By Crispin Rovere: "David Santoro’s advocacy for deterrence over war is an essential contribution to the North Korea debate. In paraphrasing my argument for war, Santoro also adds important theoretical context, including the ‘stability-instability paradox’ and alliance ‘decoupling’ that underpins my analysis. Santoro and I concur on some fundamental elements. We both accept that war with North Korea equals enormous sacrifice of blood and treasure, but that these costs will increase substantially once North Korea has an advanced nuclear arsenal and China achieves greater conventional parity with the United States. We also agree that North Korea may become more aggressive as its nuclear capabilities develop and that America’s failure to curtail North Korea’s nuclear program is increasing anxiety in allied capitals."
By Gary Schmitt & James Cunningham, RealClearDefense: “When The New York Times reported that Russia had likely deployed a nuclear-armed cruise missile in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-TX), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, declared the treaty “in tatters” and the deployment a lesson “about the price of not confronting aggression.””