Much has been made of Israel's so-called "disproportionate" response to Hamas rocket fire against Israeli civilians. However, proportionality as a doctrine in international law does not say that firepower returned has to be equal to firepower taken, and does not require that casualties be equal on both sides, concludes a report by JINSA's Senior Director for Security Policy Shoshana Bryen.

Israel has great experience with guerrilla/terrorist forces on its borders with Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. A report by JINSA's Senior Director for Security Policy Shoshana Bryen assesses Israel's overall security operations through the prism of the ongoing Gaza War and the lessons of Israel's experience in the West Bank and Lebanon.

JINSA Advisory Board Member Ambassador Harvey Feldmen explains in an exclusive article that it would be difficult to think of an American president who disdained Taiwan more than George W. Bush. In Taipei, however, they think Democrats are more likely to succumb to the lure of China and in doing so, sacrifice Taiwan's interests.

Brig. Gen. Johanan Locker, commander of the Israeli Air Force's Air Division, met with a small group composed of JINSA leadership and participants in JINSA's annual trip to Israel for retired U.S. Generals and Admirals on November 12.

JINSA's Senior Director for Security Policy Shoshana Bryen wrote in the Baltimore Jewish Times, October 24, 2008, that there are at least two problems with the increasing calls for the United States to engage Iran.

As violence continues to decline in Iraq, regional elections are set for January and disparate political and ethnic forces move closer to political reconciliation, the unfinished Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States looms increasingly large.

While the U.S. Government has expended enormous political, economic and military assets on the Middle East and Asia, benign neglect of South and Central America and the Caribbean could find America losing her neighbors economically to China and India, and politically to nations such as Iran that have aligned with Cuba and Venezuela. A March 2008 JINSA visit to the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) located near Miami and Joint-Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S) in Key West focused on the issues, challenges, successes and failures of U.S. foreign policy.

The Russian assault on the Republic of Georgia, which had been weeks if not months in planning, surprised no one but Western leaders. Ambassador David Smith of the Tbilisi office of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies briefed members of JINSA’s Boards of Directors and Advisors as well as a select group of lay leaders via conference call on August 15.

Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, Defense and Armed Forces Attache at the Embassy of Israel, spoke before a JINSA-sponsored a lunch in late April 2008 for defense industry executives.

Cross-strait tensions decreased dramatically in March when Kuomintang candidate Ma Ying-jeou, won the island republic's presidency by 16 percentage points over his Democratic Progressive Party rival, Frank Hsieh. Having captured a two-thirds majority in December elections for the Taiwanese parliament, the Legislative Yuan, Ma and his KMT after eight years out of power must now make good on campaign promises and please a constituency worried over a sluggish economy, diminished relations with the United States and increased tensions with mainland China.