Jack Mendelsohn, a former senior Foreign Service officer, a member of the SALT II and START I delegations and a former deputy director of the Arms Control Association, discussed the new START treaty with foreign-affairs columnist John C. Bersia.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — In the debate over terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and the threat they present to America’s communities, retired U.S. Air Force Col. Randall Larsen says we may stand in the way of our own safety. This happens, according to him, because we typically pose the wrong questions.
Instead of asking how to [...]

As negotiations continue to force North Korea to end its dangerously irresponsible nuclear program, the most important player clearly is China. So far, many Americans have been understandably dismayed by Beijing’s apparent reluctance to do more than criticize Pyongyang for its disruptive behavior. But is the Chinese response to the crisis as glove-soft as it [...]

North Korea has little to celebrate this week, on the 60th anniversary of its founding as a communist entity. Consider the dominant issues of those years: belligerence, conflict, oppression, human-rights abuses, cult-of-personality excesses, insidious nuclear research and repeated bouts of starvation.

To confront Iran, two serious approaches compete for attention. The favorite of the Bush administration — the criticize-and-alienate strategy — has demonstrated limited utility. The other — the criticize-and-engage strategy — has yet to be fully tested but offers greater potential for resolving tensions.
Disappointingly, President Bush has wasted no opportunity to lash out at [...]

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of a state of emergency in Pakistan, backed by military muscle, could ignite a wildfire of discontent and instability that sends him scurrying from power, some critics contend. Others cheer the weekend’s strong-arm move as overdue and decisive, in fact, the proper prescription for an epidemic of Islamic extremism. Of [...]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in New York City this week, has been carrying on like a misunderstood child, suggesting that Americans have “incorrect information” about Iran’s intentions and vowing “to set the record straight.”
Well, I think that most people clearly see his regime for what it is: wishy-washy and duplicitous. I wish it a [...]