President Obama traveled South Korea this weekend to attend the Nuclear Security Summit, where North Korea's nuclear weapons program and recent threat to conduct a missile test under the guise of launching a satellite were atop the agenda. With the standoff over Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program also coming to a head, how do you rate the Obama administration's efforts to revitalize the global nonproliferation agenda? How important was the "New Start" treaty with Russia, and did it have the desired effect of breathing new life into the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty specifically, and nuclear nonproliferation initiatives more generally? If North Korea does conduct a missile test soon after the summit, or tests another nuclear weapon, how big of a blow will it strike to the nonproliferation agenda? Can the administration take credit for increasing Iran's international isolation with subsequent rounds of sanctions? What if Iran gets the bomb anyway?

3 responses: Eric Farnsworth, James Jay Carafano, Michael Brenner

A U.S. soldier, acting alone, allegedly went home to home opening fire on Afghan civilians, killing at least 16 on Sunday. The military is investigating the incident. What should the military do in the short-term to mitigate this problem? Is this a failure in the chain of command? Should someone be fired/resign?

8 responses: Michael Brenner, Paul Sullivan, Michael Brenner, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Michael F. Scheuer, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Wayne White, Michael Brenner

President Obama told the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC on Sunday that while containment of a nuclear Iran was not an option, there was "already too much loose talk of war." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have reportedly told senior U.S. officials that if Israel decides to strike Iran militarily, it will do so without warning Washington--in an attempt to protect the United States from blowback. Should Israel strike Iran's nuclear facilities? Will sanctions ultimately succeed in convincing Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions? If not, should the U.S. launch its own military strike on Iran - either unilaterally or with a coalition of countries that could include the Jewish state?

11 responses: Michael Brenner, Paul Sullivan, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Michael Brenner, Michael F. Scheuer, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Joseph J. Collins, James Jay Carafano, Wayne White, Paul R. Pillar, Michael Brenner

On the eve of the "Friends of Syria" conference in Tunisia last Friday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated her firm belief that there will be a "breaking point" for the Assad regime, and that an increasingly capable Syrian opposition will find the arms not only to defend themselves, but to "begin offensive operations." Is it time for the U.S. and the rest of the international community to begin supplying those arms to the Free Syrian Army, as a way to hasten the breaking point for the Assad regime? Having definitively sided with the Syrian opposition against the Assad regime, can the international community simply stand by -- as Syrian civilians are killed by the hundreds and even thousands -- and retain its credibility? Conversely, might arming the opposition only increase Syria's descent into an all-out civil war that destabilizes not only Syria, but potentially the entire region? Will arming the opposition to halt a humanitarian disaster draw the U.S. and its allies onto a slippery slope that eventually leads to a full-scale military engagement, as happened in Libya?

8 responses: Paul Sullivan, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Wayne White, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Paul D. Eaton, James Jay Carafano, Michael Brenner

President Obama laid out a new defense strategy and now a budget that has the full backing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Chairman Martin Dempsey, but is one that hawks still argue is insufficient, or even dangerous, for national security. Will hawks be able to take on the Joint Chiefs and get the changes they want? Or will the brass wall prove too strong to break? How do you see the fiscal 2013 defense budget year playing out?

3 responses: Col. W. Patrick Lang, Michael Brenner, Gordon Adams

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta caused a PR headache for the White House when he told reporters the U.S. would end its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2013, a year earlier than had been thought. The administration has since been trying - with little success - to walk back the comments.

Do you think Panetta is right to want to end the combat mission next year, and can that be safely done? Does setting a timetable embolden the Taliban? What goals should the U.S. try to accomplish before withdrawing - and, crucially, what can be realistically done?

7 responses: James Jay Carafano, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Joseph J. Collins, Michael Brenner, Wayne White, Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Steven Metz

Depending on whom you ask, the Pentagon's new budget and strategy is either a smart decision to resize and refocus after 10 years of war and in fiscal crisis, or it's a welcome mat for the People's Liberation Army to begin the era of American global decline. Are the hawks right to worry, or is this simple, cold hard pragmatism?

3 responses: Michael Brenner, Gordon Adams, James Jay Carafano

President Obama is expected to outline his national security and foreign policy achievements in Tuesday's State of the Union address. He recently told Time Magazine it's "pretty hard to argue" that his administration's strategy over the last three years "has put America in a stronger position than it was when we ... came into office." Do you agree? What have been this administration's biggest national security achievements? What needs work? What should be this administration's national security priorities for the coming year?

10 responses: Michael Brenner, Eric Farnsworth, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Michael Brenner, Paul Sullivan, Michael Brenner, Eric Farnsworth, James Jay Carafano, Michael Brenner, Joseph J. Collins

A new round of proposed sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and oil exports to Europe have caused a devaluation of the Iranian currency and a sharp spike in inflation, provoking Iran to threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz and choke off 20 percent of the world's oil supply. Meanwhile, another Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated this week in what is increasingly looking like an undeclared, covert war between Iran and US ally Israel, even as Iran announced a new uranium enrichment site at a heavily-defended and buried nuclear facility near the holy city of Qom. Will these growing pressures and tensions eventually lead to an outright military conflict between Iran and the U.S. or its allies? If such a conflict starts, should the U.S. use it as an opportunity to strike Iran's nuclear complex militarily to set back its suspected nuclear weapons program? How likely is it that the pressures will finally prove strong enough to force Iran to negotiate away its nuclear weapons program?

5 responses: Col. W. Patrick Lang, Paul Sullivan, Robert Baer, Michael Brenner, James Jay Carafano

President Obama's new defense strategy moves the Pentagon beyond Cold War-era ground wars and post-9/11 counterinsurgencies and into an envisioned era of joint air and naval conflicts with nations like Iran or China, and perpetual readiness to attack global terrorism with flexible and futuristic asymmetric capabilities. Doing so will require shifts and cuts in weapons procurement, significant cuts to the size of the Army and Marine Corps, and reducing Cold War-era programs like nuclear deterrence. What part of the review was most salient, and what was missing?

6 responses: Paul Sullivan, Col. W. Patrick Lang, Michael Brenner, Michael Brenner, James Jay Carafano, Col. W. Patrick Lang