Asia Insights Weekly: 11.12.13

November 12, 2013          Your Weekly Update from The Heritage Foundation's Asian Studies Center A Strong and Focused National Security Strategy This study begins by asking the essential question. Why? America is a wealthy nation. Its affluence and unique commitment to human dignity make it the prime target of aggressive forces throughout the world. It depends on global financial, communications, and transportation networks that are easy to attack and hard to defend. In an age of asymmetric weapons, its very homeland is vulnerable to attack as never before. Its Constitution requires its central government to defend the nation. Why would such a government, with so great a capacity for self-defense and so much to lose if its defenses fail, voluntarily take steps that its own leaders admit are subjecting its people to unacceptable risk? The answer, we believe, is a lack of clarity on a strategic level—an escalating failure over time to define the interests that together give meaning to the term “national security,” to identify the threats to those interests, and to define the basic strategy and operating principles of a foreign policy that will effectively defend America over time. Click Here to Read the Full Report

In China, the Party Still Controls the Gun   General Peng Yong, commander of the Xinjiang Military District in China’s Lanzhou Military Region (MR), has reportedly been fired from the Xinjiang Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Standing Committee after a “terrorist attack” on Tiananmen Square. This removal highlights several key points. Click Here for More Information Ten Questions for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Burma-North Korea Ties A couple weeks ago, Heritage led a discussion on U.S.-Burma military-to-military relations.  Panelist Keith Luse, former Senate Foreign Relations Committee professional staff, speaking in a personal capacity, posed ten critical questions for Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel about Burma’s relationship with North Korea.  The Administration would do well to answer them. Click here for More Information

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