Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 5, 2104

The Many Trials For Ashton Carter -- Russell Berman, The Atlantic

The next defense secretary will inherit "no shortage of challenges to our national security," President Obama said in his nomination.

Ashton Carter's stewardship of the Pentagon may only last for the final two years of the Obama presidency, but the veteran of Washington's national security establishment won't have the luxury of being a caretaker defense secretary.

"We face no shortage of challenges to our national security," President Obama said while formally nominating Carter in a White House ceremony on Friday. As if they needed repeating, the president went on to list the growing number of headaches the 60-year-old physicist will inherit upon his likely confirmation by the Republican-controlled Senate early next year.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- December 5, 2104

What you need to know about Ashton Carter, Obama's new Defense Secretary nominee -- Andrew Prokop, VOX

Carter brings different outlook to Pentagon post -- AP

Obama Shakes up Pentagon Leadership, Not Policy -- Julie Pace, AP

Ashton Carter: Pentagon insider known to get things done -- Anna Mulrine, CSM

Support for ISIL grows with distance from its atrocities -- Colin Randall, The National

Islamic State Becomes a Franchise, Just Like McDonalds, Expert Says -- Sputnik

Warily, US learns to live with more muscular Iran role in Iraq --- Asia One/Reuters

Obama’s Iran Détente and Oil Prices -- Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary

Buffer or barrier to Egypt-Gaza relations? -- Inside Story/Al Jazeera

Toxic Pool Creeping Over India Kills Thousands of Kids Day by Day -- Rakteem Katakey and Rajesh Kumar Singh, Bloomberg

South Korea-Japan Relations: America’s Achilles' Heel? -- Jin Kai, The Diplomat

Forget the South China Sea: Taiwan Could Be Asia's Next Big Security Nightmare -- Robert Manning, National Interest

Putin Says Crimea Is Russia’s “Temple Mount” -- Joshua Keating, Slate

For Putin's Adoring Fans, When Might Pushkin Come to Shovekin? -- Eric Roston, Bloomberg

The World Cracks Down on the Internet -- Vauhini Vara, New Yorker