PUBLICATIONS BY James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Research
Commentary
Books
Media Appearances
2009 Research
November 10, 2009
Copenhagen Climate Change Conference Could Threaten National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Special Report #70)
According to Senator Boxer, passage of a cap-and-trade bill is a matter of national security. She is wrong.
October 28, 2009
National Security: Not a Good Argument for Global Warming Legislation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph. D.
(Testimony #9999)
The Clean Energy Jobs and America Power Act (S. 1733) has engendered tremendous controversy. Concerns abound about the legislation's adverse economic consequences, and there is skepticism of its affects on world climate trends. I will focus my analysis and observations on the national security implications of attempting to address climate change through a framework established by national legislation.
September 10, 2009
Swine Flu: What Every American Should Know
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2315)
With H1N1 vaccines not becoming generally available until after the U.S. flu season begins, the single greatest contribution that the public can make is to limit opportunities for infection by practicing basic hygiene, beginning with washing hands frequently. National capabilities should prove sufficient to deal with the swine flu during the approaching flu season.
September 09, 2009
Eight Years after 9/11: Analyzing Congress's Homeland Security Agenda
By Jena Baker McNeill, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Matt A. Mayer
(WebMemo #2608)
This Friday makes the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Congress should honor the memory of that tragedy by solidifying its homeland security agenda by enacting several critical pieces of legislation-- and avoiding others.
August 03, 2009
National Security Not a Good Argument for Global Warming Legislation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2572)
The Waxman-Markey bill's supporters are increasingly making the case that creating a new law is a national security imperative. They are wrong.
July 20, 2009
All a Twitter: How Social Networking Shaped Iran's Election Protests
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2300)
During the recent Iranian election protests, cyber activists organized via social-networking tools to share information and updates about unfolding events around the world, as well as to engage people within the country. The emerging power of social-networking platforms has implications for U.S. national security and foreign policy. The U.S. government must prepare itself to participate in future global conversations and information-sharing online or via cellular phones.
July 20, 2009
Executive Summary: All a Twitter: How Social Networking Shaped Iran's Election Protests
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #2300)
During the recent Iranian election protests, cyber activists organized via social-networking tools to share information and updates about unfolding events around the world, as well as to engage people within the country. The emerging power of social-networking platforms has implications for U.S. national security and foreign policy. The U.S. government must prepare itself to participate in future global conversations and information-sharing online or via cellular phones.
July 10, 2009
Homeland Security Department Guts Workplace Enforcement
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2535)
This week the Department of Homeland Security announced it plans to kill some responsible, reasonable workplace verification rules. As a result, the department will likely perform less--not more--workplace checks.
July 09, 2009
Why a Federal Interagency History Office Is Needed
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2530)
The U.S. Congress should establish by law a national historian of the U.S. government and a federal interagency office.
July 02, 2009
Terrorist Watch: 23 Plots Foiled Since 9/11
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2294)
Since 9/11, 23 terrorist plots against the U.S. have been foiled. Many of the individuals involved in these plots have been convicted and sentenced to time in prison for their participation. America has become a more difficult target for terrorists, but the threat has not diminished. Adjusting and strengthening U.S. security efforts to conquer these changing threats will require Congress and DHS to work together.
July 02, 2009
Executive Summary: Terrorist Watch: 23 Plots Foiled Since 9/11
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #2294)
Since 9/11, 23 terrorist plots against the U.S. have been foiled. Many of the individuals involved in these plots have been convicted and sentenced to time in prison for their participation. America has become a more difficult target for terrorists, but the threat has not diminished. Adjusting and strengthening U.S. security efforts to conquer these changing threats will require Congress and DHS to work together.
June 30, 2009
What Americans Need to Know About Missile Defense: We're Not There Yet
By Kim R. Holmes, Ph.D., James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Peter Brookes, and Baker Spring
(WebMemo #2512)
President Obama is cutting missile defense spending by over $1 billion. This makes no sense at the same time that North Korea is testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them and when Iran may be just one year away from producing its first nuclear weapon. Washington's reluctance to pursue missile defense makes little sense because Americans overwhelmingly support missile defense. The problem is that too many of us still think we already have all we need. We don't.
June 29, 2009
Worst-Case Scenario: Dealing with WMD Must Be Part of Providing for Common Defense
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Special Report #60)
The recent Graham-Talent Commission study, A World at Risk, argues that this is no time to be complacent about weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In the decades ahead, efforts to deal with these threats have to be a cornerstone of providing for the common defense.
June 24, 2009
Maritime Security: Fighting Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Beyond
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Richard Weitz, Ph.D., and Martin Edwin Andersen
(Special Report #59)
This report provides specific recommendations for addressing piracy and other armed criminal acts at sea. It assesses the current threat in the Gulf of Aden and proposes the appropriate role for American power to protect U.S. interests and meet U.S. responsibilities to facilitate global commerce and maintain freedom of the seas.
June 12, 2009
Visa Waiver Program: A Plan to Build on Success
By Jena Baker McNeill, Nathan Alexander Sales, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Dean
(Backgrounder #2282)
Congress established the VWP to strengthen America's relationship with key allies around the globe. Recent reforms have made the program a better tool for thwarting terrorist and criminal travel as well as for combating violations of U.S. immigration laws. Congress should transfer permanent waiver authority to DHS and decouple VWP from the biometric air-exit mandate.
May 20, 2009
20 Years Later: Professional Military Education
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
The Pentagon is currently undertaking a congressionally mandated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) of strategy, force structure, missions, and resources. One issue that should be on the table is defining professional military education requirements.
May 18, 2009
Social Networking and National Security: How to Harness Web 2.0 to Protect the Country
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2273)
Social networking has already profoundly redefined business practices and politics. National security is next. Washington is well behind in its willingness and capacity to adapt to the world of Web 2.0. Congress and the Administration need to lay the foundation for the broad and effective adaptation of social networking by facilitating early and rapid adaptation of new technologies.
April 28, 2009
Strategy for Swine Flu Should Focus on Common Sense, Not the Border
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2415)
The United States should remain diligent in its efforts to control the spread of swine flu. Focusing on the border, however, will not stop the spread of the flu—but it will stop the economy.
April 27, 2009
100 Days of Obama's Presidency: Serious Questions on National Security Strategies
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2412)
Presidents must keep the nation safe, free, and prosperous for four years, not 100 days. The White House has a lot more work to do.
April 23, 2009
Set the Record Straight: Publish All Key Memos on CIA Interrogations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2406)
U.S. government officials have a solemn obligation to resist those who want to play political “lawfare” with counterterrorism policies to advance constituent agendas at the expense of the security and freedom of Americans.
April 19, 2009
Canada and the United States: Time for a Joint Threat Assessment
By James Jay Carafano, Sharon Cardash, and Frank Cilluffo
(WebMemo #2404)
A joint U.S.-Canadian threat assessment, conducted and published by the two countries, could be a powerful protective tool on both sides of the 49th parallel.
April 16, 2009
Complex Systems Analysis-A Necessary Tool for Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2261)
Many of the threats the United States faces, and many of the means available to counter them, are embedded in webs of complex systems—from the transportation networks to the electrical grids. The responsibilities of the DHS include making the complex systems that support the country more resilient to natural or man-made disasters and preventing terrorist exploitation of these systems.
April 09, 2009
President Should Merge Homeland Security Council with NSC
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2390)
President Obama should fold the Homeland Security Council into the National Security Council. Doing so would improve interagency policy planning and eliminate gaps between efforts to address transnational security threats at home and overseas.
April 08, 2009
Principles for Reform of Catastrophic Natural Disaster Insurance
By Matt A. Mayer, David C. John, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2256)
The private sector, state governments, and the federal government could take many actions short of creating a catastrophic hurricane fund (CAT) fund that would provide greater stability to the insurance market at a lower cost to most taxpayers. Those who assume the risk of living in higher risk areas should fully pay for that risk through actuarially sound insurance rates.
March 16, 2009
Why a Policy Undersecretary Office for Homeland Security Department Remains Essential
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2346)
The White House and congressional leadership should make establishing an undersecretary for policy and planning in the Department of Homeland Security a priority.
February 13, 2009
Next Steps for Immigration Reform and Workplace Enforcement
By Diem Nguyen, Matt A. Mayer, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2241)
Immigration reform will require a sustained, incremental effort to secure the border, improvements in the legal worker programs, and support for economic development in Latin America. Internal enforcement is the only mechanism that can discourage illegal immigration and persuade future migrants and employers to use the available legal avenues. This will not be feasible without methodical enforcement that brings legitimacy back to U.S. immigration law.
February 13, 2009
Executive Summary: Next Steps for Immigration Reform and Workplace Enforcement
By Diem Nguyen, Matt A. Mayer, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #2241)
Immigration reform will require a sustained, incremental effort to secure the border, improvements in the legal worker programs, and support for economic development in Latin America. Internal enforcement is the only mechanism that can discourage illegal immigration and persuade future migrants and employers to use the available legal avenues. This will not be feasible without methodical enforcement that brings legitimacy back to U.S. immigration law.
February 04, 2009
Building a Global Freedom Coalition with a New "Security for Freedom Fund"
By James Carafano, Ph.D., and Henry Brands
(Backgrounder #2236)
A Global Freedom Coalition, a flexible association of free nations whose members have both the will and the means to defeat threats to their security, should be established. The U.S. should establish a Security for Freedom Fund that revamps the entire U.S. foreign military assistance program to face the wide range of security threats in the 21st century.
January 27, 2009
Adding Visa Waiver Restrictions: The Wrong Course for Congress
By Jena Baker McNeill, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Dean
(WebMemo #2248)
Congress should not destroy the Visa Waiver Program by instituting unworkable requirements. Doing so would decrease security and alienate our allies while battering America’s already-damaged economy.
January 27, 2009
U.S.–India Strategic Partnership on Laser-Based Missile Defense
By Lisa Curtis and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2250)
Working together on directed-energy developments offers a significant opportunity to strengthen the U.S.-India strategic partnership.
January 26, 2009
Homeland Security Secretary Asks—Here Are Answers!
By James Jay Carafano, PhD.
(WebMemo #2241)
New Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano issued a directive requiring her staff to report to her by the end of the month on five top issues facing the Department of Homeland Security. While the secretary needs to get these answers from her staff, she will have to work with Congress to make substantive changes a reality.
January 26, 2009
4 Percent of GDP Defense Spending: Sustained Spending, Not Economic Stimulus
By Baker Spring, Mackenzie Eaglen, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2243)
Congress should insist on adequate defense spending in order to create a strong military.
January 16, 2009
Bush Farewell Addresses Homeland Security
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2228)
In his farewell address to the nation, President George W. Bush reflected on one of the central challenges of his Administration—responding to the threat of transnational terrorism.
January 13, 2009
Real Immigration Reform Needs Real Temporary Worker Program
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2229)
An innovative temporary worker program is a helpful tool for improving the legal means by which foreigners can fill important niches in the national workforce. A program is necessary that does not exacerbate illegal entry, and should include enforcement of the temporary nature of the program, a quota that meets employer needs, and a fast-track system for applications.
January 13, 2009
Contracting in Combat: Advice for the Commission on Wartime Contracting
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2228)
The Commission on Wartime Contracting is due to issue an interim report in 2009, which should focus on specific priorities in order to provide a blueprint for building an optimum system for contract employees in combat conditions. A new process should be implemented for determining the most effective times and missions for employing contractors and fix the lack of competent contracting officers.
January 06, 2009
Conflict in Gaza: Another Case for Directed Energy Defenses
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2186)
The new Administration has opportunity to introduce a "game changer" in the current Middle East conflict by helping speed the fielding of prototype directed-energy defenses that can devalue the threat of terrorist missile and artillery arsenals.
2008 Research
December 31, 2008
National Security Resolutions for 2009
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2182)
The United States should resolve to help make the world a better place with initiatives that keep Americans safe, free, and prosperous in the coming year. Here is a short list of commitments Washington can offer.
December 16, 2008
Building Cyber Security Leadership for the 21st Century
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Eric Sayers
(Backgrounder #2218)
A cyber-strategic leadership program is necessary for constructing a resiliency strategy (methods for ensuring that basic structures of global, national, and local economies remain strong after a cyber attack, other malicious acts, or disasters) for the 21st century. Cyber-strategic leadership is a set of knowledge, skills, and attributes essential to all leaders at all levels of government and the private sector.
December 16, 2008
Fixing Border Security and Immigration
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Special Report #33)
President-elect Obama, we applaud your commitment to secure our nation's borders, but securing our borders is simply one step toward protecting America and fixing our broken immigration system.
December 10, 2008
Lessons from Mumbai: Assessing Armed Assault Threats to the United States
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2219)
The best defense against organized armed assaults is to stop them before they occur by developing and maintaining effective counterterrorism, intelligence, and information-sharing programs. If attacks are successful, prior preparation is essential in dealing with the aftermath. This preparation must include an effective and integrated national homeland security system that brings together law enforcement, emergency responders, and federal assets.
December 08, 2008
Strengthening the Visa Waiver Program
By Jena Baker McNeill, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Dean
(Special Report #30)
President-elect Obama, your comments on the Senate floor regarding the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) demonstrate that you recognize the program's substantial public diplomacy benefits.
December 05, 2008
Assessing Plans to Deploy U.S. Military on the Homeland Security Front
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2156)
The next Administration should undertake a more deliberate and structured effort to enhance the National Guard and military reserves capabilities for domestic response. Such transformation must move forward under laws that respect federalism within fully funded policy programs.
December 03, 2008
Mumbai Massacres Prove Threat of Small Boats to National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2151)
Mumbai Massacres Prove Threat of Small Boats to National Security
December 03, 2008
Moving Forward with Ballistic Missile Defense
By Baker Spring, Peter Brookes, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Special Report #26)
President-elect Obama, during the campaign you said you were committed to protecting the United States and its allies against attacks that employ weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
November 28, 2008
After Mumbai: Could It Happen Here? What to Do
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2147)
There are dos and don’ts that should be followed in thinking about the unthinkable—armed assaults in America.
November 25, 2008
Pentagon Should Battle Pirates and Terrorists with Laser Technology
By James Jay Carafano
(WebMemo #2144)
Directed Energy Weapons, particularly those powered by lasers, have long been the stuff of science fiction. Due to recent innovations in commercial solid-state lasers and their adaptation to military uses, potential and immediate national security applications for these weapons are apparent. The Pentagon, however, has been agonizingly slow in fielding operational prototypes. This must change.
November 20, 2008
Defense Spending Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: Hype, Reality, and Real Solutions
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Eric Sayers
(Backgrounder #2212)
Government should take every responsible measure to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse. Historically, when executed well and pursued vigorously, initiatives to target fraud, waste, and abuse have improved defense management and incurred savings, but not allowed the Pentagon to substantially reduce its defense costs. Washington must focus on ensuring adequate budgets to field a robust military.
November 10, 2008
The Global Response to a Terror-Generated Energy Crisis
By William W. Beach, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., David W. Kreutzer, Ph.D., Karen A. Campbell, Ph.D., and Hopper Smith
(Center for Data Analysis Report #08-11)
In June 2008, The Heritage Foundation invited energy scholars and policy experts to participate in a computer simulation and gaming exercise assessing the economic effects of a global petroleum energy crisis. This exercise suggests reliance on market forces and coordinated security activities did much to help restore the confidence of markets and consumers.
October 30, 2008
Tackling Fraud in H–1B: Work Visas Need Sensible Oversight
By Diem Nguyen and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2119)
Congress and the Administration must work together to improve the management of the H1-B visa program and adopt reforms that will allow the program to better meet the nation’s workforce needs.
October 21, 2008
Visa Waiver Reform Ready for Next Step
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2108)
On October 17, President Bush announced that seven countries had met the requirements for admission into the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). This announcement is a positive step for visa reform. Congress should look to how it can build on the successes of VWP reform.
October 09, 2008
Securing Global Supply Chains: 10 Plus 2 Container Security Ruling Needed
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2099)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is about to issue a rule implementing its “10 plus 2” security initiative. It is about time. This rule will significantly help the department identify suspicious cargo.
September 18, 2008
Homeland Security 3.0: Building a National Enterprise to Keep America Safe, Free, and Prosperous
By David Heyman and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Special Report #23)
This task force chaired by homeland security experts from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and The Heritage Foundation (and consisting of representatives from academia, research centers, the private sector, and congressional staffs) presents its 25 recommendations. One significant theme is to treat domestic and international security concerns in a more holistic manner within the National Security Council.
September 17, 2008
Time Is Ticking: Congress Must Re-Authorize E-Verify Now
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2066)
If Congress does not reauthorize E-Verify by November, the program will expire and will no longer be available to employers. There is no reason why re-authorization of E-Verify should be held up. The program, while not perfect, is a useful tool in helping combat unlawful employment. Congress should re-authorize E-Verify.
September 15, 2008
Congress Should Establish EMP Recognition Day
By Jena Baker McNeill and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2063)
The threat of an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) attack against the United States is credible. Such a strike could have a devastating impact on the nation by disabling electrical systems, grinding the economy to a halt, and possibly resulting in the deaths of millions. Yet other than establishing a commission to study the problem and holding a handful of hearings, Congress has done virtually nothing to address the issue. Such inaction could change virtually overnight, however, if Congress held even one EMP Recognition Day.
September 01, 2008
As Gustav Lands, There Are Lessons to Be Learned
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D
(WebMemo #2041)
In the wake of Katrina, the federal government received withering criticism. These initial impressions did much to shape public perceptions, leading Congress to push for proposals that did little to improve—and in some cases detracted from—the ability of the nation to prepare for large-scale catastrophes. If these mistakes are not to be repeated after Gustav, Washington will have to be more sober in assessments of federal responsibilities for dealing with large-scale national disasters.
August 20, 2008
Russian Forces in the Georgian War: Preliminary Assessment and Recommendations
By Ariel Cohen, Ph.D., James Carafano, Ph.D., Lajos Szaszdi, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2031)
After an almost 20-year hiatus, the United States and NATO allies may once again prioritize Russia as a potential threat to the common European security. NATO should send a strong signal to Moscow that its aggression will not stand. This should be done through diplomacy, international organizations, and inventive economic measures. The U.S., its allies, and Europe must do everything possible to reverse Russian aggression against Georgia and to prevent hostile action against European countries.
August 19, 2008
Russia-Georgia War Highlights Need for Directed-Energy Defenses
By James Jay Carafano, Ph. D.
(WebMemo #2030)
For the second time in recent years, the United States has witnessed another wake-up call for the importance of fielding directed-energy weapons capable of shooting-down mortar and artillery fire, as well as intercepting short-range rockets and missiles.The Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Congress need to place more emphasis on fielding working prototypes of these systems as quickly as possible.
August 15, 2008
Polish-U.S. Missile Defense Deal Makes Sense
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2026)
The current deal with Poland may be only a child of fortune, made possible by the sudden turn of events in Georgia. Perhaps it will help serve as wake-up call for NATO. Freedom, safety, and prosperity can never be taken for granted. NATO must be revitalized and its military strength restored, leaving no uncertainty that the alliance can and will defend the sovereignty of its members against external threats.
August 13, 2008
When Electrons Attack: Cyber-Strikes on Georgia a Wake-Up Call for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2022)
Washington needs to get serious about systematically developing the cyber-strategic leaders in the public and private sector who are skilled in dealing with the complex issues of deliberate attacks in cyberspace.
August 11, 2008
Immigration: Congressional Miscue Could Compromise Federal-State Cooperation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2020)
Congress should fully fund the 287g program and allow federal and state authorities to shape assistance compacts in manner that best suits the needs of both.
August 04, 2008
Reducing Illegal Immigration: How Congress Can Support Federal Initiatives
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #2009)
Congress should learn from current federal initiatives and take responsible measures to help reduce the unlawfully present population in the United States in a manner that is effective, fair, compassionate, and gets employers the legitimate workers they need to help grow the U.S. economy.
June 25, 2008
Risk and Resiliency: Developing the Right Homeland Security Public Policies for the Post-Bush Era
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
Testimony before the Sub-Committee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection Committee on Homeland Security United States House of Representatives
June 25, 2008
Border Inspection "Search" Strategies: Managing Risk and Focusing Resources
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
Testimony before Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate
June 24, 2008
Resiliency and Public-Private Partnerships to Enhance Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2150)
To make it easier for the U.S. government, state and local jurisdictions, and America’s allies to adopt strategies of resiliency, Congress and the Administration should establish improved public–private risk-management models with reasonable roles for government and industry, encourage bilateral cooperation on liability issues, develop national and international forums to increase collaboration, and promote the development of resilient public infrastructure.
June 23, 2008
Naturalization, Citizenship, and Presidential Elections: Lessons for 2008
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2147)
Any undue pressure to speed up naturalization processing before the 2008 national elections would likely repeat the failures of the 1996 Citizenship USA (CUSA) program. Instead of pressing for short-term action, Congress and the Administration should think seriously about long-term reform that will allow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to accommodate the demands of the future.
June 13, 2008
Scanning for Common Sense: Congressional Container Security Mandate Questioned
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1955)
Yesterday, in a hearing before a subcommittee of the Senate Science, Commerce, and Transportation Committee, Homeland Security officials briefed legislators on the results of the Secure Freight Initiative (SFI) test. Congressionally mandated, the SFI test evaluated the feasibility of scanning 100 percent of the over 11 million oceangoing containers shipped annually to the United States. The report concluded that such a requirement would be impractical and unwise.
May 21, 2008
Fighting Terrorism, Addressing Liability: A Global Proposal
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2138)
The SAFETY Act provides protections to manufacturers, distributors, and providers of anti-terrorism technologies for cases under the jurisdiction of U.S. courts, but terrorism is a global threat. Other countries should consider similar liability-protection regimes to encourage the industrial base of all free nations to develop and adopt the best anti-terrorist tools no matter where they are manufactured or employed.
May 16, 2008
Homeland Security in the Next Administration
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #1085)
The Department of Homeland Security has received disparate and, at times, contradictory direction from Congress, which has resulted in a plethora of unrealistic mandates. Congress's first objective should be to address the lack of effective congressional leadership, and consolidate congressional oversight.
April 30, 2008
Petraeus Hearing Should Focus on Three Fronts, One Long War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Lisa Curtis
(WebMemo #1908)
During the upcoming confirmation hearings, senators from both sides of the aisle should make clear to the incoming the U.S. Central Command commander that winning all three fronts is vital to American interests and that they will do everything in their power to support accomplishing these goals.
April 30, 2008
Checking Out! A Proposal for Land Border Exit Checks to Improve Visa Management
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1909)
The United States Visitor and Immi¬gration Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program was established by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to record foreign visitors and workers leaving the country.
April 28, 2008
The United States and Mexico: Helping One Another, Helping Ourselves
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1901)
The United States and Mexico share many of the same problems, including immigration challenges, inadequate border security, and drug smuggling. The two nations do not adequately collaborate to address these issues, despite common goals: defeating the drug cartels, economic development, and finding solutions to America's immigration crisis and broken border.
April 17, 2008
Moving Forward to Secure the Border
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1894)
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has issued two waivers of laws hindering barrier construction and security improvements on the border with Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already built 309 miles of border obstacles, and these waivers will facilitate improvements on about 500 miles of border infrastructure. One waiver addresses environmental and land management laws that applied to about 470 miles across four border states; the other addresses a 22-mile levee-border project in Hidalgo, Texas. The waivers were issued on April 1, 2008, and will become effective upon their publication in the Federal Register.
April 09, 2008
Next Steps for Homeland Security
By James Carafano
(Testimony #9999)
Next Steps for Homeland Security
April 04, 2008
All Aboard: Fifty States Now Compliant with Real ID
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Charles Stimson, Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1886)
This past week, the state of Maine agreed to comply with Real ID regulations. Maine was the last state to agree to comply with Real ID, making this a remarkable cornerstone for the program. All 56 U.S. jurisdictions and states have either complied with the law to implement Real ID security standards by May 11, 2008, or have applied for an extension of the deadline for security improvements.
March 28, 2008
Iraq: Pause in Troop Drawdown Makes Sense
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Phillips
(WebMemo #1871)
The Bush Administration and Congress should fully support the recommendation on force levels from the commander on the ground.
March 13, 2008
Principles for Stability Operations and State-Building
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #1067)
Historically, the United States has done very poor job of post-conflict planning before and during conflicts. In order to be successful in a post-conflict setting there must be a sound doctrine based on principles of process, principles of purpose, and principles of peace.
March 12, 2008
Securing the High Seas: America's Global Maritime Constabulary Power
By Mackenzie M. Eaglen, James Dolbow, Martin Edwin Andersen, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Special Report #20)
To meet 21st century threats to freedom and world commerce, greater emphasis needs to be placed on bolstering the Navy’s core warfighting mission while expanding the role of the Coast Guard to include its leading participation in the creation of a global constabulary that is equipped to carry out a growing range of both traditional and non-traditional missions and requirements.
February 29, 2008
Competitive Technologies for National Security: Review and Recommendations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Andrew Gudgel, and Alane Kochems
(Special Report #21)
Emerging technologies will provide capabilities that include protection and possible immunity against biological agents, better screening at airports and ports, more efficient information-gathering and information-sharing techniques, and better armor for our troops. These fields will be at the center of scientific advances for years to come and perhaps will redefine not only our national security capabilities, but also how we conduct our daily lives.
February 26, 2008
U.S.-Czech Agreement Is a Model for Visa Reform
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1828)
Czech participation in the Visa Waiver Program will improve security and facilitate travel.
February 19, 2008
Providing for the Common Defense: What 10 Years of Progress Would Look Like
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, and Mackenzie M. Eaglen
(Backgrounder #2108)
The U.S. military must cap manpower costs, adapt Reserve Component forces, maintain access to cutting-edge technologies, deploy a robust missile defense system, obtain military space capabilities, and modernize the nuclear weapons force to address post–Cold War requirements. Congress should fund national defense at no less than 4 percent of GDP for the next 10 years and reform entitlement spending.
February 19, 2008
Executive Summary: Providing for the Common Defense: What 10 Years of Progress Would Look Like
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, and Mackenzie M. Eaglen
(Executive Summary #2108)
The U.S. military must cap manpower costs, adapt Reserve Component forces, maintain access to cutting-edge technologies, deploy a robust missile defense system, obtain military space capabilities, and modernize the nuclear weapons force to address post–Cold War requirements. Congress should fund national defense at no less than 4 percent of GDP for the next 10 years and reform entitlement spending.
February 08, 2008
Combating Enemies Online: State-Sponsored and Terrorist Use of the Internet
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2105)
The United States is not defenseless in the face of illicit exploitation of computer networks. Both the government and the private sector have developed significant capabilities. Effectively combating enemies online will require a concerted national effort, particularly in acquiring commercial capabilities and services, managing military intelligence and information technology programs, and developing a corps of professional national security practitioners.
February 07, 2008
DHS Gets Real ID Right
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1801)
It is time for states to accept the responsibility for implementing Real ID.
February 01, 2008
Northern Exposure: The Right Way to Address U.S.-Canadian Counterterrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.,
(Backgrounder #2104)
To achieve a broader defense structure and implement policies that do not involve adding additional layers of bureaucracy to an already congested problem, the U.S. and Canada should focus on better coordination on visa policies and trade security, increased cross-border law enforcement, enhanced cooperation in maritime security, and renewed efforts to spur private development of cross-border infrastructure.
January 31, 2008
Thwarting Terrorists While Protecting Innocents: The Material Support and Related Provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Brian W. Walsh, J. Kelly Ryan, and Paul S. Rosenzweig
(Heritage Lecture #1057)
Restrictions enacted into law after 9/11 barred persons who provided any kind of support to a group of persons viewed as terrorists from entering the U.S. The laws were also interpreted to cover those who under duress and the threat of harm to themselves or their families were forced to provide the terrorists with food, housing, or other material support. The Administration and Congress have been working to remedy this problem and allow more otherwise eligible and honorable applicants for admission, refugees, and asylees to settle in America.
January 31, 2008
Congress Must Stop Playing Politics with FISA and National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Robert Alt, and Andrew M. Grossman
(WebMemo #1791)
Congress's 15-day extension of the Protect America Act puts intelligence-gatherers in an impossible situation.
January 30, 2008
A Second Look at Container Security: Lessons from Hong Kong
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1788)
Inspecting 100 percent of shipping containers makes little sense from a security or economic standpoint.
January 11, 2008
Making REAL ID Real-Finally
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1773)
Congress should fully fund the budget request for REAL ID implementation.
2007 Research
December 31, 2007
Homeland Security: Five New Year's Resolutions for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1763)
After a bad year for homeland security in Congress, the body should adopt five resolutions for the New Year.
December 31, 2007
Taxing Visitors Is the Wrong Way to Promote the United States
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1764)
Congress should do its own job better and leave travel promotion to the private sector.
December 31, 2007
A New Year's Resolution: Implement Visa Waiver Reform by End of 2008
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1765)
These reforms will ease travel into the United States while simultaneously strengthening safety and security.
December 28, 2007
Grassroots Disaster Response: Harnessing the Capacities of Communities
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Jennifer A. Marshall, and Lauren Calco Hammond
(Backgrounder #2094)
The survivors of a major disaster require immediate, personal relief, and the government is simply not equipped to provide for all of these needs, especially survivors’ spiritual needs. By partnering with faith-based and community groups before a disaster, America’s local, state, and federal governments can help survivors receive a higher quality of immediate attention and guarantee long-term support.
December 19, 2007
The Pentagon's Robots: Arming the Future
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Andrew Gudgel
(Backgrounder #2093)
America's capability to seize and maintain a strategic advantage in robotic national security applications could be lost without sustained and focused commitment from the Administration and Congress. Congress should provide adequate funding, encourage increased coordination, and craft policies that encourage prudent investment in robotic technology.
December 18, 2007
The Omnibus: "Stealth" Security Provision Is Unnecessary
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1753)
This policy rider threatens both the economy and the integrity of the lawmaking process.
November 13, 2007
U.S. Thwarts 19 Terrorist Attacks Against America Since 9/11
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2085)
The list of arrests as a result of effective counterterrorism investigations by the United States in cooperation with other governments demonstrates conclusively that terrorist organizations have not relinquished their essential goals. Continuing these operations, which include sound, effective, and lawful intelligence, surveillance, and investigations, is one of the best weapons in America’s arsenal for the long war.
October 31, 2007
Grading Cybersecurity Initiatives: Six Necessary Components
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1684)
Such initiatives should meet all of the nation's priorities: enhancing security, promoting economic growth, and preserving liberty and privacy.
October 31, 2007
AgJOBS Immigration Bill Is Stealth Amnesty
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1685)
Congress should reform and expand programs for visiting agricultural workers rather than use farm bill legislation to pass stealth amnesty.
October 30, 2007
Emissions Mandates Would Undermine National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Oliver Horn
(WebMemo #1683)
The Carbon-Neutral Government Act of 2007 offers an unnecessary and dangerous strategy for reducing the military’s energy demands.
October 24, 2007
National Disaster Planning Slowed by Inadequate Interagency Process
By Matt A. Mayer and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2079)
Six years after 9/11, the federal government still lacks a comprehensive regime for planning and preparing for large-scale disasters. Fixing the problem will require renewed vigor from the Administration in setting clear policy guidelines, particularly in implementing a National Exercise Program, emphasizing the priority of interagency disaster preparedness for the National Planning Scenarios, and improving professional development.
October 23, 2007
The DREAM Act: Senate Could Soon Vote on "Stealth" Amnesty Bill
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1674)
S. 2205 would undermine the rule of law and encourage further illegal entry and unlawful presence in the United States.
October 18, 2007
Enhancing International Collaboration for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2078)
The United States stands to reap enormous security benefits from improved security abroad. By establishing multinational homeland defense education and training initiatives and mobile training teams similar to the Defense Department’s IMET program, the DHS could significantly enhance foreign national homeland security expertise and performance while establishing critical relationships with foreign governments and civilian personnel.
October 15, 2007
Congress Should Act on Social Security "No Match" Sharing for Immigration Enforcement
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1663)
Rather than wait for a court battle to resolve the issue, Congress should craft legislation making it more difficult for persons unlawfully present in the United States to illegally obtain work.
October 10, 2007
New Homeland Security Strategy Misses the Mark
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1659)
The Administration's new strategy obfuscates rather than clarifies the government’s homeland security mission.
September 24, 2007
Treatment of Detainees and Unlawful Combatants: Selected Writings on Guantanamo Bay
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Steven Groves, and Janice Smith
(Special Report #17)
The research presented in The Heritage Foundation’s Guantanamo Bay collection clearly indicates that Congress should not interfere with the U.S. military’s policy of detaining unlawful alien enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay. The United States is engaged in an ongoing armed conflict against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and therefore has no obligation—legal, moral, or otherwise—to release captured enemy soldiers so that they may return to the battlefield. Short-sighted legislation extending unprecedented rights to foreign terrorists and other enemy combatants undermines U.S. troops deployed in the field in Afghanistan and Iraq. These detainees should not be released until the cessation of hostilities in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
September 21, 2007
Nanotechnology and National Security: Small Changes, Big Impact
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Andrew Gudgel
(Backgrounder #2071)
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, leaders in both the legislative and executive branches essentially discarded public diplomacy as a Cold War relic. Since 9/11, the situation has improved only marginally if at all. To restore America’s voice, government leaders should draw on the nation's Cold War legacy to lay the foundation for the next generation of public diplomacy.
September 19, 2007
The House's Anti-Terror Insurance Bill: Unnecessary Corporate Welfare
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1623)
Congress should reject any reauthorization of TRIA, for any period of time.
September 19, 2007
The Ag JOBS Act: Immigration Amnesty Revived
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1626)
The Senate's latest vehicle for granting amnesty to illegal immigrants promises an even easier route to legal status than the summer's failed comprehensive immigration reform bill.
September 16, 2007
"Cut and Run Lite": Congressional Iraq Proposal Puts Troops at Risk
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1618)
Congress limiting deployments would tie Pentagon planners' hands and force a de facto drawdown of U.S. force levels in Iraq.
September 11, 2007
Six Years After 9/11: Are We Safe Yet?
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1609)
America has done well in protecting itself against terrorist attacks, but there are signs that Congress is losing its focus.
September 06, 2007
Court Stops Social Security "No-Match" Immigration Enforcement: Lessons for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1600)
Next steps for Congress and the Administration after a federal court enjoins new workplace enforcement measures.
September 04, 2007
Visas for Heroes: Congressional Action Needed to Safeguard America’s Friends
By James Jay Carafano and Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1598)
Congress and the Administration must reform U.S. laws and procedures to provide increased opportunities for Iraqi refugees to come to the United States.
August 22, 2007
Release of CIA Report on 9/11: Simple Lessons for the Long War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1589)
The message the media missed: The best way to combat terrorism is concerted and sustained intelligence and counterterrorism operations.
August 03, 2007
After the 9/11 Act: Homeland Security Grants Still Moving in the Wrong Direction
By Matt A. Mayer and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D
(Backgrounder #2059)
The Department of Homeland Security is still struggling to keep homeland security grants from becoming just another federal entitlement, and Congress has passed a bill that will make the DHS’s job more difficult. Congress needs to eliminate minimum grant allocations, boost matching requirements, consolidate grant categories, and require the DHS to conduct a full assessment of national capabilities.
August 01, 2007
Terrorists in Their Own Words
By James Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2057)
U.S. security depends on bolstering the security of Muslims against the menace of Islamist totalitarian movements. Such unified action requires consensus: a common view of the nature of the threat and the war and a common vision of how to respond. Listening to the terrorists' own words and taking them seriously is the first step in winning the long war.
July 25, 2007
If Iran Provokes an Energy Crisis: Modeling the Problem in a War Game
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and William W. Beach
(Center for Data Analysis Report #07-03)
A focused but restrained use of military power oriented toward objectives that address vital national interests would demonstrate U.S. determination to uphold freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, help to calm global markets, and reassure American consumers, and measures liberalizing energy policies and rolling back regulatory restrictions would allow the marketplace to work to meet global energy needs.
July 23, 2007
National Security and Biotechnology: Small Science with a Big Potential
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Andrew Gudgel
(Backgrounder #2055)
Because dual-use biotechnologies developed in the private sector offer powerful tools to protect Americans from biological threats and to increase the military’s operational capabilities, the federal government should promote international liability protection for developing and deploying new national security goods and services, promote scientific travel and exchanges, and assign a lead agency to coordinate biotechnology exploitation for national security.
July 17, 2007
The Levin-Reed Amendment on Iraq: Cut in the U.N. and Run
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Phillips
(WebMemo #1558)
Congress should reject cut and run and instead allow the military to finish the job of training Iraqi security forces that are capable of supporting the government, dealing with sectarian violence, and protecting the civilian population.
July 13, 2007
Keeping the Skies Friendly: Next Steps for General Aviation Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2051)
The national effort to make the skies safer should include bolstering the DHS, the Coast Guard, and local law enforcement air assets to patrol for threats from general aviation aircraft; integrating border security into general aviation security; a Trusted Pilot Program; interoperable databases between government agencies; and new technologies, such as GPS locators and biometric pilot’s licenses.
July 12, 2007
Congress Deserves Praise for Dropping Collective Bargaining with Security Screeners
By James Sherk and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1551)
Forcing the TSA to collectively bargain would endanger American lives. Members of Congress from both parties deserve praise for striking this harmful provision.
July 10, 2007
Deployment-Length Amendment Is First Step Toward "Cut and Run" In Iraq
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1544)
Legislating combat deployment schedules would limit the Commander in Chief's flexibility during war and would be the first step toward cutting and running from Iraq.
July 05, 2007
Future Computing and Cutting-Edge National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Andrew Gudgel
(Backgrounder #2049)
Data mining and cognitive computers are powerful tools that could greatly improve the identification, analysis, and decision-making capabilities in homeland security and defense. Congress not only should be aware of these computing technologies, but also should encourage their development by creating policy that establishes clear guidelines for responsible use within constitutional limits without impeding future development.
July 05, 2007
The War on Terrorism: Habeas Corpus On and Off the Battlefield
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1535)
Extending habeas corpus rights to unlawful enemy combatants would impede military operations, undermine the laws of war, and unnecessarily burden an already fair legal process.
June 27, 2007
Mission Possible: Homeland Security Should Focus on Current Mandates, Not New Missions
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1527)
Rather than pile more responsibilities on DHS by granting amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, Congress should let the department fulfill its current missions, such as gaining control of the southern border, using its current authorities.
June 26, 2007
Illegal Immigration Alternatives: How States Should Respond
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1526)
Withdrawing benefits for illegal immigrants is a strategy far superior to the Senate bill's focus on amnesty first.
June 22, 2007
Gitmo Debate Misses the Point
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1520)
Moving jails won't change the United States' responsibilities in the war on terrorism.
June 20, 2007
Immigration Amendments Undermine REAL ID and Workplace Enforcement
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1516)
Two amendments to the Senate's immigration bill would undermine efforts to strengthen the security and authenticity of state-issued identity documents and to enforce immigration laws in the workplace.
June 15, 2007
Enduring Alliances Empower America's Long-War Strategy
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Sally McNamara
(Backgrounder #2042)
Enduring alliances should be the centerpiece of America's long-war strategy, but they will require a concerted U.S. effort to facilitate secure travel and interchange between America and its friends and allies, a shared common vision that enhances public diplomacy so that America can better make its case on the world stage, and creating new opportunities for security cooperation.
June 15, 2007
Throwing Money at the Problem No Solution to Immigration and Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1508)
The Senate immigration bill would undermine current efforts to better enforce existing laws. Instead, Congress and the Administration should take modest steps that would strengthen national security and serve a growing economy.
June 12, 2007
Collective Bargaining for Defense and DHS Would Undermine National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Sherk
(WebMemo #1498)
Congress considers collective bargaining policies that would empower unions at the expense of national security.
June 12, 2007
A New Strategy for Real Immigration Reform
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D. and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1499)
Rather than reviving the failed and unworkable approach of "comprehensive" immigration reform, Congress should pursue an incremental strategy based on enforcing existing laws, along with a few modest, common-sense legislative initiatives.
June 12, 2007
The Homeland Security Authorization Bill
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1500)
Passing an annual authorization bill and further consolidating committee jurisdiction over DHS will show that Congress takes its responsibility for national security seriously.
June 12, 2007
Reject Pork in Homeland Security Appropriations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Garrett Murch, and Diem Nguyen
(WebMemo #1502)
Earmarking homeland security funding would prevent the DHS from establishing the most effective national security system possible.
June 11, 2007
Small Boats, Big Worries: Thwarting Terrorist Attacks from the Sea
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2041)
For the United States to develop a comprehensive and multilayered approach to homeland security, it must address the small-boat threat by (1) developing plans to improve U.S. situational awareness rather than defend against specific threat types and (2) investing in measures that bolster the U.S. economy and provide the best return for the amount spent.
June 05, 2007
What to Do With the Unlawfully Present Population? A Fair and Practical Strategy
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1487)
Rather than grant amnesty, Congress should use law enforcement and market forces to end America’s addiction to undocumented labor and create legitimate opportunities for immigrants.
June 04, 2007
Senate Immigration Reform No Fix for Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1483)
Congress's proposal would not improve border security. Fixing it will require major changes.
May 31, 2007
Senate Immigration Reform Bill Neglects Immigration Services
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1477)
The Senate's immigration proposal would vastly expand USCIS's workload but do little to ensure that the agency is capable of handling the task.
May 30, 2007
1986 Redux: Proposed Senate Immigration Reform Repeats Past Failure
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1476)
The 1986 bill granted amnesty, then tried to enforce the law, and created a poor alternative to undocumented labor. It failed. The current bill follows exactly the same strategy.
May 10, 2007
Spending Smarter: Prioritizing Homeland Security Grants by Using National Standards and Risk Criteria
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. and Matt A. Mayer
(Backgrounder #2033)
It is past time to build a national disaster preparedness and response system grounded on the Department of Homeland Security's Target Capabilities List and to allocate funds based strictly on whether funding requests would build the right capabilities in the right places at the right level. This would minimize or eliminate underinvestment in some areas and overinvestment in others.
May 08, 2007
Making REAL ID A Reality - Concerns, Challenges, Choices, Solutions
By James Carafano
(Testimony #9999)
The attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath have renewed Washington's focus on the importance of reaching out to foreign audiences, particularly within the Muslim world, in order to boost support for U.S. values and policies.
May 08, 2007
FEMA and Federalism: Washington Is Moving in the Wrong Direction
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Matt A. Mayer
(Backgrounder #2032)
The United States needs a disaster response system that is built on the principle of federalism. FEMA should focus its efforts on preparing to respond to catastrophic disasters like Hurricane Katrina, and Congress should establish a higher threshold for triggering federal disaster declarations and encourage states and local communities to implement responsible public safety and emergency response programs.
May 04, 2007
The Real Importance of REAL ID: A Strategy for Saving the Secure Driver's License Initiative
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1024)
REAL ID is the right answer at the right time. National standards for driver's licenses will combat crime, thwart terrorists, discourage employment of undocumented workers, and better protect the privacy of individuals. Congress needs to appropriate the funds to "kick start" the REAL ID program, and the Administration should encourage the states to implement national standards.
April 30, 2007
After the Veto: Next Steps for Congress on the War Funding Bill
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1437)
Further delay by Congress will harm U.S. interests, undermine the training and readiness of the armed forces, and jeopardize the lives of the young soldiers on the battlefield.
April 23, 2007
Stopping Surprise Attacks: Thinking Smarter About Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Frank J. Cilluffo, Richard Weitz, Ph.D., and Jan Lane
(Backgrounder #2026)
The 9/11 Commission concluded that America's anti-terrorism defenses suffer from a "lack of imagination," with gaps between intelligence agencies and a lack of coordination between intelligence and law enforcement creating space for terrorist cells to operate on U.S. soil. This makes net assessment capabilities even more critical to defeating a terrorist adversary that is continuously learning and adapting.
April 10, 2007
Four Percent for Freedom: Maintaining Robust National Security Spending
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, and Mackenzie M. Eaglen
(Executive Memorandum #1023)
Congress and the President should commit to spending 4 percent of GDP on national defense even after any drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan or Iraq, both to prevent a recurrence of the “hollow force” and to meet immediate modernization needs, and reform the major entitlement programs that threaten the budget and the economy over the long term.
March 29, 2007
Improving Emergency Communications: Lessons from Grading America's Cities
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2021)
Congress can help to build a national emergency management communications capacity that serves Americans well during disasters and national catastrophes, but to do so efficiently and effectively, Members need to resist the temptation merely to throw more resources and requirements at the problem and concentrate on federal initiatives that empower local leadership, nurture good governance, and encourage regional cooperation.
March 28, 2007
Thinking for the Long War: Strategic Planning and Review for the Department of Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #1008)
Nowhere is the need for a detailed assessment on the scale of the Quadrennial Defense Review more important than in the area of homeland security. In addition to defense and homeland security, attention should be given to U.S. public diplomacy and foreign assistance programs, the defense industrial base, the intelligence community, and the use of space for national security purposes.
March 21, 2007
Thinking for the Long War: Strategic Planning and Review for the Department of Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano
(Testimony #9999)
Mr. Chairman and other distinguished Members, I am honored to testify before you today. America must consider more deeply the requirements for fighting and winning the long war. In my opening statement, I want to make the case that Congress needs comprehensive assessments of the nation's homeland security programs and an independent review that evaluates how national defense and homeland security programs fit within the context of the overall interagency national security effort.
March 19, 2007
Improve the Visa Waiver Program with Exit Checks for New Participants
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Helle C. Dale, and James Dean
(WebMemo #1400)
A simple way to move forward in instituting a mandatory exit registry program in a practical, affordable, and reasonable manner.
March 14, 2007
Heritage at the Border: Ideas That Make a Difference
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1395)
The author's visit to the border region provides insight into border security and immigration reform.
February 28, 2007
Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security Requires Better Immigration Services
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Matt A. Mayer
(Backgrounder #2011)
Congress needs to establish a better model to pay for immigration services, to fund the transformation of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services capabilities, and to enable the USCIS to work more effectively as part of an interagency team. The longer Congress waits, the longer it will take to deliver the border and immigration security that America needs and deserves.
February 26, 2007
Congress's Unprincipled Proposals on Iraq Could Put Lives and Nation at Risk
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1371)
Congress must not take battlefield decisions away from commanders or undermine the commander-in-chief's capacity to defend the nation.
February 23, 2007
Rail Security Requires Patience, Not Pork or More Regulation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1021)
The federal government has completed a national vulnerability assessment of the rail system, issued additional regulations, developed law enforcement support teams, and allocated millions for training, planning, and exercises. Instead of throwing more money and laws at the problem, Congress should focus on its oversight responsibility to ensure that these programs are implemented efficiently and effectively.
February 14, 2007
A "Rucksack" for U.S. Military Personnel: Modernizing Military Compensation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1020)
A "rucksack" of health care and retirement benefits that military personnel select themselves and can carry with them would help the Pentagon get the military that it needs when it needs it while helping to rein in spiraling manpower costs and could also become a model for the civilian workforce of the future.
February 12, 2007
The Senate Homeland Security Bill: More Hits Than Misses
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1354)
The contrast between the Senate’s Improving America’s Security Act of 2007 (S. 4) and the legislation passed last month in the House, the Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007 (H.R. 1), is stark. While purporting to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, the House bill offered little more than “bait and switch” security, containing a hodge-podge of “bumper sticker” election-year promises that had little do with either the 9/11 Commission’s report or the real homeland security needs of the United States. The draft bill to be introduced in the Senate, however, focuses mostly on practical measures for addressing priority issues.
February 08, 2007
Bush's Budget: Protecting Homeland Security and Defense by Reining in Entitlements
By Baker Spring, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Alison Acosta Fraser, Brian M. Riedl, and Will Packer
(WebMemo #1352)
The most important feature of the President’s budget proposal is its focus on reining in the crushing costs of entitlement programs like Medicare while adequately funding national defense and homeland security.
February 06, 2007
Bush's Homeland Security Budget: Dollars that Make Sense.
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1343)
The Administration has offered a sound blueprint for homeland security. Congress should follow its lead.
February 02, 2007
Homeland Security Spending for the Long War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #989)
The U.S. is spending the right amount on homeland security. However, Congress should adhere to a set of strategic principles to create a comprehensive approach to homeland security spending. To ensure adequate spending on homeland security over the long term, Congress will have to address entitlement spending.
February 01, 2007
Executive Summary: How to Fix the 100 Hours Homeland Security Bill
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, James Sherk, Brian W. Walsh, Lisa Curtis, and Helle C. Dale
(Executive Summary #2003)
Executive Summary: The Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007, passed by the House as a part of the Speaker’s “100 Hours” agenda, muddles the mission of providing homeland security with misguided proposals. Congress should replace the most troubling provisions of H.R. 1 with initiatives that are more consistent with the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations.
February 01, 2007
How to Fix the 100 Hours Homeland Security Bill
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, James Sherk, Brian W. Walsh, Lisa Curtis, and Helle C. Dale
(Backgrounder #2003)
The Implementing the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007, passed by the House as a part of the Speaker’s “100 Hours” agenda, muddles the mission of providing homeland security with misguided proposals. Congress should replace the most troubling provisions of H.R. 1 with initiatives that are more consistent with the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations.
January 31, 2007
Nine Essential Points for Talking About the War on Terrorism
By James Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1019)
Winning the war on terrorism requires understanding the enemy, delegitimizing its view of the world, offering a credible alternative, and demonstrating the will to prevail. Using the right words and ideas can help to achieve victory against a totalitarian Islamic ideology that manipulates religious words and ideas to impose its goals on both Muslims and non-Muslims through violence.
January 24, 2007
State of the Union 2007: A Renewed Call for Immigration Reform
By Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1327)
While the President's proposal for comprehensive reform contains several positive elements, it still contains a fundamental flaw: amnesty.
January 23, 2007
Thinking Differently About Winning the Peace
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #987)
Winning the peace is part of fighting and winning the war. Historically, American occupations tend to be ad hoc affairs. We do a poor job at interagency operations and we expect war-fighting military structures to adapt to post-conflict operations. We should put in place a structure better suited to 21st century wars.
January 22, 2007
Rethinking Research, Development, and Acquisition for Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #2000)
After five years, reorganization of the Directorate for Science and Technology is unfinished business that the Department of Homeland Security can no longer ignore. The S&T mission needs to become more focused, and the directorate needs to learn to partner better with other agencies and international partners and to manage its assets and resources better.
January 11, 2007
Congressional Measure Undermines Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1017)
Congress was right to insist that the Administration intensify its efforts to provide the law enforcement needed to secure the border, but it was wrong to prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from using non-federal instructors as trainers, which would help the DHS to meet its surge training demands efficiently and effectively. Congress should fix this problem now.
January 10, 2007
Promoting Security and Civil Liberties: The Role of Data Mining in Combating Terrorism.
By James J. Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
Even though I appreciate the opportunity to testify before the committee, I must state at the outset that I reject the premise of this hearing.
January 09, 2007
100-Hours Homeland Security Bill Not Ready for Prime Time
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1302)
To avoid damaging U.S. homeland security operations and wasting taxpayers' money, Congress should strip the most troubling provisions from this legislation.
January 05, 2007
Negroponte Departs with Intelligence Reform Still a Work in Progress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1299)
Much work remains to be done to finish the job of creating the intelligence community America needs.
January 04, 2007
Testing the House's Homeland Security Agenda
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1297)
Three tell-tale signs of whether the Democrats' homeland security legislation is thoughtfully constructed to help keep America secure, free, and prosperous.
2006 Research
December 15, 2006
Evaluating Emergency Supplemental Spending: Advice for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Mackenzie M. Eaglen, and Baker Spring
(WebMemo #1288)
Congress should use emergency supplemental spending to provide our armed forces in the field with the support they need while being a good steward of tax dollars and providing appropriate oversight of federal programs.
December 06, 2006
The Iraq Study Group Report: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
By James Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1278)
With one exception, the Iraq Study Group provides a thoughtful approach to moving forward in Iraq.
December 05, 2006
The Gates Confirmation Hearing: Congress Must Focus on Defense Essentials
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1275)
Prudent confirmation hearings should focus on the near-term issues that can be addressed and will have the greatest long-term impact on national security.
December 05, 2006
Gates Confirmation Hearing Focuses on Right Issues
By Mackenzie M. Eaglen and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1277)
The confirmation hearing of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense focused on the war in Iraq and the broader war on terrorism, equipment modernization, the size of the military, and defense spending.
November 30, 2006
President's Proposed Visa Waiver Program Reforms Strengthen Fight Against Terror
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Laura P. Keith
(WebMemo #1268)
President Bush’s proposed reforms for the Visa Waiver Program would create better, more flexible security standards and open up business and trade.
November 22, 2006
State and Local Law Enforcement's Key Role in Better, Faster, Cheaper Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1015)
Federal support for border security policing should be viewed as a short-term bridging program to secure the border now, not as a pork-barrel program allocated through earmarks. To fund these efforts, Congress and the Administration should plan to allocate about $400 million per year over three years out of the projected spending on homeland security grants.
November 09, 2006
The Pentagon's Inadequate Vision for Safeguarding U.S. Soil: What’s Needed from the Reserve Components
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #975)
National Guard forces ought to large and robust and dual-use, suitable for domestic missions at home and many of the tasks our military is called on to perform overseas.
November 08, 2006
After Rumsfeld: Next Steps for the National Defense
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1251)
Defense priorities for Congress and the next Secretary of Defense.
November 08, 2006
A Border Security Strategy for Bush and Calderón: Improve Cooperation Between the U.S. and Mexico
By Stephen Johnson and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1252)
An agenda to substantially reduce the illegal border crossing that fuels criminal activity on both sides.
October 16, 2006
Missing Pieces in Homeland Security: Interagency Education, Assignments, and Professional Accreditation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1013)
Congress created the Department of Homeland Security partly to lead a national effort of federal, state, and local governments, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector, but building a core of homeland security professionals has hardly begun. Education, assignment, and accreditation are tools that can be applied to developing professionals for homeland security and other critical interagency national security activities.
October 05, 2006
Homeland Security Technology, Global Partnerships, and Winning the Long War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Jonah J. Czerwinski, and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1977)
The Department of Homeland Security’s most urgent task is to develop an international science and technology strategy to improve the coherence of DHS foreign efforts, including the sharing of critical homeland security technologies. The DHS also needs to establish a clearinghouse of existing technologies that describes the technologies, their capabilities, and their possible missions.
October 05, 2006
The Dangerous Consequences of Cutting and Running in Iraq
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Phillips
(Executive Memorandum #1012)
A precipitous withdrawal of U.S. support would have disastrous results for Iraq, its neighbors, and U.S. national interests. The Administration needs to complete the training of Iraqi security forces, support Iraq’s new democratic government, and eventually turn the future of Iraq over to the only people who can ensure long-term success—the Iraqis.
September 29, 2006
Coming to America: Initiatives for Better, Faster, and More Secure Visas
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Brian C. Goebel, and Josh Kussman
(Backgrounder #1976)
Congress and the Administration should improve the visa issuance system by creating a risk management system to separate low-risk applicants from high-risk applicants; defining more clearly the roles of consular officers, visa security officers, and other personnel involved in the visa review process and enhancing their training; expanding the Visa Security Program; and establishing a visa ombudsman authority.
September 22, 2006
Congress Should Act on Directed-Energy Defenses That Could Protect Israel from Hezbollah’s Short-Range Rockets
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1220)
If Congress acts fast, these defenses could be deployed in time to make a difference.
September 18, 2006
Congress Should Compromise on Military Commissions
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1216)
Establishing military commissions to try terrorists should not be a battleground for debating the president's ability to interpret the Geneva Conventions.
September 18, 2006
New Evidence for a New Visa Waiver Policy
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1217)
A new report strengthens the case for expanding the visa waiver program.
September 15, 2006
Homeland Security Grant Reform: Congressional Inaction Must End
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Jamie Metzl
(Backgrounder #1971)
Few public reports in American history have had more impact than the report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
September 14, 2006
Build on Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act to Boost State and Local Immigration Enforcement
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1212)
A smart way to boost border security and immigration enforcement without imposing a broad mandate on state and local governments.
September 11, 2006
Congress Can Honor 9/11 Anniversary by Doing the Right Thing
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1209)
Congress should not let is eagerness to act preempt good policy.
September 08, 2006
U.S. Military Policy in Iraq: "Cut and Run" a Disaster for the U.S. and the Middle East
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Phillips
(WebMemo #1207)
Abandoning the cause of freedom and democracy in Iraq would hurt Iraqis and Americans for decades to come.
September 07, 2006
Immigration Enforcement: A Better Idea for Returning Illegal Aliens
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1011)
Getting immigration and border security right requires a quick and efficient means of getting large numbers of illegal aliens to return voluntarily to their home countries. The best solution would be for Congress to establish a privately funded national trust fund that legitimate nongovernmental organizations could use to help unlawfully present persons to return to their places of origin.
September 06, 2006
Better, Faster, and Cheaper Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Brian W. Walsh, David B. Muhlhausen, Ph.D., Laura P. Keith, and David D. Gentilli
(Backgrounder #1967)
U.S. border security strategy should employ a mix of resources in addition to Border Patrol agents, including state and local authorities, the National Guard, and private contractors. The DHS should heed the lessons learned from other large-scale contracting activities and should view border security as encompassing not only land borders, but air and sea borders as well.
September 05, 2006
Lessons from Lebanon: A Defense Budget Wish List
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and David D. Gentilli
(WebMemo #1205)
Directed-energy defenses, submarines, and advanced soldier systems provide capabilities the U.S. military needs for the Long War against terrorism.
September 01, 2006
The Muddled Notion of “Human Security” at the U.N.: A Guide for U.S. Policymakers
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Janice A. Smith
(Backgrounder #1966)
A new definition of “human security” being promoted at the U.N., which includes guaranteeing everything from a minimum income to protection from violence and the loss of traditions and values, could undermine fundamental principles of sovereignty, accountability, and national security. The U.S. government must resist language in U.N. declarations, resolutions, and agreements that embraces a faulty understanding of security.
August 22, 2006
Katrina One Year After: Congress's Unfinished Agenda
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1199)
Congress should focus on initiatives that will help establish a true national response system for disasters like Katrina.
August 21, 2006
C-17 Shortfall More Evidence of a Hollow Force
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1198)
Congress should promote enhanced data analysis capabilities.
August 21, 2006
State and Regional Responses to Disasters: Solving the 72-Hour Problem
By Jill D. Rhodes, J.D. and LL.M., and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1962)
The states, the Department of Homeland Security, and Congress should add a fourth, regional tier to the current emergency management process along with an implementing system such as a Regional Emergency Management Support System (REMSS). A regional tier would enable states to respond to incidents beyond their immediate capacities without waiting for a response from the federal government.
August 16, 2006
More for Congressional Anti-Terror To-Do List
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1196)
Congress should promote enhanced data analysis capabilities.
August 11, 2006
London Terror Plot Foiled: Lessons for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1193)
Lessons for Congress from the thwarted London terror plot.
August 10, 2006
Beyond the Rainbow Plans: Military Industrial and Mobilization Planning in an Uncertain Century
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1959)
Planning for programs and policies that can be implemented when strategic warning signs make it apparent that the unthinkable is about to happen will require (1) restructuring the Unified Command Plan, (2) creating a National Security/Homeland Security University, and (3) forming an Office of Domestic Mobilization within the Department of Homeland Security.
August 08, 2006
Rethinking VISA Policy for the 21st Century
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1191)
A discussion of U.S. visa policy.
August 07, 2006
Workplace Enforcement to Combat Illegal Migration: Sensible Strategy and Practical Options
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #957)
The right strategy to stop illegal workers would give DHS the resources and authority to target large-scale employers in the sectors of the economy where undocumented workers are most present. Additionally, any temporary worker program should serve to strengthen, rather than undermine, the value of citizenship and the health of civil society.
August 03, 2006
Strengthening Visa Management
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1008)
To enhance security and ease travel, Congress should (1) create an ombudsman authority within the Department of Homeland Security to review contentious visa denials and overall rejection rates and (2) allow the DHS to exercise greater flexibility in using its Visa Security Units to address security needs.
August 03, 2006
The Death of Neutrality: U.S. and European Convergence in Fighting the War on Terrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #956)
To win the war on terrorism, the U.S. and Europe should take unified action to support the Proliferation Security Initiative, promote information sharing, and take an "all-hazards approach" for preventing and responding to terrorist attacks. The United States and Europe are closer to achieving this unity than many suggest.
July 26, 2006
Herding Cats: Understanding Why Government Agencies Don't Cooperate and How to Fix the Problem
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #955)
In order to make the interagency process more responsive in the operational environment, the U.S. needs a means to create a corps of interagency professionals; a doctrine that establishes a rationale for creating unity of effort; and a means to fund the process so that essential personnel and services will be available when they are needed.
July 26, 2006
International Intervention in Lebanon: Rules for a Dangerous Game
By James Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1178)
The United States should not send troops to Lebanon or endorse any plan for international engagement that lacks a clear, achievable approach to disarming Hezbollah.
July 26, 2006
Time to Rethink Airport Security
By Robert W. Poole, Jr., and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1955)
America's airport security needs can be met more effectively by (1) restructuring the Transportation Security Administration as an aviation security policymaker; (2) devolving screening responsibility to the airport level under the supervision of a federal security director; and (3) requiring the DHS to develop a passenger and cargo security system that employs a risk-based model.
July 24, 2006
Rice's Middle East Agenda
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1171)
How Secretary Rice may best contribute to the cause of peace and stability.
July 21, 2006
The Detention and Trial of Unlawful Combatants
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #954)
In the wake of the Supreme Court's Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision, the U.S. should focus on providing a legal process that does not treat unlawful combatants as regular criminals or traditional prisoners of war.
July 21, 2006
Integrating Immigration, Customs, and Border Enforcement Should Be a Priority
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1006)
Effective border control requires merging internal enforcement and trade and travel security with operations on the border. Although Customs and Border Protection (CBP) deals primarily with border enforcement and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) performs interior enforcement, there are specific steps that the Department of Homeland Security can and should take immediately to achieve this goal.
July 20, 2006
Defanging Hezbollah: A Directed Energy Defense Could Help
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and David D. Gentilli
(WebMemo #1169)
Hezbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks have killed and wounded dozens of Israelis, destroyed property, and sent thousands to bomb shelters. They threaten to plunge the entire region into conflict. There is a way to shoot these missiles out of the sky, limiting the danger to innocents and mitigating the serious threat of one of the region's most dangerous terrorist groups. The U.S. Army and Israeli Defense Ministry have a joint program that has developed a high-energy laser that can do the job, but they have been slow to deploy the system. The United States should ready the system for operational use as quickly as possible and make it available to the Israeli Defense Forces.
July 18, 2006
Containing the Escalating Crisis in Lebanon
By James Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1165)
Hezbollah and Israel are locked in an escalating conflict that will not be resolved soon. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah—nor Hezbollah's Iranian and Syrian backers—is willing to accept a ceasefire on terms acceptable to the other. Hezbollah continues to launch cross-border rocket attacks, and Israel is determined to reduce the rocket threat as rapidly and effectively as possible through systematic air strikes and to secure the return of its kidnapped soldiers. Any proposed diplomatic solution must not merely seek a return to the status quo ante because that has become an inherently unstable and dangerous situation.
July 17, 2006
Talking Through Disasters: The Federal Role in Emergency Communications
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1951)
Creating the kind of emergency communication systems needed to respond to national disasters will include (1) adhering to policies that promote effective public–private sharing of the emergency management electromagnetic spectrum, (2) creating a national capability to deploy a wide-area emergency management communications network for catastrophic disasters, and (3) establishing coherent national leadership for emergency response communications.
July 14, 2006
Nanotechnology: Changing the Face of National Security
By James Jay Carafano. Ph. D., and Andrew Gudgel
(WebMemo #1166)
On March 29, 2006, the Heritage Foundation held an event titled "Nanotechnology: Changing the Face of National Security." The event, part of the 2006 Competitive Technology for National Security Policy series, brought together researchers and members of government to discuss nanotechnology and its role in national security.
July 07, 2006
Learning Katrina's Lessons: Coast Guard Modernization Is a Must
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Laura P. Keith
(Backgrounder #1950)
An accelerated Deepwater program would provide better assets not just for catastrophic disaster response, but also for the full range of Coast Guard missions. Fully funding Deepwater this year and for the next nine years should be a budget priority to ensure that the transformation continues and that America does not leave the Coast Guard with an inadequate fleet.
July 05, 2006
The Supreme Court Guantánamo Ruling: How the Administration Should Respond
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., and Todd Gaziano
(WebMemo #1143)
Last week, the Supreme Court issued a split decision declaring unlawful the military commissions the United States planned to use at Guantánamo Bay. Regardless of the decision's legal merits, it is not a rebuke of the Bush Administration's conduct of the battle against the threat of transnational terrorist groups.
June 20, 2006
Countdown to 9/11: Five Fixes for Homeland Security by the Fifth Anniversary of the Attacks
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #963)
There has not been a successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil since the strikes in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001—almost five years ago. It took at least five years to plan the 9/11 attacks. While much has been done to make the nation safer since 2001, the agenda for homeland security is still unfinished. In particular, there are five steps that should have been taken within a year of 9/11 that are still not complete. These steps are fundamental to building the security infrastructure that the nation needs for the long term. The coming anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is a reminder of the urgency for the administration and Congress to act.
June 12, 2006
After Zarqawi: The Way Forward in Iraq
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1119)
President Bush meets with senior advisors this week to assess the next steps in Iraq following the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
June 08, 2006
Getting Zarqawi: One Win in Long War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1116)
Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is dead, but the long war continues.
June 07, 2006
State Department Ponders Expediency over Effectiveness on Exchanges
By Stephen Johnson and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1115)
After the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) and its own inspector general faulted the U.S. Department of State for failing to oversee summer work and training exchanges for foreigners, the State Department plans to cut back a program it can't seem to manage. At issue is the Exchange Visitor Program, authorized by the 1961 Fulbright-Hays Act (PL 87-256) and now administered by the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). It brings approximately 275,000 students, scholars, trainees, and interns to the United States annually.
June 05, 2006
The Spanish Trap: More Evidence on Pitfalls of Senate Immigration Amnesty Proposal
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1106)
The Senate's "Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006" (S. 2611) would allow most of the millions of illegal immigrants who have broken U.S. immigration laws to remain in the United States. That is amnesty. And amnesty will only encourage further law breaking. That is the lesson the United States can take from a similar initiative in Spain.
June 05, 2006
Military Readiness and the National Guard: A Crisis in the Making?
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1107)
The term "hollow force" describes the situation when military readiness declines because of a lack of adequate funding. A hollow force lacks the resources to provide trained and ready forces, to support ongoing operations, and to modernize. In the past, when America's military has begun to hollow, the strain showed first in the National Guard. The same warning signs are here now. It will take a concerted effort from Congress and the administration to address the issue.
June 05, 2006
Haditha's Aftermath: What's Next?
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1111)
Allegations that U.S. Marines murdered Iraqi civilians in Haditha are deeply troubling. The American government bears a grave responsibility to fully meet its obligations to investigate and dispense justice without reservation. At the same time, the United States must continue to pursue the vital national interest of building an independent and stable Iraq.
June 05, 2006
Congress Questions Homeland Security Grants
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1110)
Members of Congress have raised concerns over the recently announced distribution of Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) grants. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has spent over two years developing a process to allocate grants in a manner that meets national priorities. That is the way that grants should be allocated. If DHS has properly used this system in disbursing UASI funds, it should demonstrate that to Congress. Meanwhile, Congress can help ensure grants go where they are needed most by repealing legislative mandates that allocate grants without respect to risk or needs.
May 31, 2006
Visa Waiver Initiative in Senate Immigration Bill Falls Short
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1099)
The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows most visitors from participating countries to enter the United States for up to 90 days without a visa if they have valid passports from their countries. The program can be an effective way of both facilitating travel and frustrating the efforts of terrorists seeking to enter the United States. Since 9/11, however, nothing has been done to expand the use of this tool.
May 25, 2006
The Solution for Immigration Enforcement at the State and Local Level
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. and Laura Keith
(WebMemo #1096)
A crucial component to the 1996 Immigration and Nationality Act paves the way for state and local law enforcement officers to play a role in enforcing federal immigration law.
May 25, 2006
A Visa Reform Plan for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1001)
Foreign travel to America has still not recovered to pre-9/11 levels, and congressional inaction threatens to undermine the competitiveness of U.S. society. By developing an action plan to speed the visa process and expanding the Visa Waiver Program, Congress can both reestablish America's reputation as a welcoming country and make the nation more secure against foreign threats.
May 17, 2006
After Dubai Ports: Getting CFIUS Reforms Right
By Daniella Markheim and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1081)
In the wake of the Dubai ports controversy, debate has centered over how much control Congress should wield over foreign direct investment (FDI). Proposals in the House and Senate would modify the law governing the Committee on Foreign Investments in United States (CFIUS), which reviews FDI deals that have national security implications. The bipartisan House legislation sponsored by Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and others would strengthen the CFIUS process without unduly delaying or politicizing FDI deals. This approach meets national security needs while promoting foreign investment in America.
May 17, 2006
Congressional Checklist for Chemical Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #1000)
In addressing the threat from terrorists who would use the chemical industry to attack Americans, standards that focus on the greatest threats make sense, but they should be implemented with safeguards that protect the private sector from undue burdens that not only add little real security, but also undermine competition, cost jobs, and make goods and services more expensive.
May 16, 2006
Senate Immigration Plan Fails to Deliver Comprehensive Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1080)
The Senate's immigration plan does not provide long-term security solutions that are credible, practical, and affordable.
May 16, 2006
Bush Sends Troops to the Border
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1079)
Troops at the border alone cannot substitute for comprehensive immigration and border security reform.
May 15, 2006
FEMA Proposals: Much Ado About Nothing
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1077)
Proposals to reform FEMA fall short.
May 12, 2006
Avoiding the Hollow Force: Modernizing for the Future
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1075)
Mandatory spending growth could negatively impact the military.
May 12, 2006
S.O.S—Save Our Ships: Coast Guard Modernization Must Be Congressional Priority
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1073)
Modernizing the Coast Guard is vital for homeland security.
May 05, 2006
One Hundred Percent Cargo Scanning and Cargo Seals: Wasteful and Unproductive Proposals
By Alane Kochems and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1064)
Inspecting every container that is shipped to the U.S. makes no sense.
May 04, 2006
Shaping the 21st Century Role of the National Guard and Reserves
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
The reports of both houses of Congress and the Homeland Security Council argue that coordination between the Departments of Defense and Homeland security are inadequate. In particular, they point to a lack of sufficient deliberate planning and formalized command and control. This finding is symptomatic of a significant shortfall in the federal response to disasters. At every level of government the National Response Plan demands an incident command system be established to serve as the focal point for organizing operations, logistical support, and information operations, every level except the federal government. In addition, at the federal level, agencies are tasked to provide commodities and services based on emergency support functions.
April 27, 2006
The Senate's Katrina Report Draft: Hits and Misses
By James Jay Carafano
(WebMemo #1051)
A Senate report on Hurricane Katrina response proposes a number of substantial and promising reforms, but some of its recommendations miss the mark.
April 27, 2006
Executive Summary: Trade Security at Sea: Setting National Priorities for Safeguarding America's Economic Lifeline
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Martin Edwin Andersen
(Executive Summary #1930)
Executive Summary: The debates over U.S. maritime security policies and programs are inappropriately focused on ports and shipping containers. An effective approach to making the seas safer must provide comprehensive solutions. The most significant and effective contributions that can be made to enhancing maritime security involve modernizing the Coast Guard, improving public–private information sharing, and enhancing international cooperation.
April 27, 2006
Trade Security at Sea: Setting National Priorities for Safeguarding America's Economic Lifeline
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Martin Edwin Andersen
(Backgrounder #1930)
The debates over U.S. maritime security policies and programs are inappropriately focused on ports and shipping containers. An effective approach to making the seas safer must provide comprehensive solutions. The most significant and effective contributions that can be made to enhancing maritime security involve modernizing the Coast Guard, improving public–private information sharing, and enhancing international cooperation.
April 18, 2006
More Signs of a Future Hollow Force? The Air Force Cuts a Corner
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1039)
The budget decisions derived from the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) suggest more and more that the military's long-term preparedness is in doubt.
April 18, 2006
Avoiding the Hollow Force: Maintaining a Trained and Ready Military
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Alane Kochems, and David Gentilli
(WebMemo #1043)
Three military experts discuss the current and future issue facing the U.S. armed forces.
April 04, 2006
Immigration Enforcement and Workplace Verification: Sensible Proposals for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #999)
Despite 5 years of peace and prosperity, growing numbers of Peruvians seem anxious to return to the bad old days of populist spendthrift governments, an empty treasury, and hyperinflation. The problem is that strong foreign investment and steady economic growth of more than 5 percent per year haven't been enough to help Peru's poor—who make up half the population—achieve social mobility.
April 03, 2006
Complete Cargo Inspection and Port Security Grants Do Not Promote Homeland Security
By Alane Kochems and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #998)
Closing the real gaps in U.S. maritime security means focusing the government on stopping terrorists and criminals and focusing the private sector on sensible, reasonable, transparent, and uniform action that will enhance the security of the global supply chain. Much can be done to improve maritime security without placing undue burdens on maritime commerce.
March 31, 2006
Principles for Congressional Action on Chemical Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #997)
Trying to "childproof" the United States against every conceivable vulnerability that terrorists could exploit in the chemical infrastructure would be both impossible and counterproductive. Common-sense legislation focused on catastrophic threats is warranted. Otherwise, the government should focus on finding and stopping terrorist groups rather than hamstringing industries that are integral to the U.S. economy.
March 21, 2006
Learning from Disaster: The Role of Federalism and the Importance of Grassroots Response
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1923)
Scientific research on disaster response and analysis of recent emergencies argues that a federalist approach should be the cornerstone of the national response effort. The federal government's role in disaster preparedness is to meet its own responsibilities, create a national response system that promotes collaborative effort, and support "train the trainer" programs that help communities to build strong grassroots response.
March 21, 2006
America Needs a Security Strategy for Safer Skies
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #996)
Maritime security is vital to the nation's defense, and no one federal agency bears all the responsibility for preventing, responding to, and recovering from threats to America's security from the sea. Because air security faces similar challenges, the President should direct the National Security Council and Homeland Security Council to develop a national strategy for air security.
March 14, 2006
Port Security: Four Examples of What Not To Do
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1014)
Congress should avoid proposals that will harm the U.S. economy while doing little to prevent terrorism.
March 13, 2006
Port Security and Port Sales: An Action Plan for Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1013)
How to strengthen strengthen oversight of foreign-owned critical maritime infrastructure.
March 09, 2006
Port Security and Foreign-Owned Maritime Infrastructure
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
Maritime trade is vital to the U.S. economy. Almost one-third of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is derived from trade. As you know, 95 percent of American overseas trade traffics the maritime domain. According to the American Association of Port Authorities, $1.3 billion worth of U.S. goods move in and out of U.S. ports every day. In addition, many major urban centers (more than half of the U.S. population) and significant critical infrastructure are in proximity to U.S. ports or are accessible by waterways.
March 03, 2006
Port Security and Foreign Investment
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
The importance of the maritime domain cannot be overestimated. Almost one-third of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) is derived from trade.
March 02, 2006
Section 287(g) Is the Right Answer for State and Local Immigration Enforcement
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #994)
Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act protects states and their law officers while requiring that well-trained officers conduct immigration investigations. It also allows states and local governments to tailor programs to meet their unique circumstances and requirements. Any comprehensive border and immigration security legislation should strengthen and expand programs authorized under §287(g).
March 02, 2006
Port Security: The Administration Misses an Opportunity
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1005)
Why not address the real reasons that U.S. port security isn't what it could be?
February 27, 2006
The UN's Guantanamo Folly: Why the United Nations Report is Not Credible
By Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., and James Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #1000)
Unsubstantiaed allegations from a discredited body. In other words, more of the usual.
February 23, 2006
Hurricane Katrina Lessons Learned: Solid Recommendations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. and Laura Keith
(WebMemo #998)
The White House's Katrina report takes just the right approach.
February 22, 2006
Security and the Sale of Port Facilities: Facts and Recommendations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #997)
A brief delay may be warranted but no more for now.
February 17, 2006
Road Maps for Visa Waiver Program Lead Nowhere
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #993)
The proposed "road maps" for countries interested in participating in the Visa Waiver Program are a good first step, but they are not sufficient to meet U.S. economic and security concerns and do not address all of the legal criteria for VWP admission. Congress needs to give the Administration authority to negotiate more aggressive plans for VWP expansion.
February 10, 2006
The Quadrennial Defense Review: Satisfactory but Not Sufficient
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #996)
The Pentagon needs to forge long-term strategic plans.
February 06, 2006
The Great EU Inquisition: Europe's Response to the U.S. Rendition Policy
By Nile Gardiner, Ph.D., and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #988)
The EU still doesn't take the war on terrorism seriously, except when it offers the chance to bash the U.S.
February 03, 2006
First Echoes of a Hollow Force? Air Force Touch Make Little Sense
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #986)
Spending a lot in the long run to save a bit in the short run is a sign that something's wrong.
February 03, 2006
With a Little Help from Our Friends: Enhancing Security by Expanding the Visa Waiver Program
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #991)
Protecting America and promoting economic growth and freedom require international partnerships that serve mutual interests. The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) enhances security by setting common standards and promotes economic growth and cultural ties. Congress should use the VWP more effectively by giving the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) broader authority to expand the program to other countries.
January 31, 2006
State of the Union 2006: A Strong Statement on National Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #977)
Security, prosperity, civil liberties, and freedom. It really does all add up.
January 27, 2006
The Hollow Force: Background and Issues
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Alane Kochems, JD, MSLS, and David D. Gentilli
(WebMemo #972)
Will defense funding for the future be adequate to prevent the return of the hollow force?
January 23, 2006
Homeland Security Dollars and Sense #4: An End to Pork Barrel Security Grants?
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #962)
A new DHS initiative shows the way for Congress.
January 23, 2006
Countdown to 9/11: Five Fixes for Homeland Security by the Fifth Anniversary of the Attacks
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #963)
The coming anniversary of the 9/11 attacks is a reminder that the work of homeland security is not done.
2005 Research
December 21, 2005
Domestic Surveillance: Dual Priorities, National Security and Civil Liberties, Must Be Met
By James Jay Carafano, Todd Gaziano, and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #950)
Wars cannot be won by sacrificing national security or fundamental civil liberties.
December 15, 2005
Getting it Right: A Congressional Guide to Grading the 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, and Alane Kochems
(Backgrounder #1905)
The QDR must address issues of strategy, force structure, roles and missions, and budget, as well as emerging strategic imperatives including China's military modernization and space, missile defense, nuclear weapons policy, and the U.S. network of alliances, and make both tough choices and clear recommendations so that the U.S. can secure its national security interests in the 21st century.
December 14, 2005
Countering Iran's Nuclear Challenge
By James Phillips, John C. Hulsman, Ph.D., and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1903)
No policy short of war is guaranteed to halt the Iranian nuclear program. The U.S. can frustrate Iran's nuclear plans and drive up the economic, diplomatic, and political costs of obtaining nuclear weapons by working with other countries to impose targeted sanctions on Iran, contain it, and deter it from using or threatening to use nuclear weapons.
December 13, 2005
The September 11 Commission Report Card: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #935)
The Commission does not have all the right answers, but its call for action is well worth heeding.
December 07, 2005
The Truth About FEMA: Analysis and Proposals
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1901)
The Secretary of Homeland Security has identified many systemic shortfalls that have retarded the development of a more effective national response system. Congress should support his proposals to fix the problem and consider reforming the grant allocation process, regional preparedness, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response mission to strengthen the Department's capacity to deal with deadly disasters.
December 02, 2005
Congress Poised to Pass Patriot Act Provisions
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #930)
The clock is ticking. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York in September 2001, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act. Some of the provisions in the act provided additional authorities for the sharing of information between law enforcement and intelligence agencies and granted additional powers to fight terrorism, mostly law enforcement tools that had already been used to fight other serious crimes...
December 02, 2005
The 2005 Quadrennial Defense Review: The Role of America's Allies
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #931)
Concluding a year-long lecture series on the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR)—a congressionally-mandated internal review conducted by the Pentagon every four years—the Heritage Foundation recently hosted a panel discussion on the role of America's allies.
November 29, 2005
Bush at the Border
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #924)
The President outlines a promising vision for immigration reform.
November 28, 2005
Executive Summary: Safeguarding America's Sovereignty: A "System of Systems" Approach to Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1898)
Simply strengthening the current "layered systems" approach to U.S. border security will not secure the border. Congress and the Administration need to make key investments in infrastructure, organization, technology, and resources and then support these efforts with appropriate legislation and policy reform.
November 28, 2005
Safeguarding America's Sovereignty: A "System of Systems" Approach to Border Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1898)
Simply strengthening the current "layered systems" approach to U.S. border security will not secure the border. Congress and the Administration need to make key investments in infrastructure, organization, technology, and resources and then support these efforts with appropriate legislation and policy reform.
November 02, 2005
The Army's Future: A View from the Top
By James Jay Carafano, Ph. D., Alane Kochems, and David Gentilli
(WebMemo #906)
Francis Harvey, Secretary of the Army, lays out the Army's priorities for the next five years.
November 01, 2005
Patriot Act Provisions a Priority
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #902)
Reauthorizing the expiring provisions should be a priority for Congress.
October 31, 2005
Containing Sensitive Information in a Free Society
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Les Szwajkowski
(Heritage Lecture #903)
In dealing with the problem of unauthorized disclosure of classified information, (1) classifiable information must be strictly defined; (2) government employees must be trained in the rules for handling classified information; (3) Congress, the courts, and the executive branch must have the means and the will to police themselves; and (4) when leaks occur, punishment should follow.
October 05, 2005
Katrina's Forgotten Responders: State Defense Forces Play a Vital Role
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and John R. Brinkerhoff
(Executive Memorandum #984)
The emergency response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated that state defense forces can be an important supplement to the National Guard, particularly during catastrophic disasters. Trained, disciplined, and well-organized local responders are essential for providing immediate aid and security. Congress and the Bush Administration should encourage states to better organize, train, and equip these volunteer units.
October 03, 2005
Critics of the Hurricane Response Miss the Mark in Focusing on Posse Comitatus.
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #983)
Rather than change a law that safeguards the liberties of U.S. citizens, the principles of federalism, and the balance of civil-military relations, Congress and the Administration should improve integration of the Guard Reserve, create a Navy Guard, and reorganize part of the National Guard for new missions. These steps will make the nation better prepared for the next Katrina.
October 03, 2005
Making FEMA Stronger: A Clear Mission and a New Name
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #870)
FEMA should remain within DHS--but there should be changes.
September 23, 2005
The Cornyn-Kyl Immigration Reform Act: Flawed But Fixable
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Janice L. Kephart, and Alane Kochems
(Executive Memorandum #982)
Any effective solution to illegal border crossings and the unlawful population must address internal enforcement of immigration laws, international cooperation, and border security. Effective immigration reform must be a key component of these reforms. The legislation proposed by Senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyl offers such a comprehensive approach but falls short by not adequately deterring illegal entry.
September 23, 2005
Katrina: The Right Inspector General for the Job
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #859)
The Special Inspector General for Relief and Reconstruction has the capabilities and staff to oversee reconstruction.
September 22, 2005
Katrina: A Fair Framework for Assessing the Response and the Next Steps
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #981)
President George W. Bush correctly called the national response to Hurricane Katrina "inadequate." The U.S. needs a greater national capacity to respond to catastrophic disasters. Did we do the best with what was available? Have we improved since 9/11? What are the next steps? These are fair questions that a common-sense, dispassionate analysis directed by Congress can answer.
September 21, 2005
House Defense Review Should Include Coast Guard
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #851)
An independent review is a good idea; including the Coast Guard would make it even better.
September 16, 2005
How to Turn the President's Gulf Coast Pledge into Reality
By Stuart M. Butler, Ph.D., James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Alison Acosta Fraser, Dan Lips, Robert M. Moffit, Ph.D., and Ronald D. Utt, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #848)
Private investment, direct assistance to individuals, and sound economics are the basis of recovery.
September 16, 2005
Coast Guard's Finest Hour Ignored by Congress
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #846)
Congress should recognize the Guard's Katrina response by fully funding its modernization budget.
September 15, 2005
Improving the National Response to Catastrophic Disaster
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
President Bush was absolutely correct when he labeled the national response "inadequate."
September 13, 2005
The Visa Process: Strategic Direction for a 21st Century System
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
In the wake of 9/11, the Congress and the administration turned its attention to strengthening the issuance and management of visas.
September 08, 2005
Winning the Long War: A Study Guide for Understanding the Public Policy Challenges of the War on Terrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Paul Rosenzweig, and Rebekah Robblee
(Special Report #04)
This guide is intended for use as a companion to Winning the Long War. The book is suitable for use in academic courses and as a discussion tool for policymakers and legal and business professionals seeking to balance America's need for national security with other needs, such as civil liberties and engaging the global business environment in a post-9/11 world. The guide summarizes each chapter of the book, provides a series of discussion points taken from topics covered in that chapter, and recommends additional reading materials.
September 06, 2005
Sustaining Military Capabilities in the 21st Century: Rethinking the Utility of the Principles of War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #896)
The factors that most dramatically impact on the future conduct of war include emerging technologies, the increasing capacity of the private sector to perform traditional military missions, and the decreasing ability of developed states to allocate productive resources to warfighting tasks.
September 02, 2005
Responding to Katrina: The Realities of a Catastrophic Disaster
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #830)
Anyone watching cable news knows what needs to be done. dealing with the realities on the ground is another thing altogether.
August 29, 2005
Foreign Disasters: Lessons for the Pentagon's Homeland Security Efforts
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #979)
Among the issues being considered during the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review (a mandatory report to Congress on strategy, capabilities, and resources) is reassessing the military's role in homeland security. In determining what the armed forces need, recent international events offer important insights, particularly for medical support, security forces, and infrastructure protection and recovery.
July 28, 2005
Rethinking Professional Military Education
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(Executive Memorandum #976)
The Defense Department must restructure officer education to emphasize a broad range of education opportunities. The attribute most needed by military officers is the critical thinking skills that come from a graduate education program. This may be the most important contribution that the Defense Department can make to transforming the military.
July 26, 2005
The McCain-Kennedy Immigration Reform Bill Falls Short
By James Jay Carafano, Ph. D., Janice L. Kephart, and Paul Rosenzweig
(Executive Memorandum #975)
Immigration reform will succeed only if it enhances national security, promotes economic growth, and protects freedom and liberty. The Secure America and Orderly Immigration Act (S. 1033) introduced by Senators John McCain (R–AZ) and Edward Kennedy (D–MA) does not achieve these ends.
July 14, 2005
Chertoff Takes Charge
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Paul Rosenzweig
(WebMemo #795)
Congress should support Secretary Chertoff's plan to reform DHS.
July 11, 2005
Lessons from London: Implications for the Patriot Act
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Paul Rosenzweig, and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #791)
Congress should renew the provisions of the Patriot Act set to sunset at the end of the year.
July 08, 2005
Defense Department's Serious Thinking About Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #790)
It is just a paper, but if it is put into action it will help make all Americans safer.
June 29, 2005
Risk-Based Homeland Security Measure Shows Promise
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #779)
A proposal to use homeland security dollars to make Americans safer.
June 23, 2005
Should Libraries Become Terrorist Sanctuaries?
By Alane Kochems, Paul Rosenzweig, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #772)
House-passed legislation would limit the government's ability to investigate terrorist activities.
June 21, 2005
Building a Global Training Base: Military Transformation's Missing Priority
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #973)
One result of the Quarterly Defense Review should be a rethinking and restructuring of the Joint National Training Capability. What is needed is a global training base, capable of training missions across the threat matrix anywhere in the world, that can be built by leveraging existing resources and proven means and provide a cost-effective way to provide unprecedented transformational capabilities.
June 17, 2005
The Homeland Security Authorization Bill: Hits and Misses
By Alane Kochems and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #972)
The first Department of Homeland Security authorization bill (H.R. 1815) is a vital step toward coherent congressional oversight of the department's allocation and use of resources, but it is not perfect. The Senate should reaffirm its key initiatives but rethink provisions that add protectionist restrictions and mandate state and local enforcement of federal immigration laws.
June 13, 2005
Winning the Peace: Principles for Post-Conflict Operations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Dana R. Dillon
(Backgrounder #1859)
In Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States has relearned painful lessons on how to win the peace. Institutionalizing these lessons requires establishing a common national strategic concept for occupation operations. Innovations in doctrinal concepts, education, operational practices, and organization could provide the impetus for developing an appropriate post-conflict force for the next war.
June 09, 2005
Cox Sets Standard for Homeland Security Chair
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #758)
An agenda for the new chair of the House Committee for Homeland Security.
June 06, 2005
The Future of Anti-Terrorism Technologies
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #885)
Creating a vision of counterterrorism technologies that are practical and affordable and overmatch the threat of 21st century terrorism, implementing initiatives that broaden the market and make it more predictable and dependable, and developing policies that will help to overcome the barriers to innovation are essential steps to harnessing technology to the future needs of law enforcement.
June 03, 2005
Beyond Duct Tape: The Federal Government's Role in Public Preparedness
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #971)
Preparedness programs run by Washington bureaucrats, instead of making Americans safer, will waste tax dollars and divert the DHS from tasks that would make a difference. The DHS needs to take steps that will actually work, building on the recognition that the only effective and sustainable efforts will be those developed by people in their own communities.
June 02, 2005
Alternatives to Amnesty: Proposals for Fair and Effective Immigration Reform
By Edwin Meese III, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Matthew Spalding, Ph.D., and Paul Rosenzweig
(Backgrounder #1858)
Congress and the President must reduce the number of individuals unlawfully present in the United States through a comprehensive solution that fosters national security, a growing economy, and a strong civil society. This should include a realistic program to help unlawfully present individuals return to their countries of origin before applying for legal reentry to the United States.
May 08, 2005
The First Responder Act: Congress Needs to Act
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #742)
The recent arrest in Pakistan of Abu Farraj al-Libbi, reputedly the number 3 man in al-Qaeda, serves as a powerful reminder that the terrorists are still out there and remain a serious threat to the United States.
May 06, 2005
Safer Skies: Air Security Priorities for the Next Four Years
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #969)
Homeland security challenges in the air are strategic in character and thus require strategic responses. The Administration and Congress need a common set of air security priorities, not just to keep terrorists from attacking commercial airliners or using them as weapons, but to secure U.S. airspace against terrorist threats. They should first reorganize the Transportation Security Administration and refocus its mission.
May 06, 2005
Building the Alliance for Freedom: An Agenda for Improving and Expanding the Visa Waiver Program
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1850)
With post-9/11 improvements and more vigilant oversight, the Visa Waiver Program will significantly enhance security, trade, and travel. The VWP should include such strategic nations as India, South Korea, and the new Eastern European democracies, and a certification road map for selected partner nations should be established with a goal of achieving full certification within five to 10 years.
May 02, 2005
House Bill Is a Promising Step for Better Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #735)
Last week, the House Homeland Security Committee approved HR 1817, The Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2006.
April 25, 2005
A Congressional Guide to Defense Transformation: Issues and Answers
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Jack Spencer, and Kathy Gudgel
(Backgrounder #1847)
The Pentagon must continue to emphasize transforming the force to meet the security challenges of the 21st century. Congress and the Administration can support these efforts by insisting that the Quadrennial Defense Review address critical unresolved transformation issues, and Congress must provide adequate resources to support current operations, preserve combat readiness, and promote further transformation.
April 18, 2005
The Army Reserves and the Abrams Doctrine: Unfulfilled Promise, Uncertain Future
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #869)
Junking the policies justified by the Total Force Concept and the Abrams Doctrine may be a prerequisite for rethinking how the Reserves are organized, employed, and resourced to increase the capacity of citizen soldiers to respond rapidly to the wide range of emerging missions. The idea that force structure should serve as a presidential tripwire for the use of power should be abandoned.
April 13, 2005
Sorting Out the Supplemental: Congress Must Cut and Paste to Get It Right
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Jack Spencer
(WebMemo #722)
Congress has work to do before this goes to the President.
April 08, 2005
The Specter of Pork Barrel Homeland Security
By Keith Miller and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #715)
Congress should reject adding earmarks to homeland security appropriations.
March 21, 2005
Homeland Security Dollars and Sense #3: Checkbook Security Is Not Enough
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #697)
Congress should just say "no."
March 18, 2005
Border Security: Setting the Right Federal Priorities
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #964)
Protecting the nation against terrorists, transnational crime, and environmental and economic threats requires money, time, and effort. Improving the infrastructure and programs that oversee and support lawful trade and travel should be funded first. Investing in internal enforcement and working with point-of-origin countries will probably offer a greater return on investment than will emphasizing interdiction at the border.
March 18, 2005
The FY 2006 Budget Request for Homeland Security: A Congressional Guide for Making America Safer
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1835)
The Bush Administration's $49.9 billion FY 2006 budget request for homeland security is consistent with the FY 2005 budget, dovetails well with the critical mission areas established in the national homeland security strategy, makes difficult funding choices in each area, and proposes essential management initiatives such as strengthening DHS policymaking and planning and programs to screen people and cargo.
March 15, 2005
Encrypt E-Passports
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Paul Rosenzweig, and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #687)
Data on E-Passports shoud be encrypted.
March 10, 2005
Before the Subcommittee on Management, Integration and Oversight, House Committee on Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
We have learned much since 9/11. Americans have had time to dwell on the challenges of protecting the nation against foreign threats in the 21st century and to think about the kinds of institutions
February 24, 2005
An Agenda for Increasing State and Local Government Efforts to Combat Terrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Paul Rosenzweig, and Alane Kochems
(Backgrounder #1826)
The best way to respond to a terrorist attack is to prevent it from ever happening. States and local governments can assist significantly in prevention in a way that respects the principles of federalism and Americans' constitutional rights and privacy, and a sensible package of initiatives from the Administration and Congress would facilitate these state and local efforts.
February 17, 2005
National Security Requires a National Perspective—and Congressional Action
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Baker Spring, and Jack Spencer
(Executive Memorandum #959)
Comprehensive assessments of national defense and homeland security efforts within the context of the overall interagency national security effort would enable the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to focus on known responsibilities and help to ensure that agencies beyond DOD and DHS are not burdened with responsibilities that should fall under the purview of other government entities.
February 17, 2005
Making the Sea Safer: A National Agenda for Maritime Security and Counterterrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(Special Report #03)
The United States must develop a "system of systems" maritime architecture with strong domestic and foreign components, as well as public-private sector partnerships. The U.S. Coast Guard should be at the center of this effort. Additionally, federal, state, and local governments must share responsibility for establishing a maritime security architecture.
February 16, 2005
Before the House Budget Committee
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
With the recent delivery of the President's budget request to Congress, it is time to consider what defense and homeland security funding levels should be.
February 04, 2005
Federal Standards for State-Issued Identity Cards: A Reasonable Proposal
By Paul Rosenzweig and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1821)
The proposal to establish federal standards for state-issued identity cards is reasonable. Most security systems in the United States rely on establishing legitimate identities. While not a panacea that can solve all the problems of homeland security, guaranteeing the surety of identity documents is essential both for protecting liberties and for promoting security.
February 03, 2005
The State of the Union: A Focus on the Middle East
By James A. Phillips and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #651)
A consistent approach to foreign policy.
February 02, 2005
Homeland Security Dollars and Sense #2: Misplaced Maritime Priorities
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #648)
More money for ports? Not before the Coast Guard.
February 01, 2005
The Pentagon and Postwar Contractor Support: Rethinking the Future
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #958)
There are important lessons to learn from the occupation of Iraq. One of the most vital is understanding the private sector's potential to address critical security needs. Specifically, the Pentagon needs to rewrite doctrine, gain the confidence of Congress, and restructure the military.
January 31, 2005
The Iraqi Elections—Taking Stock
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and James Phillips
(WebMemo #646)
The elections were a success--so what comes next?
January 25, 2005
Before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
We have learned a lot since 9/11. Americans have had ample time to dwell on the challenges of protecting the nation against foreign threats in the 21st century and to review the efficacy of our response to these dangers.
January 21, 2005
Organizing for Victory: Proposals for Building a Regional Homeland Security Structure
By Edwin Meese III, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Richard Weitz, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1817)
For the most effective rollout of a regional homeland security plan, DHS leaders should enunciate its goals and guiding principles, explain how they will reorganize the DHS secretariat to provide effective oversight of the new structure, and give stakeholders time to comment on the plan's goals and objectives, which should result in a better proposal and in stakeholders' being more committed to the subsequent reorganization.
January 11, 2005
Defense Priorities for the Next Four Years
By Jack Spencer, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Baker Spring
(Executive Memorandum #953)
Although defense spending has increased, underfunding continues to burden all of the armed services. America must prepare itself for the rigors of post-conflict operations in the 21st century. U.S. basing infrastructure must be recalibrated for changing national security requirements.
January 11, 2005
Top Homeland Security Priorities for the Next Four Years
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #955)
In the area of homeland security, the Bush Administration and Congress should continue to focus on building a national homeland security system that will serve the nation for the long term by enhancing America's ability to thwart terrorists, promoting economic growth, and protecting civil liberties and privacy.
2004 Research
December 13, 2004
DHS 2.0: Rethinking the Department of Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and David Heyman
(Special Report #02)
Congress and the Bush Administration should develop a comprehensive plan to restructure the Department of Homeland Security, including establishing a nonpartisan commission to review the performance of the department and assess its capacity to fulfill the missions outlined in the Homeland Security Act in the areas of management, missions, authorities, and resources.
November 30, 2004
After Ridge—Much Done Much Still to Do
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #614)
Secretary Tom Ridge's recent resignation marks the end of a historic tenure.
November 05, 2004
Protecting Privacy and Providing Security: A Case of Sensible Outsourcing
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Paul Rosenzweig
(Backgrounder #1810)
The United States can use sensible outsourcing to enhance the protection of the privacy of American citizens, promote better security practices, and contribute to economic prosperity. Congressional legislation should encourage, not impede, the ability of the government and the private sector to get the best, most reliable and secure technology and services for the best price.
October 28, 2004
Putting Off 9/11 Reform Law is the Right Answer.
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #599)
It is more important to get the reforms right than to get them fast.
October 19, 2004
The Senate and House 9/11 Reform Bills Both Miss the Mark
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #946)
The Senate and the House have passed bills implementing the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, but neither bill is satisfactory. None of the bills' proposals fully meet national priorities for enhancing homeland security, improving anti-terrorism tools, protecting civil liberties, and winning the war against terrorism.
October 14, 2004
Homework: Congress Needs To Return with a Better Plan to Reform Homeland Security Oversight
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #587)
Congress must reform its oversight of DHS.
September 30, 2004
Lack of Congressional Reform Leaves America Less Safe
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #579)
The House Select Committee on Homeland Security should be made permanent.
September 29, 2004
Enhanced Information Sharing Is Vital to the Success of the National Intelligence Director
By Paul Rosenzweig and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #578)
A clear mandate for enhancing information sharing must be in the final bill that is sent to the President.
September 27, 2004
Secure Flight Takes Flight: It's About Time
By Paul Rosenzweig, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(WebMemo #574)
Congress should support testing and implementation of Secure Flight.
September 23, 2004
What a Comprehensive Intelligence Bill Should Contain
By Edwin Meese III, Larry M. Wortzel, Ph.D., Peter Brookes, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1799)
As it considers recommendations to reform the intelligence community, Congress should not rush to pass legislation that overburdens a National Intelligence Director with too many roles and responsibilities, misses other opportunities to improve the performance of intelligence collection (particularly for sharing information and protecting civil liberties), or neglects reforms that may strengthen and improve the capacity of individual agencies to do their jobs.
September 16, 2004
Preventive Detention and Actionable Intelligence
By Paul Rosenzweig and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Legal Memorandum #13)
Much good and accurate intelligence information on terrorists and their activities is not suitable for use in our existing criminal justice system. America needs to develop a coherent structure of laws and procedures to deal with the interaction of intelligence information and the judicial system. The British response to Irish Republican Army terrorism offers a useful model.
September 14, 2004
Homeland Security and Emerging Economies
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Ha Nguyen
(Backgrounder #1795)
Leaving developing economies outside emerging international security regimes would both widen the gap between the developed and developing worlds and create new opportunities and sanctuaries for terrorists to exploit. The United States should help countries join the fight against terrorism by promoting free trade agreements, ensuring that foreign assistance programs do not perpetuate bad policies, and better organizing U.S. efforts to offer technical security assistance.
August 26, 2004
Missions, Responsibilities, and Geography: Rethinking How the Pentagon Commands the World
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1792)
To prosecute the global war on terrorism effectively, the United States will need unprecedented integration of its military, intelligence, law enforcement, diplomatic, and other national security instruments. The Pentagon's worldwide command network should be replaced by a combination of military and interagency commands designed for the challenges of the future, not the problems of the past.
August 17, 2004
Department of Homeland Security Needs Under Secretary for Policy
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Richard Weitz, Ph.D., and Alane Kochems
(Backgrounder #1788)
Congress should create an Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Policy to provide guidance for integrating current efforts, conducting program analysis, performing long-range strategic planning, and undertaking net assessments. Failure to adopt such innovations will work against Congress's goal of establishing an efficient, integrated, and effective steward of homeland security.
August 10, 2004
Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
A little over one year after the horrifying September 11 strikes on New York and Washington, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law a bill creating an independent, bipartisan national commission chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the terrorist attacks and make recommendations to guard against future threats.
August 09, 2004
Defense Authorization Bill Should Require Commission to Study Reserves
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #553)
Using part-time soldiers full-time will undermine this critical force. The Administration and Congress need to find a better solution.
August 02, 2004
The Use of Directed-Energy Weapons to Protect Critical Infrastructure
By Jack Spencer and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1783)
America's critical infrastructure is increasingly vulnerable to the threat of precise, airborne missile attack. Directed-energy weapons (DEWs) can help protect against these threats. Congress and the Bush Administration should fully fund DEW technology and should encourage departments developing such technology to share their efforts with each other and with U.S. allies.
July 30, 2004
Intelligence Recommendations Bear Scrutiny
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #939)
Congress should establish a National Counterterrorism Center within the Department of Homeland Security and define the National Intelligence Director's roles and responsibilities as overseeing the entire intelligence community, not just counterterrorism efforts.
July 22, 2004
9/11 Commission Report: More Hits Than Misses
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #545)
Congress and the Administration should make addressing the Commission's recommendations a special priority.
July 21, 2004
The Case for Intelligence Reform: A Primer on Strategic Intelligence and Terrorism from the 1970s to Today
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #845)
To combat future terrorism, Congress should: (1) undertake responsible intelligence reform, focusing on ways to reduce bureaucracy, institutionalize effective information sharing, and improve the capacity of the intelligence community to collect information on 21st century threats; and (2) provide agencies with the resources they need to get the job done right.
July 13, 2004
The Senate Intelligence Report: Fair and Balanced?
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #534)
The report ignores the strategic challenges presented by the Iraqi regime and does not consider how the Select Intelligence Committee fulfilled its own oversight responsibilities.
July 13, 2004
Post-Conflict Operations from Europe to Iraq
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #844)
The U.S. military and its allies were poorly prepared to undertake post-conflict operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the U.S. and its allies wish to meet future challenges more effectively, they will have to provide innovations in education, operational practices, acquisition, and organization.
July 13, 2004
What the 9/11 Commission's Report Should Contain: Four Recommendations for Making America Safer
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Paul Rosenzweig
(Backgrounder #1778)
The global war against terrorism will be a long, protracted conflict. The federal government needs to be properly structured and to have the tools that it needs to protect Americans today, tomorrow, and 10 and 20 years from now, and Congress should be appropriately organized to support this effort. A balanced, forward-looking, and nonpartisan final report from the 9/11 Commission would be a significant step in the right direction.
July 09, 2004
Protectionism Compromises America's Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Tim Kane, Ph.D., Dan Mitchell, Ph.D., and Ha Nguyen
(Backgrounder #1777)
Applying protectionist policies to homeland security would stifle innovation and increase costs. Congress should grant the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) the power to award contracts to the company that is best equipped for the job. However, it is essential that DHS perform "due diligence," ensuring that services are being provided under conditions consistent with the rule of law and good management and security practices.
July 07, 2004
Homeland Security Needs Responsible Congressional Oversight
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #528)
It is past time for Congress to establish permanent committees to oversee homeland security in the House and Senate.
June 14, 2004
Before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
National efforts to enhance the security of the goods, people, and services that everyday cross the thousands of miles of land borders and tens of thousands of miles of coastline ringing the United States are a vital component of protecting the homeland. In my testimony, I would like to reaffirm the importance of this task as an essential component of the national homeland security strategy
June 07, 2004
An Appropriator's Guide to Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1767)
When considering homeland security appropriations, Congress should place priority on investments that will create national preparedness; develop federal capacity to respond to catastrophic terrorism; support efficient and effective programs; watch information technology investments closely; fund critical human capital programs; and balance funding for homeland security tasks with other missions.
May 20, 2004
Homeland Security Dollars and Sense #1: Current Spending Formulas Waste Aid to States
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #508)
The formulas for funding homeland security in the states are broken.
May 13, 2004
An Agenda for Responsible Intelligence Reform
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #931)
In the wake of the September 11 tragedies, Heritage Foundation scholars have made a number of recommendations that could serve as the basis for responsible intelligence reform. These are the kinds of proposals that Congress and the Administration should consider to ensure more effective coordination among agencies, more efficient government operations, and continued protection of civil liberties.
May 10, 2004
Abu Ghraib: Shameful Action Calls for Strong Response
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(WebMemo #501)
The guilty should be exposed and punished. The Administration and the Congress must also root out the leadership and systemic failures that allowed this horror to happen.
May 10, 2004
Terrorist Intelligence Centers Need Reform Now
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #930)
As the Bush Administration implements its post-9/11 efforts, it should organize them for success, avoiding the structural and operational missteps that have marred cooperation among traditional intelligence organizations. The TTIC and the TSC should be consolidated with the functions of the IAIP to create a single interagency staff under the supervision of the DHS.
April 21, 2004
No Need for the CLEAR Act: Building Capacity for Immigration Counterterrorism Investigations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #925)
The 9-11 Commission hearings are a powerful reminder of the need to build up counterterrorism, but the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act takes the wrong approach; instead, Congress should promote the use of Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act as a better mechanism for enabling state and local law enforcement to join in the global war against terrorism.
April 15, 2004
A Patriotic Day: 9/11 Commission Recognizes Importance of the Patriot Act
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Paul Rosenzweig
(WebMemo #480)
The Patriot Act is an essential weapon in the nation's war on terrorism. Congress should take note and act now to reauthorize provisions in the law due to expire.
April 15, 2004
The Homeland Security Authorization Bill: Streamlining the Budget Process
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #923)
A reauthorization bill for the disparate programs consolidated under the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the fresh initiatives undertaken by the DHS, is an important effort. A well-crafted oversight bill could offer more coherent statutory supervision of the DHS, as well as an opportunity to reconsider the entire authorization process for national security spending.
April 13, 2004
E-Passports: A Strategy for Long-Term Success
By Ha Nguyen, Paul Rosenzweig, and James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #921)
Congress should consolidate all visa activities within the Department of Homeland Security and should also extend the deadline for e-passport implementation. To protect privacy, biometric e-passport information should be screened using a one-to-one match instead of utilizing a central database. Finally, the country-level visa waiver determination process must include frequent and stringent reviews of the applicant country's e-passport procedures.
March 25, 2004
Housekeeping and Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano
(WebMemo #458)
A year after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the House leadership ponders whether it needs a permanent committee to oversee the department. The answer is yes.
March 24, 2004
Commerce, Science, and Transportation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
I would like to assess the progress that has been made in each of the areas related to implementing the national homeland security strategy, examine organizational issues that will affect the long-term development of a national maritime security regime, and reconsider the need for standards and metrics to evaluate preparedness and guide future efforts and investments.
March 18, 2004
Homeland Security: Alerting the Nation
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Testimony #9999)
The first critical mission area is intelligence and early warning.
March 17, 2004
Strategy and Security in the Information Age: Grading Progress in America's War on Terrorism
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #824)
Winning a war requires both historical perspective and cautious prophecy. The war on terrorism can be won by combining strong leadership, an engaged citizenry, and a balanced strategy that includes the integration of agencies, cutting-edge information technology, and a critical new science and technology plan focusing on network-centric approaches to emergency preparedness.
March 05, 2004
Executive Summary: The Homeland Security Budget Request for FY 2005: Assessments and Proposals
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1731)
The Bush Administration's FY 2005 budget proposal calls for $47.4 billion in homeland security funding: approximately 13 percent more than estimated FY 2004 spending and a significant and appropriate growth in homeland security expenditures. Most important, the Administration's funding priorities dovetail well with the critical mission areas established in the national homeland security strategy.
March 05, 2004
The Homeland Security Budget Request for FY 2005: Assessments and Proposals
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1731)
The Bush Administration's FY 2005 budget proposal calls for $47.4 billion in homeland security funding: approximately 13 percent more than estimated FY 2004 spending and a significant and appropriate growth in homeland security expenditures. Most important, the Administration's funding priorities dovetail well with the critical mission areas established in the national homeland security strategy.
February 25, 2004
Canceling Comanche: All the Right Moves
By James Jay Carafano
(WebMemo #433)
Killing Comanche was the right choice. Comanche simply does not fit into the Army's present or future.
February 23, 2004
The Army Goes Rolling Along: New Service Transformation Agenda Suggests Promise and Problems
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1729)
The Army has done much to adapt its programs to strategic realities, but ensuring its ability to support a protracted war against terrorism requires additional initiatives that are fiscally prudent, preserve combat readiness, and promote further transformation. Congress should ensure adequate funding for Army programs, carefully weigh proposals for increasing force structure, and push for further reforms in military education.
February 20, 2004
Strengthening America's Southern Flank Requires a Better Effort
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Stephen Johnson
(Backgrounder #1727)
In the global war on terrorism, to defend the U.S. homeland and help its allies in the Western Hemisphere, the United States needs a new strategy that treats nascent democracies differently from the dictatorships they once were, meets the new threats from within the region, and moves beyond current tutorial and assistance relations toward sustained collaboration.
February 18, 2004
Passenger Screening Program is Vital - and Vital to Get Right
By James Jay Carafano, Paul Rosenzweig, and Ha Nguyen
(WebMemo #428)
A February 2004 report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) concludes that the program is behind schedule and lacks adequate provisions for privacy and data protection. The GAO report should be taken seriously.
January 27, 2004
Dealing with Dirty Bombs: Plain Facts, Practical Solutions
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Jack Spencer
(Backgrounder #1723)
Most assessments of America's vulnerabilities include some mention of susceptibility to attacks by radiological dispersal devices, or "dirty bombs." But because the nature of the threat is often misconstrued, there is no shared appreciation of the problem or how best to address it. Implementing a few commonsense policies will better prepare the nation for a dirty bomb attack and substantially increase America's general preparedness.
January 08, 2004
Homeland Security Grant Bill Needs Revision But Is a Step in the Right Direction
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #909)
To improve the Faster and Smarter Funding for First Responders Act (H.R. 3266), which would reform the distribution of homeland security grants to state and local governments, Congress should establish a national framework to bring fiscal discipline to the system and ensure that federal, state, and local assets are linked in an integrated national response system.
2003 Research
November 24, 2003
Preparing Responders to Respond: The Challenges to Emergency Preparedness in the 21st Century
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #812)
Building a national system-of-systems emergency response system is critical to the nation's long-term security, but simply spending more money without an overarching systems architecture and a comprehensive acquisition program would be both wasteful and counterproductive. National emergency response is a strategic problem, and at the strategic level, thought should always precede action.
November 20, 2003
Post-Conflict and Culture: Changing America's Military for 21st Century Missions
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #810)
The military's role in warfighting is unquestioned, but its responsibilities in peace operations are both controversial and poorly understood. If the United States wishes to meet future challenges more effectively, innovations in education, operational practices, and organization could provide the impetus for developing an appropriate post-conflict force for the next occupation.
November 13, 2003
Improving Federal Response to Catastrophic Bioterrorist Attacks: The Next Steps
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1705)
Bioterrorism is a growing threat, but simply throwing more money at the problem or creating bigger and more complex bureaucracies is not the answer. Providing sufficient resources for bioterrorism preparedness is important, but without the right organization, strategies, and programs, these efforts will be inefficient and wasteful. Congress and the Administration should move to ensure that the federal government is better organized to meet the challenge.
November 12, 2003
Secretary Powell's Message to Europe: Measuring NATO's Future Performance
By John Hulsman, Ph.D., Jack Spencer, James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Will Schirano
(WebMemo #364)
During his trip to Europe, November 17 and 18, Secretary of State Colin Powell must make it clear that NATO continues to be the preeminent transatlantic security institution and that the organization's survival is in the best interest of both the United States and the European countries.
October 27, 2003
Better Intelligence Sharing for Visa Issuance and Monitoring: An Imperative for Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Ha Nguyen
(Backgrounder #1699)
Since September 11, 2001, keeping visas out of the hands of terrorists has been a top priority for the Administration and Congress. Congress needs a more effective committee structure to oversee the information technology and human capital programs required to support the new system, and the Administration needs to institute organizational changes and establish appropriate measures of effectiveness to ensure that the current system operates as efficiently as possible.
October 15, 2003
U.S. Military Assistance for Africa: A Better Solution
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Nile Gardiner, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1697)
The United States is facing increasing international pressure to play a more prominent role on the world's most troubled continent, but instead of sending U.S. peacekeepers, the Bush Administration should consider expanding its U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to include Africa. This organization could help facilitate the establishment of a more effective African-led military intervention force, reducing the need for direct U.S. involvement
October 10, 2003
The APEC Forum: Time to Make a Difference
By Dana R. Dillon, Balbina Y. Hwang, John J. Tkacik, Jr., James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Sara J. Fitzgerald
(Backgrounder #1696)
The October 20-21 APEC Leaders' Summit in Thailand provides a unique opportunity for President George W. Bush to encourage trade liberalization among APEC economies, promote economic reform in Japan and South Korea, prevent a nuclear North Korea, strengthen regional law enforcement, block terrorist financing, persuade China to meet its WTO obligations, encourage counterterrorism initiatives, and gain support for American sanctions on Burma.
September 24, 2003
Defense Authorization Bill Should Include Navy/Coast Guard Studies
By James Jay Carafano
(WebMemo #339)
To ensure that the nation's maritime defense needs at home and abroad are adequately addressed the House introduced an initiative for eight independent studies to describe the ideal Navy of the future. Senate conferees should not only accept this provision in the Authorization bill, but also expand it to include an assessment of the U.S. Coast Guard's needs and requirements.
August 20, 2003
Harmonizing House and Senate Appropriations for Homeland Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #897)
In reconciling the Senate and House versions of the FY 2004 DHS appropriations bill, the conferees must ensure that key initiatives are not shortchanged. They also should resist the urge to "over help" with unnecessary earmarks that limit the DHS's ability to focus on the most critical needs or "overload" it with additional dollars for programs that cannot profitably use them.
August 14, 2003
Facts About the Shoulder-Fired Missile Threat
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D. and Jack Spencer
(WebMemo #328)
New concern over the safety of citizens' air travel in an environment of terrorist threat was ignited with the August 12 successful interception of an attempted arms sale of a shoulder-fired Igla SA-18 missile. A realistic assessment of such a danger and an effective response to the threat should be developed within the context of the following facts.
August 14, 2003
The U.S. Role in Peace Operations: Past, Perspective, and Prescriptions for the Future
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #795)
America should also refrain from taking on major roles in peace enforcement operations. These activities offer substantially fewer risks than peacemaking, but that means many nations with only a modicum of military capability and some outside support can also perform them.
July 09, 2003
Fixing the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Memorandum #EM 891)
The House of Representatives' first homeland security appropriations bill, passed on June 24, fragments the distribution of grants for state and local governments and decreases the flexibility required to implement the national homeland security strategy. Grant programs in the legislation should be consolidated, and Congress should focus its efforts on the structural reforms needed to make the grant process streamlined and effective.
July 03, 2003
After Iraq: Learning the War's Lessons
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Executive Summary #1664)
Americans can be justifiably proud of the U.S. military's performance during the war in Iraq, but victory is little more than a page in the history book once the war is over. National military strategy, the structure of U.S. alliances, the order of precedence for defense research and development priorities, defense acquisition priorities, post-conflict planning, and the role of the Department of Defense in homeland security require prompt and sustained attention.
July 03, 2003
After Iraq: Learning the War's Lessons
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Backgrounder #1664)
Americans can be justifiably proud of the U.S. military's performance during the war in Iraq, but victory is little more than a page in the history book once the war is over. National military strategy, the structure of U.S. alliances, the order of precedence for defense research and development priorities, defense acquisition priorities, post-conflict planning, and the role of the Department of Defense in homeland security require prompt and sustained attention.
June 16, 2003
Budgets and Threats: An Analysis of Strategic Priorities for Maritime Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
(Heritage Lecture #791)
The Bush Administration's National Strategy for Homeland Security identified six critical mission areas to focus federal efforts on the objectives of preventing terrorist attacks, reducing America's vulnerabilities to terrorism, and minimizing the damage and recovering from attacks that do occur. An analysis of spending priorities suggests that most of the proposed major programs fall into one of the six critical mission areas. It is not clear, however, that in every case the level of resources requested is adequate to meet the critical goals the Administration has established in its strategy or that these efforts are appropriate to address future threats. In particular, while notable progress has been made in virtually every critical mission area, shortfalls in maritime security top the list of concerns.
June 13, 2003
Congress Must Act to Link Navy and Coast Guard Future Needs
By James Jay Carafano
(WebMemo #294)
Congress is about to miss a major opportunity when reviewing the nation's future fleet requirements. The House version of the 2004 defense authorization bill calls for eight independent studies to describe what the ideal Navy of the future might look like, but does not require that the U.S. Coast Guard's needs and requirements be included in these studies.
2009 Commentary
November 17, 2009
Missing in Action: Asian Nations Can't be Found in US Trade Policy
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Politics Down Under can be pretty upside-down. Kevin Rudd led his Labor Party to victory in Australia's 2007 election. Shortly after settling into the prime minister's office, Rudd and his team did something rarely seen from the leadership of a left-leaning party: call for a big increase in defense spending.
November 02, 2009
Weathering Congress, Global Warming
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Weather changed. People died. They called it the "Little Ice-Age," a period that spanned the mid-1600s. As global temperatures dropped, the number and frequency of wars rose.
October 28, 2009
Exclusive: Soft Power Slump
By James Carafano
Obama's week finished with a soft power slump. The U.S. had high hopes for two meetings with Iranian officials on their suspect nuclear programs.
October 27, 2009
History Lesson on Why '78 Should Not Be Repeated
By James Carafano
He followed an unpopular president. He received a strong election mandate. He changed the tone in Washington, D.C.
October 20, 2009
Web 2.0 has anti-social networking, too
By James Carafano
Spies! They were all over Washington. Yes, they liked us. They were British, after all.
October 13, 2009
Birthed In Blood, Somali Terror Group Goes Global
By James Carafano
In the summer of 2008, a battle raged about 300 miles south of Mogadishu. There, along the banks of the Jubba River, rival militias fought for control of a port city.
October 09, 2009
Oslo's Decision Is Shortsighted
By James Carafano
Waking up to a Nobel Peace Prize may not have been what President Obama wanted. Here's why: The Nobel Committee awarded the prize on the basis of hope for what he'll do in the future, rather than on his past achievements.
September 29, 2009
In Guns vs. Butter, Butter is Winning
By James Carafano
H. Rowen Gaither Jr. advised the great men of his era. He helped found RAND, the original U.S. think tank. He headed the Ford Foundation and served on numerous presidential committees.
September 22, 2009
Home, Homeland security on the range
By James Carafano
Chicago's 1893 World's Fair was a 600-acre celebration of American exceptionalism. There, amid the wonders and marvels of the modern world, the American Historical Association held its annual meeting.
September 09, 2009
What really remains of the day
By James Jay Carafano
It was July 4, 1916 ... or so the story goes. The world was at war. Americans weren't in the fight yet, but they knew whose side they were on ... and it wasn't Germany's.
September 01, 2009
Renaming War Once More
By James Jay Carafano
Two veterans of the international think-tank community, Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker, have interwoven several themes to offer their vision of modern conflict. War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age strings together the topics of insurgencies, terrorism, social networking (the conglomeration of online tools from Twitter on down, often called Web 2.0) and information warfare. All of these topics converge in cyberspace, which for Rid and Hecker is the new center of gravity for political violence and conflict.
September 01, 2009
Obama, Gates are gutting America's defense industry
By James Jay Carafano
When Gen. William Snow arrived in Washington, D.C., to direct the buildup of the artillery for the Allied Expeditionary Force, he thought his office ought to have stationary reflecting the importance of the task.
August 20, 2009
The Road to Zero: Keeping Swords, Building Ploughshares
By James Jay Carafano
Every Washington wonk dreams that a new president will pick up his or her agenda. When it comes to advocates for nuclear arms control, that dream seems to be coming true.
August 18, 2009
"Buy America" is bad for national security
By James Jay Carafano
Willis Hawley and Reed Smoot thought they had a great idea. Hawley chaired the House Ways and Means Committee. Smoot oversaw the Senate Finance Committee. Faced with a national economic meltdown, they brainstormed ways to jump-start the economy. Their solution was new tariffs.
August 12, 2009
Uncle Walter's ghost is still with us in Afghanstan
By James Jay Carafano
On the Vietnamese holiday of Tet in 1968, U.S. troops in Saigon woke not to the pop of firecrackers, but to the riddle of machine gun fire. The enemy attacked throughout the city and across the country.
August 07, 2009
Cyber-Security Blues
By James Jay Carafano
The White House is having trouble filling its "cyber- security czar" slot? Big surprise.
August 04, 2009
Robert Gates: 21st century cold warrior
By James Jay Carafano
It is 50 years in the future. America's most distinguished historians (all arriving in carbon-free rocket cars) gather for a conference assessing "the secretary of defense who best exemplified Cold War thinking." Their subject: Robert Michael Gates.
July 28, 2009
Electromagnetic attack: Thinking the unthinkable
By James Jay Carafano
When the 9/11 Commission issued its report, it complained that federal agencies had a colossal "failure of imagination." Nobody could accuse Newt Gingrich of suffering from that shortfall.
July 14, 2009
Newt gnaws on nation's security
By James Jay Carafano
He was a fixture of national politics for decades, a commanding presence on the national stage. He led conservatives out of the wilderness to the pinnacle of power. But at the height of influence, he suffered a crushing political defeat. Resigning his leadership post, he returned to his great love-writing.
July 10, 2009
Don't Let the Bean Counters Run the World
By James Jay Carafano
Robert McNamara was a great bean counter. But bean counters shouldn't try to run the world. That's the legacy Mr. McNamara leaves us.
July 07, 2009
Killer pigs and politicians
By James Jay Carafano
When Mexico reported an outbreak of swine flu last April, fear of an epidemic quickly spread. One member of Congress claimed he knew exactly how to handle the situation. "We need to close our borders to Mexico immediately and completely until this is resolved," said Rep. Eric Massa, D-NY, a Naval Academy graduate and Gulf War veteran. Nobody listened to him.
June 23, 2009
Next-up in the terrorist-batter's box
By James Jay Carafano
In 1905, former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg was dynamited. The bomb (the WMD of its day) was strapped to a gatepost on his garden fence.
June 16, 2009
After Afghanistan, will we squander the victory?
By James Jay Carafano
"Victory deserves a future." That thought was a guiding light for one of the 20th century's greatest leaders -- Winston Churchill. He lamented the "wilderness years" that followed his resignation from government during World War I.
June 09, 2009
What Scoop Jackson knew
By James Jay Carafano
There may never be another Scoop. Once upon a time Washington had many leaders who put national security before their politics. Henry "Scoop" Jackson stood at the top of the class.
June 02, 2009
Contracting for the common defense
By James Jay Carafano
As first governor of the Louisiana Territory, Meriwether Lewis -- yes, of Lewis and Clark fame - asked Washington for money, weapons, and supplies. He needed to raise a militia to guard the nation’s new frontier. What he got was the cold shoulder.
May 26, 2009
Nothing new in Obama's speech
By James Jay Carafano
You would think it would be hard to argue that President Barack Obama’s Notre Dame speech and his speech at the National Archives on combating terrorism were the same speech.
May 26, 2009
Being Green is not the job of the U.S. military
By James Jay Carafano
It was a momentous year. In 1973, CBS sold the Yankees to some guy named George Steinbrenner... the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade ruling... America quit Vietnam... President Nixon declared, "I am not a crook"... and, on Yom Kippur, the Arab states launched a short but vicious war against Israel.
May 22, 2009
The Battle Between Cheney and Obama Does Nothing to Advance the Cause of Winning the War on Terror
By James Jay Carafano
There is far more continuity than change in detention and interrogation policies than either President Obama or Vice President Cheney care to admit.
May 19, 2009
U.S., Canada bordering on stupidity
By James Jay Carafano
America's wide-open US-Canadian border seemed to beckon the terrorists. The hated enemy was so close. It would be so easy to strike, then slip back. A simple matter, really, to blow up the entrance to the Welland canal. It would seal the bottleneck connecting Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, tying-up barge traffic for months, creating economic chaos.
May 12, 2009
A REAL homeland security test
By James Jay Carafano
Congressional commissions come and go. Few make history. The 9/11 Commission was a remarkable exception. Its report became a bestseller. Its recommendations became "the" top priorities for the new, Democratic-led Congress.
May 07, 2009
Homeland Security Grant Tail Wags State Spending Dog
By James Jay Carafano
What level of government really commits the most resources to protecting the American homeland? Heritage Foundation Visiting Fellow Matt Mayer looked at the numbers for 111 state and local jurisdictions in "An Analysis of Federal, State, and Local Homeland Security Budgets" and found that from 2000 to 2007 the vast majority of state and local homeland security funds came from state and local governments, not Washington, D.C.
May 05, 2009
Free speech in defense of liberty is no vice
By James Jay Carafano
History often books a room at Washington, D.C.'s Mayflower Hotel. It was there that Franklin Roosevelt penned "nothing to fear but fear itself" for his first inaugural address. Harry Truman lived there for most of his first 100 days as president.
April 29, 2009
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century
By James Jay Carafano
For a book that purports to tell the story of the upcoming 100 years, George Friedman’s The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century reads like a decidedly old-fashioned book. Those who are not tracking the many threads futurists try to weave together to unveil the fabric of the future may find value in Friedman's introduction to a range of topics from demographic trends to energy research. Other than as a source of light entertainment, however, this volume does not have much to offer.
April 21, 2009
The ultralightness of smuggling
By James Jay Carafano
On the border, you expect strange things to happen. When the Yuma County Sherriff's Office got the call to report to a crash site--a lettuce field just north of San Luis--officers didn't know what to expect. New Mexico had its legendary UFO encounter at Roswell--maybe this would put Arizona's San Luis on the map. What they found was pretty strange indeed.
April 16, 2009
President Should Merge Homeland Security Council with NSC
By James Jay Carafano and Jena Baker McNeill
On February 13, President Obama issued a directive requiring a review of whether the Homeland Security Council (HSC) should be integrated with the National Security Council (NSC). In addition, the directive looked to increasing the capacity of the White House to manage issues during a crisis.
April 14, 2009
Obama's penny-wise, pound-foolish defense budget
By James Jay Carafano
It is the year 2019. A speechwriter rummages through a pile of reports and press clips, preparing to draft testimony for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
April 10, 2009
The risk of electromagnetic pulse devastation is greater than ever. Why does Washington dismiss it?
By James Jay Carafano
Sunlight fills the bedroom. It's past 8 a.m., and it's cold. Why didn't the alarm go off? The bathroom lights are out. The house is without power. The battery-operated radio plays nothing but static. The phone is dead. What on earth has happened?
April 07, 2009
How to keep the war on terrorism out of America's backyards
By James Jay Carafano
No longer will federal officials speak of "the long war" and "the war on terrorism." The administration has banned these terms from the government lexicon.
March 30, 2009
How to keep America safe from Mexico's drug wars
By James Jay Carafano
He's the All-American general. Already a hero from one war, he has inherited another. It's a long war--fought in villages against an enemy that, when pressed, simply melts back across the border. And he will fail. In part, because his president is willing to fight a "half-measure" war--the kind of war that cannot be won.
March 24, 2009
U.S. must avoid half-measure wars
By James Jay Carafano
He's the All-American general. Already a hero from one war, he has inherited another. It's a long war--fought in villages against an enemy that, when pressed, simply melts back across the border. And he will fail. In part, because his president is willing to fight a "half-measure" war--the kind of war that cannot be won.
March 17, 2009
Obama's defense budget offsets will ring hollow
By James Jay Carafano
Once upon a time, there was a president who promised to spend less on defense and give us more. And he did--in a manner of speaking.
March 10, 2009
Dirty secrets about dirty bombs
By James Jay Carafano
It's an all-too likely scenario. Terrorists detonate a "dirty" bomb, an explosive device laced with radioactive material. Hundreds die--mostly because responders won't enter the contaminated area for fear of falling victim themselves.
March 03, 2009
Back to the border for the National Guard?
By James Jay Carafano
Terrorists gave the police chief little choice. "Resign now," they said, "or we’ll kill one policeman every other day until you do."
February 27, 2009
Hidden Cuts in Defense?
By James Jay Carafano
By all reports, when President Obama's budget is released today, it will envision spending more money on defense. The figure thrown around most is an 8 percent increase over last year. But that doesn't necessarily mean more money to support our men and women in uniform - and there's good reason to fear otherwise.
February 24, 2009
One of our satellites is missing
By James Jay Carafano
Signals stopped Tuesday, Feb. 10. Silence was the sound of satellites colliding.
Hurtling forward at 17,500 miles an hour 500 miles above the earth, a dead Russian satellite smashed into a 1,200 pound, live U.S. satellite that was part of the Iridium global communications network. The collision left nothing but space debris… and the sound of silence.
February 17, 2009
Obama pursuing Homeland Security Lite
By James Jay Carafano
A few weeks back, Osama Bin Laden emitted his latest address to the faithful, promising to “open new fronts” in his war against the West. While it is not clear what he meant, it is equally baffling trying to figure out what Washington is doing to thwart him and other enemies of America.
February 09, 2009
Iran, N. Korea Send Wake-up Calls for Missile Defense
By James Jay Carafano
The crash-and-burn of Tom Daschle's nomination to head the Health and Human Services Department wasn't the first bad news to hit the new administration. Nor will it be the last.
February 06, 2009
Mumbai Massacres: We Can't Respond Without the Facts
By James Jay Carafano
On a business-as-usual morning in March 2004, terrorists launched a coordinated attack on Madrid commuter trains killing 191 people and wounding 1,755. The government, with only three days remaining before general elections, quickly blamed Basque-separatists groups. Almost all the conclusions reached in the immediate wake of the bombings turned out to be wrong. The government fell. Many blamed the miscues on misspeaking after the disaster, not how officials responded to the carnage. In the aftermath of last week’s attacks in Mumbai, it is worth reflecting on the lessons of Madrid. Responding to terrorist incidents with conjecture and guessing, rather than facts, is just not a good idea.
January 28, 2009
Will the Armed Forces Fail Next?
By James Jay Carafano
It's become a real trend: Big companies turn to the government to plead for hard cash. And politicians are listening — which is a problem.
January 16, 2009
Contracting in Combat: Advice for the Commission on Wartime Contracting
By James Jay Carafano
In the wake of controversy over private military contracting, the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 established the Commission on Wartime Contracting to investigate the issue. The commission is expected to issue an interim report in 2009 and a final report in 2010. The commission should promote recommendations to improve the government's capacity to make and oversee contracts in an "expeditionary" wartime environment, advocate a more robust and capable contracting force, and propose better doctrine and management processes for deciding when hiring contractors to support military operations is most useful.
January 13, 2009
Nuclear Deterrence: A Defensible Defense
By James Jay Carafano
With the “new” century now 8 years old (and counting), it’s time to finally shelve some expired ideas left over from the last years of the 20th century.
Every facet of Cold War “common sense” that argued against missile defense makes no sense in the 21st century. Deterrence (threatening to lob atomic warheads at whoever might attack you as a way to prevent being attacked in the first place) just doesn’t work anymore.
January 09, 2009
Analysis: NATO's 60th calls for change
By James Jay Carafano
President-elect Barack Obama should make history. Not just on Jan. 20, but on April 4, as well. The latter date marks the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO.
When Harry Truman signed the North Atlantic Treaty six decades ago, he observed, "Events of this century have taught us that we cannot achieve peace independently. The world has grown too small."
2008 Commentary
December 29, 2008
No More Waffling on Missile Defense
By James Jay Carafano
The president-elect and the Star Wars president share some common ideas. Both have blanched at the nightmare of America held hostage by the threat of tens or hundreds of thousands of Americans dead from nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles. And both have been morally repulsed by the notion of protecting our nation by threatening to bury an entire enemy population under a forest of mushroom clouds. There has to be a better way.
December 15, 2008
Security oversight seen running amok
By James Jay Carafano
So why does Congress allow this? Because changing the oversight situation to fit with the commission's recommendation would rankle the many committee chairmen - members who might (gasp!) see the authority and prestige of their fiefdoms diminished. And that's unacceptable, even if it leaves the nation less safe.
December 15, 2008
Don't Count On Economy To Stop Illegal Immigration
By James Jay Carafano
They are leaving. Illegal immigrants, that is.
Analysts from both ends of the immigration debate, from the Center for Immigration Studies to the Pew Hispanic Center, agree. The "unlawfully present" population in the United States has shrunk — and it's getting smaller.
November 13, 2008
Plainspoken Pundits Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power
By James Jay Carafano
When T.R. Fehrenbach famously penned, "You may fly over a land forever; you may bomb it, atomize it, pulverize it and wipe it clean of life-but if you desire to defend it, protect it and keep it for civilization, you must do this on the ground, the way the Roman legions did, by putting your young men into the mud," he was writing about another time, another war and another part of the world, Korea. As far as Thomas Donnelly and Frederick Kagan, two veteran Washington defense analysts at the American Enterprise Institute, are concerned, the line still sticks today.
October 17, 2008
Iran's 'world without America'
By James Jay Carafano
Which world leader is on record musing about "a world without America" - a goal he calls "attainable"? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
October 06, 2008
When whales trump security
By James Jay Carafano
It's a dangerous world out there. Iranian mullahs push forward their missile and nuke development programs while musing about a world without Israel ... or America. Russia rattles its saber, invades Georgia, plants its flag in the Arctic and dismisses the United States as a has-been superpower. Islamists wage a "holy war" against "the Great Satan" with firefights in Afghanistan, bombings in the Middle East and plots around the world.
October 02, 2008
A to-do list: Be proactive, build international institutions that work
By James Carafano
Our elected officials in Washington tend to worry about the danger of the day - competing with China, taming Iraq, reacting to Russia, reassuring skittish global financial markets. Sure, the next president will need to deal with these. But if the White House sets its foreign-policy priorities by lurching from one crisis to the next, there will be no priorities beyond the morning headlines on CNN.
September 11, 2008
Forgotten Homeland Security Agenda
By David Heyman and James Jay Carafano
The presidential candidates have discussed quite a few issues in this campaign. Strangely, though, voters have heard little about homeland security.
August 27, 2008
Russia-Georgia War Highlights Need for Directed-Energy Defenses
By James Jay Carafano
For the second time in recent years, the United States has witnessed another wake-up call for the importance of fielding directed-energy weapons capable of shooting-down mortar and artillery fire, as well as intercepting short-range rockets and missiles.The Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Congress need to place more emphasis on fielding working prototypes of these systems as quickly as possible.
August 26, 2008
Preparing the military for defeat
By James Jay Carafano
After the Vietnam War, respect for the military sank to an all-time low. In one survey, sanitation workers were the only profession Americans thought less of - and some considered that an insult to sanitation workers. Defense spending plummeted. The armed services "hollowed out," lacking the budgets to sustain modernization, training and readiness.
August 23, 2008
'Persistent Warfare' Not a Winning Strategy
By James Jay Carafano
The new term in the Army lexicon is "persistent warfare." In short, the Army argues that everything from terrorists to global warming will require lots of boots on the ground — and the ability to sustain that capacity the world over for a very long time.
August 12, 2008
America's Self-Weakening Security Syndrome
By James Jay Carafano
We're told that history repeats itself. Actually, it's people who do that. They repeat their mistakes all the time. That's the real human constant in history. And Washington may be about to give us another history lesson: repeating the gravest misjudgments of the Vietnam War.
July 31, 2008
On Teaching War: The Future of Professional Military Education
By James Jay Carafano
Dickens was right, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” No statement better captures the state of professional military education and the prospects for the future.
July 22, 2008
The Wilting Anti-War Movement
By James Jay Carafano
Hearing a presidential candidate "nuance" his position on the war in Iraq seems to surprise some in the media. But it shouldn’t.
June 02, 2008
Three Fronts, One Long War
By James Jay Carafano
Americans often are accused of talking to themselves — of seeing the world only through American eyes, American interests, American politics. Hubris runs in the family, in fact; both the right and left have a habit of telling us what the world thinks and why.
May 17, 2008
Security Gone Wild
By James Jay Carafano
Weapons proliferation is a growing threat, but the spread of nuclear weapons technology and ballistic missiles may not be the gravest danger facing free people everywhere. The biggest problem could well be governments that increasingly want to classify every global challenge as a "security" issue.
May 08, 2008
Soldiers, Civilians and 'The Great War'
By James Jay Carafano
Civil-military relations are back in the news. There could not be a better time for fresh views on this vital subject. Nancy Gentile Ford’s The Great War and America: Civil-Military Relations During World War I is a welcome contribution.
April 29, 2008
Mind the Homeland Security Gap
By James Jay Carafano
As agencies go, the Department of Homeland Security is still a toddler. Less than half a decade old, it has served under only one administration.
April 28, 2008
Face the Nations: Handicapping the Players in a Multi-Power World
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Voters interested in keeping America safe, free and prosperous have a choice. Option No. 1: They can follow the presidential race, which may provide some moments of entertainment, but will offer few insights into how the next president will deal with the world in 2009. The candidates, after all, are more interested in getting votes than explaining how they'll govern.
April 26, 2008
Weapons Wal-Mart
By James Jay Carafano
Intelligence officials yesterday briefed key members of Congress on evidence that North Korea was helping Syria build a nuclear reactor like the one that cranks out plutonium for Kim Jong-Il's nuke factory. US and Israeli evidence even includes a damning covert video.
April 23, 2008
Moving Forward to Secure the Border
By James Jay Carafano and Diem Nguyen
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has issued two waivers of laws hindering barrier construction and security improvements on the border with Mexico. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has already built 309 miles of border obstacles, and these waivers will facilitate improvements on about 500 miles of border infrastructure. One waiver addresses environmental and land management laws that applied to about 470 miles across four border states; the other addresses a 22-mile levee-border project in Hidalgo, Texas. The waivers were issued on April 1, 2008, and will become effective upon their publication in the Federal Register.
April 13, 2008
Immigration Inertia
By James Jay Carafano
"I'm in favor of immigration," Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) once said. "But we also need rules." Most Americans probably agree. So why are sensible rules so hard to come by?
March 01, 2008
Managing Mayhem: The Future of Interagency
By James Jay Carafano
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently issued new guidelines that make retroactive revised sentences for crack-cocaine possession. But all stakeholders in the criminal justice system — defendants, prosecutors, defense counsel, the police, probation officers, judges and, most importantly, the public, deserve better.
February 26, 2008
In Defense of Defense Spending
By James Jay Carafano
President Bush's proposed defense budget for next year - an inflation-adjusted $515 billion - stands as the most dollars ponied up for the Pentagon since World War II. At first glance, that seems out of whack. How can it cost almost as much to chase after Osama bin Laden as it did to beat both Hitler and Tojo?
February 13, 2008
House Does Terrorism Tap Dance
By James Jay Carafano
The day after the Pentagon announced it would be charging six of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay with crimes (including plotting the 9/11 strikes on Washington and New York), the congressional House leadership signaled again that it wants to push off legislation authorizing the terrorist surveillance program used to prevent future attacks. Even more frustrating, the House continues to dither even after the Senate finally and handily passed its version, The Protect America Act, on a bi-partisan vote.
February 08, 2008
Standards must be urgent priority to keep nation secure after 9/11
By James Jay Carafano
Members of the 9/11 Commission suggested it. Twice, Congress passed laws requiring it. Yet, more than six years after the 9/11 attacks, America still lacks voluntary national standards for identity cards such as driver's licenses.
February 07, 2008
GITMO's Secret Chamber
By James Jay Carafano
Since 9/11, the biggest disaster of the long war on terrorism has been the Bush administration's response to concerns about its wartime detention policies. This is particularly true of the way it has handled charges regarding Guantanamo Bay, the detention center for "the worst of the worst" captured in that war.
2007 Commentary
November 19, 2007
The Rights of Guantanamo
By James Carafano
The assault on justice continues at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — and it has nothing to do with the trial of enemy combatants accused of war crimes.
November 13, 2007
Higher taxes equal less security
By J.D. Foster and James Jay Carafano
Tax hikes, it seems, are back in vogue. At least in certain quarters.
November 10, 2007
Gitmo Observation Deck
By James Carafano
Overlooking Guantanamo Bay, on a spit of land more fit for a luxury hotel than a courtroom, the U.S. Military Commission Thursday commenced proceedings for the first time since Congress authorized creation of the court in 2006.
October 25, 2007
Free the Hostages
By K. A. Taipale and James Jay Carafano
Congress has been playing a dangerous game of chicken in debating reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act ("FISA"), the 1970s law that governs how our nation gathers intelligence concerning terrorist plots and other plans to harm our nation.
October 15, 2007
War by the Numbers
By James Carafano
When the media covered the Petraeus-Crocker hearings, they missed one really big story: With about 160,000 combat troops, Gen. Petraeus managed to stem the rising tide of violence in Iraq. That is a statistic worth noting because, according to the "experts," it couldn't be done.
October 01, 2007
Transform the Mideast
By James Carafano
Spreading Freedom Is Not A Marketing Job; Leadership Has To Come From The Islamic World
September 25, 2007
Southern Discomfort
By James Carafano
In June, Washington fought and lost its own Little Big Horn. Attempting to push through comprehensive legislation to secure America’s broken borders and fix dysfunctional immigration laws, Congress – like Custer – fought at the wrong place at the wrong time. The politicians fought outnumbered, garnering withering criticisms from the right and the left. They deserved to lose.
September 15, 2007
Heritage Foundation: Bad Ruling Tosses Out Social Security No-Match Program
By James Jay Carafano
The feds are supposed to enforce our nation’s immigration laws. But that just got harder, thanks to a ruling by a federal judge.
In response to a lawsuit filed by the AFL-CIO, the ACLU and the National Immigration Law Center, Judge Maxine Chesney issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration from mailing new "no-match" notices to employers.
August 30, 2007
Nurturing a Nation of Immigrants
By James Jay Carafano
More than any other nation in history, our country and its system of equal justice and economic freedom beckons not only the downtrodden and the persecuted indeed, all those “yearning to breathe free” but also those who seek opportunity and a better future for themselves and their posterity. Immigration is an important part of the U.S. economy and civil society. U.S. economic growth continues to outstrip population growth, and that means the country needs both low- and high-skilled immigrants whose labor, vitality, and diversity remain an important part of maintaining a vibrant and prosperous America. Growing America, however, is not a process that should be taken out of its citizens. Through the laws of the nation, the people of the United States invite individuals from other countries, under certain conditions, to join them as visitors, workers, students, residents, and as fellow citizens. It’s the federal government’s job to administer those laws.1 Among these responsibilities: processing visa petitions, naturalization petitions, asylum and refugee applications, performing other immigration-related activities, and controlling the nation’s borders.
August 02, 2007
Security Second (or Third): The new Congress takes an old approach to homeland security.
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Members of Congress head home this week with precious little to show for their months of grandstanding on the Hill. However, as the clock counted down to August recess, lawmakers were able to get one "signature" bill off to the president, an act purporting to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.
July 21, 2007
Senate Snoozefest. Wake-up the winners and losers.
By James Jay Carafano, Pd.D.
What can one conclude about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid forcing Congress to stay up all night debating a cut-and-run Iraq amendment to the defense-authorization bill? Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, it was not. The amendment failed largely along party lines, and Reid plucked the bill from consideration. Game Over.
July 13, 2007
Rights Are Wrong: Dealing with terrorists.
By James Jay Carafano, Pd.D.
Sure, terrorists may want to blow up your kid’s school and decapitate you. But never forget that they have rights. And they’ll have even more if some in Congress have their way.
July 13, 2007
Terrorists are Coming! Big Surprise!
By James Jay Carafano, Pd.D.
Check your gut. Apparently, the Secretary of Homeland Security has.
Michael Chertoff told the Chicago Tribune editorial board he had a "gut feeling" al Qaeda might try to attack the United States this summer. The paper highlighted the comment, and a regulation-issue media frenzy ensued.
July 12, 2007
Term Limits for Troops? Webb of nonsense.
By James Jay Carafano, Pd.D.
Call it mandatory R&R. Sen. Jim Webb (D., Va.) wants to give our warriors a break from the battlegrounds — no matter what.
July 10, 2007
Securing the Home Front
By James Jay Carafano, Pd.D.
In matters of strategy, thought should always precede action. To its credit, the Bush administration made drafting a homeland security strategy one of its first tasks in the wake of the September 11th attacks on New York and Washington. That made a difference; history will show that this effort did as much or more to shape how the United States will face up to the challenge of transnational terrorism as the long telegram and NSC-68 told us how to fight the Cold War. The result has been a national effort that has, for the most part, neither veered into indifference nor careened into overreaction. It has also made Americans safer.
July 03, 2007
One Step at a Time: A better bargain for immigration reform
By Matthew Spalding and James Jay Carafano
Sometimes, an ending is really just a beginning. Now that the Senate's "Grand Bargain" to "reform" our dysfunctional immigration system has broken down, lawmakers can make a fresh start.
July 02, 2007
Lousy London Lessons
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
News that British police uncovered a car stuffed with explosives, seemingly ready to bring a bit of Baghdad to London, will likely prompt another round of really dumb ideas about how to make America safer.
June 29, 2007
DHS Mission Impossible
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Far too many cracks in homeland security since September 11 can be traced directly to Congress. Trying to show they are really serious about security, Washington lawmakers have wound up piling more missions and responsibilities on the Department of Homeland Security than the crisis-born agency could accomplish.
June 19, 2007
Spare Us $4.4. Billion
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Backers of the Senate's "comprehensive" immigration-reform plan are trying to revive the moribund measure by talking tough and spending big. It's not enough.
June 13, 2007
Killer Amnesty: Rejecting Hispanic-hostility accusations
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., and Matthew Spalding, Ph.D.
Did the Kennedy-Bush immigration bill fail because its opponents played on the racial prejudices that some Americans harbor against immigrants as Linda Chavez and others--including none other than the president of the United States--have suggested? Hardly.
June 09, 2007
Now We Can Get to Work
By James Carafano
The Senate abandoned a wrongheaded effort to enact comprehensive immigration reform on Thursday night. The bill's defeat represented more than stopping bad legislation. It actually put the Congress two thirds of the way towards doing what needs to be done to solve the problem.
June 08, 2007
Avoiding a 'Danger Du Jour' Approach to Security
By James Jay Carafano
"America's spy agencies are busy. They’re leading the ongoing search for Usama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders. They’re trying to reduce the threat caused by terrorists aiming to attack our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, soon perhaps, they may be keeping an eye on that well-known hot spot, the polar ice cap.
June 08, 2007
Avoiding a 'Danger Du Jour' Approach to Security
By James Jay Carafano
America's spy agencies are busy. They're leading the ongoing search for Usama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders.
June 07, 2007
The TB Case -- Learning the Right Lessons
By James Carafano
One of the great combat generals of World War II, Manton Eddy, had a favorite saying when battle reports came in: "Things are never half as good or half as bad as they look at first." Eddy believed he should wait to have enough information to make a good decision before he made one. This advice also applies to homeland security.
June 05, 2007
What to Say After JFK: Expect clueless congressmen.
By James Carafano
Over the weekend authorities arrested four men for plotting to cause a significant explosion at John F. Kennedy airport in New York City. On Monday, the congressional recess will end, and members of Congress will be back in Washington. Predictably, some of them will express some stupid conclusions about what the JFK incident means. Here is a short list of what we’re bound to hear.
June 01, 2007
A REAL Problem
By James Carafano
Ronald Reagan's famous dictum for negotiating arms control holds true for implementing immigration reform and border security. The legislation proposed last week in the Senate takes a different approach -- "just trust me." There is a good deal of evidence that that deal is a bad deal.
May 29, 2007
Bait-and-Switch Immigration Enforcement
By James Carafano
The Senate's draft omnibus bill on immigration reform and border security is what the military might call a "target-rich environment." There are so many bad provisions that it's difficult to determine which is the worst.
May 25, 2007
Visa-waiver reform can make America more secure
By James Carafano
To win the war on terrorism, America must show the same self-confidence and courage that helped win the Cold War. We can start by throwing out visa policies that discourage foreigners from visiting their American relatives, going to Disney World or otherwise experiencing our wonderful country firsthand.
May 15, 2007
The Pentagon Crisis of 2015
By James Carafano
At today’s Rose Garden signing of the National Save the Military Act, the flick of a pen fundamentally changed the balance of powers and the conduct of America’s national defense.
May 12, 2007
At the Border: Ideas That Make a Difference
By James Carafano
America needs safe and secure borders and immigration polices that work. The solution: a combination of sensible security, workplace enforcement and legitimate opportunities to work in the United States.
May 09, 2007
Casting Soldiers as Victims of War
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
As members of a democratic republic, Americans are free to debate how, or even if, we should fight wars. We argue about whether to go to war, we argue about how a particular war is being conducted and we argue for years about the outcome.
April 23, 2007
Listening For Terrorists: Surveillance Programs—Lessons Learned and the Way Ahead
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., Todd Gaziano, John Yoo, Suzanne Spaulding, and Mary DeRosa
In the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks the National Security Agency (NSA) established a terrorist surveillance program to intercept the international communications of suspected transitional terrorists and their supporters.
April 23, 2007
Warring Over Words
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
Victory in war requires, at a minimum, honesty about the type of war you’re waging. So you really have to wonder if certain members of Congress understand what's at stake.
March 22, 2007
Visa Reform: How to be Brave in a Brave New World
By Helle Dale and James Carafano
After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, Americans became rightly concerned about two serious issues -- thwarting the international travel of terrorists and getting serious about enforcing U.S. immigration laws. Most of what was done immediately after 9/11 amounted to simply making it more difficult to travel to the United States from overseas.
February 26, 2007
Railing About Security
By James Jay Carafano, Ph.D.
When there’s a problem, we can usually count on Congress to react by a) throwing money at it and b) regulating it. Case in point: homeland security. Two recent overseas terrorist attacks -- including a bombing on the India-Pakistan rail line -- have sent Congress into apoplexy. Lawmakers plan to have a bill that would dramatically step up rail security on the Senate floor very soon.
February 06, 2007
Shaping a Visa Policy in the National Interest
By James Jay Carafano and Marlene M. Johnson
Many of America's friends are beginning to feel like unwanted guests. Sure, they understand our caution in a post-September 11th world, but they think we don't appreciate them like we used to. We drag our feet deciding when they can stop by for a visit. We expect plenty of notice, and we have lots of questions.
January 18, 2007
Don't demonize security
By James Jay Carafano
Here's the recipe for a scary, post-9/11 news story about liberties vs. security:
•First, find a legitimate domestic surveillance program. Make sure it's one most Americans ignore — the more obscure, the better. It doesn't matter if the courts have ruled it constitutional. It doesn't matter if it helps fight crime or protect national security.
2006 Commentary
December 09, 2006
Between Iraq and a hard spot
By James Jay Carafano
After reading the published report of the Iraq Study Group, picking the title for a critique of the independent bi-partisan assessment commissioned by the Congress proved a no-brainer. I call it the “good, bad and the ugly.”
December 07, 2006
Bipartisanship at the Gates after Rumsfeld
By James Jay Carafano
Listening to the Senate confirmation hearing on the soon-to-be-confirmed secretary of Defense yesterday, it became clear that John Edwards was right. There are “two Americas.” One is the land of bitter partisan political rhetoric where Republicans and Democrats hold Manichean views of national security and what needs to be done to make the nation safe, free, and prosperous. The other America is represented by the reality reflected in the Gates confirmation hearings — that the factions in Congress are not nearly far apart as their election-year ranting would leave you to believe.
December 02, 2006
Waiving Visitor Visas Would Help U.S. Business, Innovation
By James Jay Carafano and Steven Clemons
Some of the finest minds in American history were immigrants -- just think of Joseph Pulitzer and Albert Einstein.
November 22, 2006
Wars, politics & strategy
By James Jay Carafano
The war in Iraq took center stage with many voters in the midterm elections. No surprise there.
October 28, 2006
Mexico's Answer to El Muro
By James Jay Carafano
A wall looks different depending on where you’re standing. On Oct. 26, President Bush signed legislation to build 700 miles of fence along our southern border. If it’s successful, this wall will look good because it will keep people out.
October 21, 2006
Mr. President, Finish the Job in Iraq
By James Jay Carafano
Political operatives make their living mischaracterizing the other side. It is Washington’s greatest industry. So goes the debate over Iraq.
October 06, 2006
Myths of Guantanamo
By James Jay Carafano
Guantanamo Bay isn’t run by the CIA, the FBI or private contractors. It is run by men and women in the armed services. They are the guards, the administrators, the doctors, the engineers, the lawyers and the chaplains. They’re the ones in charge.
October 04, 2006
Congress protects rights, preserves national security
By James Jay Carafano
When Congress passed the law that will govern how terrorist suspects can be tried in military tribunals, it acted just like the Founding Fathers would have wished.
October 04, 2006
Counting Terrorists: More or Less a Distraction
By James Jay Carafano
In any war, good intelligence is critical. It’s difficult to defeat an enemy if you don’t know what the enemy is planning to do.
September 30, 2006
That Hollow Feeling
By James Jay Carafano
Why is the Army chief of staff asking Congress for an extra $25 billion for next year? Because equipment wears out a lot faster in wartime - but Congress typically won't fund the replacement costs in time of peace.
September 23, 2006
The Real Islamic Threat
By James Jay Carafano
The greatest danger in the world today is not the threat from Islam, but the threat to Islam.
September 21, 2006
America's five Iraq wars
By James Jay Carafano
America has fought five wars in Iraq -- not merely one. And we’ve won or are winning four of them.
September 18, 2006
Security strife
By James Jay Carafano
This month's fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks provides a good opportunity to score the national efforts to fight terrorism. So as a former mayor of New York might put it, "How are we doing?"
September 13, 2006
911: America took the right first steps, but winning the long war requires grit
By James Jay Carafano
Americans who ask whether we're safer now than we were five years ago are asking the wrong question. Even if the answer is yes (and it is), that offers pretty cold comfort because we're not safe; we're at war.
September 07, 2006
Thinking smarter -- it's Job 1
By James Jay Carafano and Brian Finch
After every terrorist scare, Congress wants to help -- usually by throwing money at the problem. Whatever the "danger du jour" happens to be (airplane plots, subway bombings, hurricanes, leaky borders), lawmakers' first inclination is to spend.
August 28, 2006
What went right: Just folks helping folks
By James Jay Carafano
There are two ways to learn from disasters. One is to figure out what went wrong and try to fix it. The second is to profit from what went right and try to build on that.
August 24, 2006
The Wisdom of Wiretaps
By James Jay Carafano
Lawyers joke that if a prosecutor gets the right grand jury, it's possible to indict a ham sandwich. A recent ruling by a U.S. District Court judge suggests a corollary: A lawyer who shops around long enough can find a judge willing to issue a ruling that makes as much sense as indicting a sandwich.
August 17, 2006
Europe's blind spot in terror war
By James Jay Carafano
Travel is educational. Recently, I have crossed the Atlantic six times, making three trips to three different European cities. I've learned two things: (1) international air travel is about one step up from riding a cattle car, and (2) Europeans still don't get the war on terror.
August 11, 2006
Lessons from London
By James Jay Carafano
Lawyers joke that if a prosecutor gets the right grand jury, it's possible to indict a ham sandwich. A recent ruling by a U.S. District Court judge suggests a corollary: A lawyer who shops around long enough can find a judge willing to issue a ruling that makes as much sense as indicting a sandwich.
August 05, 2006
The next generation of weapons
By James Jay Carafano and Andrew Berman
War, ever destructive, also spurs creativity. The high stakes involved spark technical as well as tactical innovation. Technology advances change the face of war. The siege wars of the ancients, the trench warfare of the early 20th century are wholly outmoded due to advanced technology that allows today's battles to be fought at great distances.
August 01, 2006
Beyond the border
By James Jay Carafano
The debate over how to control America's borders has been long on rancor and short on basic facts. Congress would do well to slow down and listen to what experts who have studied the problem have to say.
July 27, 2006
Missing the real missile threat
By James Jay Carafano
No, the United States isn't immune to nuclear attack. But you can bet it's not going to come courtesy of the Taepodong-2 missile the North Koreans fired recently.
July 27, 2006
Trying talk on terrorist trials
By James Jay Carafano
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." Attorneys cite that famous line, uttered by would-be revolutionaries in Shakespeare's "Henry VI, Part II," as proof of their critical role in keeping "a nation of laws" from devolving into anarchy. Those less enamored of the legal profession cite it as proof that lawyers often serve the interests of the elite at the expense of the general public.
July 05, 2006
Contain yourself
By James Jay Carafano and Robert Quartel
In Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears," terrorists obtain a nuclear bomb, ship it to Baltimore and detonate it. Policymakers in Washington want to make sure that piece of fiction doesn't become fact. Some politicians want to require inspectors to look inside each container before it's shipped to U.S. ports. Supposedly, this would prevent terrorists from smuggling in a weapon of mass destruction or a "dirty" bomb (a large, conventional explosive laced with radiological material). But in reality, we'd be wasting our time and money.
July 01, 2006
Supreme Court Guantánamo Ruling Requires Government Action
By James Carafano
Legal scholars will be wrangling for some time over the Supreme Court's questionable split ruling that declared unconstitutional the military tribunals the United States planned to use at Guantánamo Bay.
May 11, 2006
Mistreating our friends
By James Carafano
To build long-term alliances, a country needs to build trust. We can't expect other countries to take up arms and share our burdens on the battlefield if we're greeting their civilians by slamming doors in their faces.
May 08, 2006
The right formula for protecting our chemicals
By James Carafano
When it comes to homeland security, it often seems better to err on the side of caution. But it's possible to go overboard and protect ourselves from things we need.
April 14, 2006
If it comes to force in Iran...
By James Carafano
Iran wants nukes. Months of diplomatic efforts to dissuade the anti-American mullahs from their quest have yielded one muted and toothless United Nations resolution, and zero concessions.
March 27, 2006
War Time Presidential Power Presents Constitutional Dilemma
By James Carafano
Some anti-war arguments make less sense than others. Shortly after 9/11, critics began dismissing the notion that we should, or even could, be at war with terrorists.
March 14, 2006
What's next in Iraq? Leaving too early would help terrorists
By James Carafano
The issue: March 19 marks the three-year anniversary of the Iraq war. Much has been accomplished: A constitution has been written and elections held. But sectarian violence has intensified since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine.
February 08, 2006
Olympic-size security
By James Carafano
Recently, I got a call from an ESPN producer preparing to leave for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. She wanted to make sure they had current contact information for security experts — just in case.
A high-profile event, gathering tens of thousands from all over the world, naturally raises concerns about a terrorist attack. The recent release of Steven Spielberg's "Munich," a film dealing with the terrorist killings at the 1972 Summer Olympics, hardly lessens the anxiety.
January 27, 2006
Fixing surveillance
By Kim Taipale and James Carafano
The controversy over whether the president has the power to authorize the National Security Agency to monitor international communications with terrorists obscures a simple fact: The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is no longer adequate.
2005 Commentary
December 13, 2005
How to Keep Making Progress
By James Carafano
It was, to put it mildly, a bad day for America. As one veteran responder put it, getting aid into New Orleans and other devastated areas after Hurricane Katrina hit was like "landing an army at Normandy with a little less shooting."
November 29, 2005
Debunking the myth of the underprivileged soldier
By Tim Kane and James Carafano
They all volunteered. The U.S. soldiers pitching in with hurricane relief along the Gulf Coast and those fighting and dying in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere decided, on their own, to serve their nation.
November 18, 2005
Contracting Chaos on Gulf Coast
By James Carafano
As the federal government prepares to dump billions into the Gulf Coast hurricane recovery and reconstruction effort, it's only right that we watch carefully to ensure the money is well spent.
November 18, 2005
In Iraq, Fear Shouldn't Be Our Guide
By James Carafano
War casualties -- up. The president's poll numbers -- down. To an all-time low, in fact. Protestors march in front of the White House. Elections loom. And how does the president respond? By convening a bipartisan group of elder statesman to guide him. Their advice: The war can't be won. The United States should cut and run.
October 11, 2005
Military Education Needs Reform
By James Jay Carafano and Alane Kochems
In a way, we need not look any further than to our enemies in the war on terror to see what our future military leaders might look like.
October 07, 2005
Rule of Law at Stake in Immigration Debate
By Edwin Meese III and James Jay Carafano
When you reward someone for doing something, you encourage others to engage in similar behavior. That's why amnesty programs are the wrong way to address illegal immigration.
October 07, 2005
Katrina: Investigating the Right Way
By James Carafano and Laura Keith
Sure, it'll take a lot of money to rebuild the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast. All the more reason to ensure that money isn't wasted.
September 13, 2005
The Limits of Relief
By James Carafano
It's all too easy, as the water pumps churn and troops move throughout New Orleans, to ask: "What took so long? Anyone watching cable news could see what needed to be done."
August 11, 2005
Another Terrorist Timeout
By James Jay Carafano
It's time for another timeout in Washington. Last year, the greatest threat to American security was not the terrorists, but rank partisanship.
August 06, 2005
Congress' Homeland Insecurity
By Veronique de Rugy and James Jay Carafano
If power companies invested in infrastructure like the Department of Homeland Security fights terrorism, then a resident in New York City wouldn't be able to run a hairdryer but every cowboy in Bozeman, Mont., could light up a stadium.
July 20, 2005
The Terrorist Theory of Victory
By James Carafano
Terrorists win by just being there. It's the kind of sound-bite interviewers love. Short. Pithy. Seemingly profound. And, best of all, arresting: It paints terrorism as a frightening, irresistible force.
July 14, 2005
Let's Learn From London But Don't Veer From Plan
By James Carafano
Speculation, often grossly uninformed, filled the radio and TV airwaves immediately after the London attacks last Thursday. Pundits, politicians and so-called experts tried to offer instant analysis based on the fragmentary information available.
July 07, 2005
Iraq's Real Problem
By James Jay Carafano and Paul Rosenzweig
It's not the terrorists. It's not the Syrians. It's not even the Baathists or the Sunnis.
June 28, 2005
Cox had DHS on the right track
By James Jay Carafano and Paul Rosenzweig
It's a basic tenet of combat: If things are going well, the campaign plan should remain the same, even if leadership changes.
June 17, 2005
Law Strikes Right Balance
By James Jay Carafano and Paul Rosenzweig
On June 14, 1985, TWA Flight 847 took off from Athens bound for Rome. Shortly after takeoff, two men in masks commandeered the plane.
June 02, 2005
Feds Drive Human Smuggling
By James Jay Carafano
It's in-season in the Florida Keys. Not for tourists or lobsters, but for human smuggling.
May 25, 2005
Chertoff's Test
By James Jay Carafano and Alane Kochems
When Immigration-Customs Enforcement officers arrested a Bronx man with about 1,000 flawlessly counterfeited law-enforcement badges on him, some of which represented federal agencies such as the FBI
May 23, 2005
The Unglamorous Path to True Transformation
By James Jay Carafano
When U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld first started talking about military "transformation," the generals and admirals fairly salivated at the thought of the new toys they'd be able to buy.
May 17, 2005
A Better Way to Fight Terrorism
By James Jay Carafano
You can find a lot of great stuff in Key West. Cold beer, warm sun -- and the secret to winning the long war against global trans-national terrorist networks.
May 04, 2005
Terrorism by the Numbers
By James Jay Carafano
No question: The news that the number of terrorist attacks rose significantly last year seems startling. In fact, the number went way up -- from 208 "significant" attacks in America or on Americans worldwide in 2003 to 651 in 2004.
April 20, 2005
Homeland Security May Require Bush Veto
By James Jay Carafano
Congress is about to make America less safe. The president shouldn't stand for it.
March 29, 2005
Seeing the Big Picture:
Homeland Security Lacks Unified Control
By James Jay Carafano
Since the 9/11 attacks, U.S. policy-makers have shown a renewed appreciation for the importance of homeland security and how it fits into our defense of the nation as a whole.
March 03, 2005
Homeland Security: Spending More, Getting Less
By James Jay Carafano
It was right there in the recommendations of the 9/11 commission: Don't let homeland security become the newest outlet for pork-barrel spending.
January 27, 2005
Promise for Iraq's Future
By James Jay Carafano
As Donald Rumsfeld may have put it, you get the election you get, not the one you want. This will certainly be true in Iraq.
January 25, 2005
U.S. Military Will Need Post-Iraq Rebuilding
By James Jay Carafano
It's time to start thinking about what America's military will look like after Iraq.
January 17, 2005
Let the Evidence Speak
By James Jay Carafano
Torture is wrong. Violating the Geneva Conventions is unacceptable. Follow the evidence. Punish the guilty.
January 10, 2005
21st Century Commands
By James Jay Carafano
They say generals are always fighting the last war, but the command structure in place in today's U.S. military looks to have been put in place for use two wars ago.
2004 Commentary
December 26, 2004
Getting Homeland Security in Order
By James Carafano and Paul Rosenzweig
There are reasons not to revamp congressional oversight of homeland security. They just aren't very good ones.
December 15, 2004
Iraq Should Not Let Terror Postpone Elections
By James Carafano and Dana R. Dillon
It's one of the oldest military axioms: "The enemy gets a vote." And it couldn't be any truer than it is in Iraq.
November 04, 2004
Fighting Al Qaeda's New Weapon
By James Jay Carafano
Osama bin Laden's election-eve missive appears to have backfired. Indeed, his wild claims that he will bankrupt America by forcing us to fund counterterrorism efforts left many Americans scratching their heads.
October 04, 2004
Time to Rethink Preventative Detention
By James Jay Carafano and Paul Rosenzweig
In New Jersey earlier this year, a police officer noticed a man who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent dressed in business clothes near a vital bridge.
September 02, 2004
Avoiding a Rush to Failure
By Edwin Meese III and James Jay Carafano
While reform is overdue, Congress must avoid a rush to failure. The chance to fundamentally restructure our national security apparatus comes along rarely.
August 13, 2004
A Good Choice
By James Jay Carafano
An Ivy League degree and years of service as a trained and experienced field operative make for a solid foundation as a CIA chief, particularly when you need someone to shake things up and build the solid organization that is right for the times.
August 03, 2004
Getting Security Right
By James Jay Carafano
'Homeland Security System Actually Works." No one head lined coverage of the 9/11 Commission report that way. But they should have.
July 28, 2004
Keep the Intelligence in "Intelligence Reform"
By James Jay Carafano
It's not that the 9/11 commission's report is lacking. It's been widely hailed, and rightly so, as generally on the mark.
July 15, 2004
Getting Smart on Intelligence
By James Jay Carafano and Paul Rosenzweig
With the partisan rancor that sometimes crept into the hearings held by the 9/11 commission, many expect reaction to its final report to make for great political theater.
July 09, 2004
No More Troops
By James Jay Carafano
America has about 3 million men and women in uniform. But we have a tough time keeping 160,000 in Afghanistan and Iraq.
July 08, 2004
Shutting Out The Draft
By James Jay Carafano
In 1977, I was commissioned into one of the worst armies in American history. The United States left Vietnam with a demoralized, poorly trained, ineptly led and over-stretched military.
July 01, 2004
Making the Occupation Work
By James Jay Carafano
The torch was being passed. Speeches were made. The United States transferred sovereignty from the occupation authorities to the new postwar government.
June 23, 2004
Waging a Wiser War on Terrorism
By James Jay Carafano
As the hearings of the 9/11 Commission have reminded us, it's time to place a much higher priority on improving our ability to fight terrorism here at home — to stop terrorists before they launch their deadly attacks.
June 04, 2004
An intelligence shake-up
By James Jay Carafano
CIA Director George J. Tenet is on his way out, leaving an ambivalent legacy in his wake. Despite all the confidence that President Bush expressed in Mr. Tenet, it was probably past time for him to move on. Retaining an intelligence chief who allegedly claimed it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq had a robust weapons of mass destruction program, when the data were actually far more ambiguous, would have been, well, untenable.
May 03, 2004
Too late to tweak budget
By James Jay Carafano
Should we approve a supplemental defense appropriation for Iraq now?No.
May 03, 2004
Draft Reinstatement Is a Bad Idea
By James Jay Carafano
Americans today rely on the service and sacrifice of our military. The global war on terrorism has put our soldiers, sailors, marines, Air Force and Coast Guard into harm's way in numbers unprecedented since the Vietnam War. National Guard and reserve troops have been posted overseas at record levels.
April 16, 2004
Outside View: Terrorism timeout
By James Jay Carafano
Somewhere, probably deep inside the bowels of a cave, bin Laden is chuckling over how America can turn against itself in search of an explanation for how he and his fellow terrorists pulled off a major act of terror. Other than giving him something to laugh about, nothing of any practical value will be accomplished by the traditional Washington blame game that now engulfs the city.
April 16, 2004
Comparing Iraq and Vietnam
By James Jay Carafano
If the results of one war could serve as a tutorial for the next -- if generals truly could fight the last war every time -- we could write one book on how to conduct military activities and be done with it. But we know the folly of that.
April 08, 2004
Tomorrow's Terrorists
By James Jay Carafano
Members of the 9/11 commission in Washington are dominating headlines as they investigate what the government did before that dark day to prevent terrorism. But the terrorists aren't interested in looking back. They're looking forward -- to their next attack.
April 05, 2004
Thinking About the Next Sept. 11
By James Jay Carafano
Even before terrorists struck four trains in Madrid — with that favorite weapon of cowards everywhere, the bomb — it had becoming chillingly apparent that we had to contemplate the unthinkable: What will we do if there's another Sept. 11?
March 30, 2004
Permanent Oversight For DHS
By James Jay Carafano
A year after the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the leadership of the House of Representatives continues to ponder whether it needs a permanent committee to oversee the department. It should stop pondering. The answer is yes.
January 29, 2004
Terrorism, Myth & the Citizen-Soldier
By James Carafano
Critics dismiss the notion that we should, or even can be, at war with terrorists. They argue that there's no universally agreed-upon definition of terrorism -- that you can't have a war without a clear enemy. Combating terrorists, they insist, isn't primarily a military task but a matter of law enforcement, diplomacy and intelligence.
January 28, 2004
A Command for Africa
By James Carafano, Ph.D., and Nile Gardiner, Ph.D.
Now is a particularly good time to consider how we might respond better to challenges in African security. With the United States on the offensive in the Middle East and Asia, Africa could be the next hot spot for al Qaeda's mischief. In particular, the United States must remain alert to the rise of African states that might foster global terrorism.
January 09, 2004
Weigh Demands Carefully
By James Carafano
Deciding how we should wage a successful war on terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda is a matter of strategy. And in strategy, thought always should precede action. Extravagant calls for more airline security - now, everywhere - miss the point.
January 08, 2004
Warning: We Need a Better Warning System
By James Carafano and Ha Nguyen
When or where al Qaeda strikes again won't depend on whether our government has issued the proper color-coded warning. And it won't change the fact that the advisory system created after 9/11 to warn us of future attacks badly needs revision.
January 08, 2004
US Should Brace for a Very Long War
By James Jay Carafano
The weather in Washington has blown foul and fair. The northern autumn brought chilling winds, early sunsets and little good news. The Taliban appeared resurgent in Afghanistan. In Iraq, the balance tipped. Americans have now suffered more post-conflict casualties than losses during the invasion. A memo penned by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, published widely in the world press, questioned whether the United States was ``capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists than the madrassas [radical Islamic schools] and radical clerics are recruiting''.
2003 Commentary
December 22, 2003
Coordinate Visa Security
By James Carafano and Ha Nguyen
If we learned nothing else from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and the Pentagon, we should have learned the critical importance of keeping visas out of the hands of terrorists.
November 21, 2003
Iraq: U.S Must Keep Eye on the Prize
By James Carafano
Recent polls suggest that, for the first time, more than half of Americans don't approve of President Bush's handling of the Iraq war, and much of the disaffection has to do with the relentless criticism he's endured in the press.
October 13, 2003
Marshall Plan Won't Work in Iraq
By Gunter Bischof and James Jay Carafano
As an occupying power, the United States has a moral and legal obligation to establish a legitimate government in the country and adequate domestic security. America must spend the funds required to do the job right.
September 25, 2003
Maximize our military
By James Jay Carafano
In the wake of the Cold War, the United States' strategy was to be capable of fighting two regional conflicts simultaneously. This required fewer soldiers than, say, the height of the Korean War. Moreover, most would be posted in the United States and would make only occasional forays overseas.
September 23, 2003
A Phony "Phony History"
By James Carafano
What irony: In opposing President Bush's actions in post-war Iraq, some critics who accuse the administration of engaging in "revisionist history" are rewriting history themselves.
September 08, 2003
The Long War Against Terrorism
By James Carafano
Given the patience and determination of our enemies -- and the fact that two armed conflicts have yet to dampen their enthusiasm for attacking America -- it's safe to say we have much more work ahead of us than behind us.
July 07, 2003
Saving Iran From Itself
By James Carafano
According to "realist" international-relations theory, nations will act in their own self-interest. Iranian leaders who are pushing to provide their country with the option to "go nuclear" don't seem to get the idea.
July 03, 2003
Occupational Deja Vu
By James Carafano
Most Americans learn about war from history books, where battles end on one page and peace starts on the next. Reality is different. As we're seeing in post-war Iraq, there's a shadowland between war and peace -- a difficult transition period that few occupied nations escape.
November 20, 2009
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