National Security

[Defense Secretary Mark Esper's] job is a lot tougher than Mattis’s was in the first two years. He’s gotten a generous budget from the Congress and . . . now has to turn this vision on paper into reality.

[North Korea's recent actions were] an attempt to manufacture tension in a calibrated way [to increase pressure on the U.S. to return to the negotiating table]... All the parties in the region have been willing to make excuses for North Korea in an effort to preserve the mood for dialogue, but there are likely to be fissures if North Korea decides to test missiles that fly over Japan or land in Japan's territorial waters.

[On the security risks of climate change] The classic definition [of state security] has been around conflict—threats to human life from armed aggression—which includes intrastate components such as dissident groups and civil war, and then, of course, when states go to war with each other.... [But climate change may induce conflict] to happen in places that are already living on the edge.