Evidently, what the MoD has described as “problems in day-to-day functioning” has, in the past few months, been reflected in getting financial clearances for even small procurements, field formations, military hospitals.
Recently, The Intercept announced that it had "obtained a cache of secret documents detailing the inner workings of the U.S. military's assassination program in Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia." According to The Intercept, the documents, which were illegally furnished to the news outlet by a so-called whistleblower, "offer an unprecedented glimpse into Obama's drone wars."
Late on Monday of this week the USS Lassen sailed within twelve nautical miles of Subi Reef, an artificial island built by the Chinese in the South China Sea. China’s Foreign Ministry responded to this Freedom of Navigation Operation (FONOP) with vehement condemnation. U.S. Ambassador Max Baucus was summoned to meet Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Yesui, who told him the American patrol was “extremely irresponsible.” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang went further, warning that if “any countries have delusions of…[obstructing] the Chinese side’s reasonable, fair, and legal activities in its own territory, then I must urge those countries to abandon those fantasies as soon as possible.”
After months of speculation and signaling, the United States Navy conducted Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) earlier this week, to dispute China’s claimed rights of “artificial islands” in the South China Sea at Chinese-occupied Subi and Mischief Reef by sending the USS Lassen, accompanied by a P-8A, within 12 nm of the reefs. Several colleagues have written about thecontext, legal aspects, recent history and response to the FONOPS. All these pieces of analysis are worth reading but often miss an element or two required to fully understand the importance of this operation.
The UK has rolled out the red carpet for Chinese president Xi Jinping on his five-day official visit. He is being given the royal treatment, including a stay at Buckingham Palace, a ride in a state carriage along The Mall and several banquets. The trip will also include plenty of time with the British prime minister, David Cameron, who is keen to discuss the trade and investment that the UK hopes to secure from the visit.
In his testimony, Secretary Carter outlined a tripartite strategy for defeating ISIL dubbed the “three R’s.” The proposed course of action calls for U.S.-led forces to focus their efforts on targeting Raqqa and Ramadi (ISIL’s major strongholds in Syria and Iraq respectively) and conducting raids against senior ISIL leadership. This plan will also expand the role of U.S. special operators and provide air support for the Syrian opposition. Of particular note, Mr. Carter stated in no uncertain terms that Washington and Moscow remain on separate pages in dealing with the Syrian Civil War. “To be clear, we are not cooperating with Russia, we are not letting Russia impact the pace or scope of our campaign against ISIL in Iraq or Syria.”
The tradition of abusing political power for personal gain goes back to antiquity, as does the debate over whether corruption is a necessary cultural vice in a country's development or a cancer that must be obliterated for a society to progress. A topic less covered, however, is what is behind the counter-corruption current.
Donald Trump and his left-wing Democratic allies have mounted a combined arms assault against George W. Bush. Trump, the real estate mogul and certified bully, together with self-styled "progressives," has challenged Bush's leadership and laid the blame for the events of 9/11 at the former president's doorstep. Leave aside the nastiness of the attack on a man who spent the remaining seven years of his presidency seeking to prevent what remains an ongoing threat to the safety and security of Americans both at home and abroad. At bottom, the question is whether Mr. Trump and his newfound allies could have done any better either before or after that September tragedy.
As Charlie Winter noted recently at War on the Rocks, the Islamic State’s robust social media apparatus has been propagating a remarkably effective, multi-faceted communications strategy that incorporates narratives of statehood, military success, and religious legitimacy. The Islamic State’s success in using social media to disseminateits extremist ideas and mobilize tens of thousands of foreign fighters to join the caliphate has raised many questions about the relative efficacy of online radicalization and recruitment. Can social networking sites replace face-to-face communications in fostering the group dynamic that is so important to spurring people to engage in terrorist acts? How do online group dynamics differ from those of face-to-face networks? Does social media accelerate the process of radicalization, so that individuals may be ready to illegally support violent causes more quickly after exposure to extremist ideas than in the past? It is vital that we seek to understand these questions in order to counter the Islamic State’s social media outreach and more effectively respond to other groups that seek to emulate its successes.
The recently concluded meeting of the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) has become a yearly tradition for senior military leaders, congressional staff, and members of foreign armies to meet and participate in professional development opportunities, while also providing visibility to over 500 members of the defense industrial base and their products and services. Drawing listeners with interactive displays and swag, vendors enthusiastically pitch their latest wares for supporting the warfighter.
The conventional story of Hillary Clinton’s eleven hours of testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi is that she bested her Republican foes. They came off as hackish inquisitors rehashing old issues in a failed effort to produce a scandal or a gotcha video clip harmful to her presidential campaign. Poised by contrast, Clinton won on points, if only for endurance. Her camp will cite it as evidence of her presidential qualification: her persistence, competence and scrappiness.
In the fall of 9 A.D., two entire Roman legions were suddenly annihilated in the dark, rain-lashed depths of the Teutoburg Forest. Betrayed by their native allies, and encumbered by their heavy equipment, they were caught like penned cattle in the treacherous, muddy causeways that wound in between the region’s densely wooded ravines. Over the course of three days and nights, close to 15,000 of Rome’s finest troops — along with thousands of their civilian camp followers — were hounded and ruthlessly slaughtered by Germanic tribesmen. The news of this defeat rippled like a shock wave across the Roman world, shaking the Empire’s strategic elites to their very core. The Roman historian Suetonius, always one for entertaining anecdotes, recounts how the Emperor Augustus remained deeplytraumatized by the Teutoberg massacre even into his old age, shuffling around the empty marbled expanses of his palace halls and crying out for his lost legions.
The United States is notoriously bad at predicting future conflicts and changes in the international order. From the bestselling The Coming War With Japan in the early 1990s to our failure to foresee the fall of the Soviet Union, even the near future has often remained elusive to scholars and practitioners. We have always gone to war with the force we had — which has inevitably been geared toward a different kind of war than the one we ended up fighting. Perhaps in the next few decades, we will see war with China and continued conflict in the Middle East — but if the past in any indication, your guess is as good as mine.
The M16A4 may soon retire. This week, the Marine Corps announced via internal memo that the M4 carbine will become the primary-issued rifle in infantry and security units, as well as replace the M16 rifle in supporting training schools by September 2016. Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert Neller approved the change, which was first proposed to the previous commandant, Gen. Robert Dunford, according to Marine Corps Times. This decision falls in line with the Army’s phased transitionaway from the M16 over the past few years. The M16A4 is on the outs simply because it is outdated, and here’s why:
Virtually all of the world's information moves deep under the sea. Well over 95 percent of everything moving on the global Internet passes through 200 or so highly active cables, some as deep under water as Mount Everest is tall. On a normal day, that information is safe and sound, humming along the protected fiber optic strands upon which moves the information that is the backbone of the world's economy.
There have been a series of articles in various publications and similar views echoed by politicians of this state that the only solution to improving Indo – Pak relations is to re-commence dialogue. There was immense hope prior to the NSA level talks, which subsequently collapsed. Since then Pakistan has used every forum, including the UN and their Prime Minister’s visit to the US to not only blame India for the failure, but also threatened India with the nuclear card and highlighted the involvement of RAW with the ongoing insurgency on its western borders. The possession of nuclear weapons and launchers gives Pakistan the assurance of its existence as a nation state, irrespective of its policies.
The ministry has “approved the induction of women into the Fighter (Combat) stream of the IAF,” the statement reads. That marks a first for one of the world’s largest militaries (though India’s archrival, Pakistan, already inducted its first five female fighter pilots in 2013).
The soldier is not a civilian with a different job; the former is held to higher standards than most outside the Army can ever comprehend. “An army exists to advance by force or the threat of force civil policies that cannot be advanced by civil methods”. The profession of arms is the only human endeavour wherein inflicting utmost destruction and maximum deaths are it’s raison d’etre, the means, and the end. This unique and peerless feature of the Army is contingent upon it having certain distinguishing traits and characteristics at the personnel, organisational and systemic levels.
The Third India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) offers host nation India much in the way of opportunity. This is the biggest African summit in terms of attendance ever to be hosted by any country. Of 54 countries invited, 52 confirmed their attendance with at least 41 heads of state attending. Trade, poverty alleviation, and security cooperation are the major focuses for the summit, but another important area is climate change. India and Africa are highly vulnerable to climate change. In Africa, annual agricultural losses due to climate are forecast to be around seven percent of GDP by 2050. India stands to lose 1.8 percent of GDP. Besides agriculture, climate change could create significant resource scarcity and erratic weather patterns in both regions, which are ill-equipped to counter the impacts.