1. The draft of a new strategic partnership with Afghanistan calls for a decade of continued U.S. presence and financial s ...

By James Joyner UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hinted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will suffer the fate of Laurent Gbago, Charles Taylor, or Muammar Qaddafi if his reign of violence continues. He declared, “no leader, anywhere, should imagine that he—or she—enjoys impunity for crimes of atrocity.” Speaking at the Atlantic Council Awards Dinner [2], where he received the award for Distinguished In ...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="296" caption="Innovations in drone technology: The modern unmanned aerial vehicle in the U.S. can track its roots back to the Civil War and has been heavily influenced by innovations in Israel."][/caption] By David Ignatius During this week of retrospectives on the killing of Osama bin Laden, one of the most interesting public comments was White House counterterroris ...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="606" caption="Images after Osama bin Laden’s death: As the anniversary of the May 2, 2011, death of Osama bin Laden approaches, here are images showing the compound where he was killed as well as Americans’ reactions to the news.Images after Osama bin Laden’s death: As the anniversary of the May 2, 2011, death of Osama bin Laden approaches, here are images showing th ...

Five permanent Security Council members issue joint statement urging Tehran to allow watchdog to inspect ‘relevant sites and information' Vienna: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council put pressure on Iran yesterday to allay international concern about its nuclear programme, and said they expected talks with Tehran to lead to concrete steps toward a negotiated solution. Iran and major powers ...

By Alexis Madrigal A pioneering ship proves a point about the possibilities of renewable energy. For the past 19 months, the Turanor PlanetSolar has been on a voyage around the world powered only by 38,000 SunPower solar cells. On May 4, the boat will return to Monaco, completing a trip that it began in September of 2010. The 537 square meters of solar panels power six banks of lithium-ion batteries. On a g ...

PAKISTAN cricketer Mohammad Asif’s release from prison has brought an end to six months of pain for his family, his father has said. Asif, 29, was yesterday freed from jail in Britain after serving half of a 12-month sentence over a spot-fixing scandal and was taken by his friend Mohammad Haroon to his house in suburban London. "Asif was very happy at his release and his first words were 'thanks Almighty,'" ...

Research in Motion said yesterday it will continue to offer physical keyboards on future BlackBerry models. Reports suggested RIM would ditch the physical keys that are favoured by its users, but chief executive Thorsten Heins said RIM won't lose the focus on physical keypads. Touchscreen BlackBerrys without physical keyboards have largely flopped. Heins had unveiled a proto-type touchscreen BlackBerry on W ...