Eliot A. Cohen

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de septiembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

A Ukrainian serviceman firing a howitzer toward Russian troops in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 2024. Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters

Europa, , ,

The U.S. government decided to provide more assistance to Ukraine just in the nick of time. By the end of April, right before the aid package passed, the war-torn country was emptying its last reserves of ammunition and rationing artillery rounds and shells—and Ukrainian forces began to lose ground in part as a result. The $60 billion now flowing into Ukraine will help correct these disparities, providing Kyiv an opportunity to stop Russia’s offensive. The aid package also serves as a massive psychological boost, giving Ukrainians newfound confidence that they will not be abandoned by their most important partner.

But the aid package alone cannot answer the central question facing Ukraine: how to win the war.…  Seguir leyendo »

The remains of a rocket that carried cluster munitions sits in a field in the Kherson region of Ukraine. (Alice Martins for The Washington Post)

Europa, , ,

For nearly 18 months we have beheld a European war of an extent, ferocity and destructiveness not seen since the middle of the last century. While the United States and its allies have chosen to arm Ukraine with billions of dollars’ worth of hardware, governments have hesitated to provide certain kinds of munitions, either for fear of provoking Russia or because of scruples about what those weapons can do.

In recent months the U.S. provision of cluster munitions — artillery rounds and bombs that deliver a cargo of mini bomblets to destroy equipment and kill soldiers over large areas — elicited particular anxiety in Western capitals.…  Seguir leyendo »

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius visiting tanks that will be sent to Ukraine, Augustdorf, Germany, February 2023. Benjamin Westhoff / Reuters / Foreign Affairs illustration

Europa, , ,

The Western response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been less a problem of strategy than of tactics and execution. After one year of fighting, the basic idea—support Ukraine and defeat Russia—has held up well; the implementation has not. That holds especially true for the United States.

Successful statecraft has much in common with the concept of aerial combat formulated by twentieth-century U.S. Air Force pilot and military thinker John Boyd. From his experience in the Korean War and later studies, Boyd concluded that fighter pilots engage in combat in a four-stage cycle: a pilot observes what is going on, orients himself to the environment, decides what to do, and acts accordingly.…  Seguir leyendo »

Evacuating from Kabul, Afghanistan, August 2021. Sgt. Isaiah Campbell / U.S. Marine Corps / Reuters

InternacionalOrden Mundial

For more than 70 years, starting in the middle of World War II, the United States bestrode the world like a colossus. Its economy and military emerged from the war not just unscathed but also supreme. Its institutions of governance—a unified Department of Defense, a system of far-flung military commands, the National Security Council, specialized agencies for international development, and so on—were those of an effective global hegemon. Even when it was locked in a mortal struggle with the alien and hostile ideology of communism, it held most of the winning cards. And as colossi do, it elicited resentment from those not content to live in its shadow.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoAsia, ,

The Justice Department ’s announcement that it was indicting five Chinese military officers on charges of stealing commercial secrets is, in one way, to be welcomed. It shines a light on the vast problem of Chinese espionage directed not only against the U.S. government but also against U.S. corporations.

On the other hand, it is bizarre. Unless these five officers inexplicably intend to visit the United States, nothing will ever happen to them as a result of these indictments. In theory, they might be nabbed in a country with an extradition treaty with the United States, but really, now, will the Belgian foreign ministry stoutly uphold the rule of law when confronted by a furious Chinese ambassador threatening retribution for bundling the colonels on a jet headed for Washington, hands cuffed and heads bowed?…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

In 1994, after directing the U.S. Air Force’s official study of the Persian Gulf War, I concluded, “Air power is an unusually seductive form of military strength, in part because, like modern courtship, it appears to offer gratification without commitment.” That observation stands. It explains the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for a massive, drone-led assassination campaign against al-Qaeda terrorists. And it applies with particular force to a prospective, U.S.-led attack on the Syrian government in response to its use of chemical weapons against a civilian population.

President Obama has boxed himself in. He can no longer ignore his own proclamation of a “red line.”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, , ,

Bob Woodward wrote a curious op-ed this week about the Bush administration’s response to the secret al-Kibar nuclear reactor built by Syria and North Korea. As officials who participated in the administration’s deliberations, we believe that Woodward’s account — and that of the anonymous sources who gave him background information — represents a revisionist and misleading history. Woodward’s op-ed purports to demonstrate that then-Vice President Dick Cheney, who advocated a U.S. strike to destroy the Syrian reactor, failed to learn important lessons from intelligence failures in Iraq. In fact, it is Woodward who misunderstands the reality of al-Kibar.

First, Woodward’s account of the intelligence about Syria’s nuclear program is woefully incomplete.…  Seguir leyendo »