Rafale deal will be better on price and delivery: French Ambassador Richier

SUHASINI HAIDAR

February 3, 2016

"Everything that India and France have discussed is to set the stage for decades of cooperation," French Ambassador Francois Richier said.

President Francois Hollande’s visit is not a rare one, he was the fifth French leader to be the chief guest at Republic Day…what do you think were the achievements of the visit?

Yes, this is not the first time, but each visit is unique. Compared to any other visit in the past, I feel this marked a turning point. With such a trouble world in the backdrop, and the potential of what could happen in India at the same time, this is a significant moment in Indo-French history.

Cooperation on terror, from Paris to Pathankot

*** China's military regrouped into five PLA theater commands

February 02, 2016

http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0202/c90785-9012526.html

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L, front), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, confers a military flag to Commander Liu Yuejun and Political Commissar Zheng Weiping of the Eastern Theater Command in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2016. Xi on Monday conferred military flags on the five newly-established theater commands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). (Xinhua/Li Gang) 

BEIJING, Feb. 1 -- Chinese President Xi Jinping conferred military flags to the five newly-established theater commands of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday.

Xi, also chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), presented the flags to top officers of the five theater commands at a ceremony in Beijing.

** China’s Concept of Military Strategy

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Timothy Thomas thinks that China’s current concept of military strategy rests on at least five tenets. They include the use of stratagems integrated with technological innovations, the constant search for a strategic advantage or shi, and more.

By Timothy L. Thomas for Strategic Studies Institute of the US Army War College (SSI)

This article was originally published in the Strategic Studies Institute's quarterly journal,Parameters, by the US Army War College.

There is an American joke that perfectly explains what Mao referred to as the “essence” of Chinese military strategy:

Vinnie is in jail. His father writes to tell him he wishes Vinnie were home now to dig up the tomato garden. Vinnie writes back not to do that, since that is where he buried the bodies. The next day the FBI digs up the ground and finds no bodies. A day later Vinnie writes, ‘under the circumstances, Dad, that was the best I could do.’

Trump, Jihad, Sharia, Intolerance: Why Indians Must Learn A Little Unreasonableness

R Jagannathan

1 Feb, 2016

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Jagannathan is Editorial Director, Swarajya. He tweets at @TheJaggi. 

The liberal’s tolerance of islamist intolerance, couched as politically correct behaviour, has contributed to the rise of intolerance worldwide.

If you are wondering why Donald Trump, despite being widely derided as an unspeakable politician (especially for his sexist and uncouth language) is still leading the polls for a Republican nomination, the answer is counter-intuitive: being politically incorrect and unreasonable is actually key to his success.

George Bernard Shaw offers us this delectable quote:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

To call Trump “progress” may not be apt, but the point is this: it is the unreasonable idea or the unmovable person who brings about change, even if the change is for the worse.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, in an interview to The Times of India today (1 February), explains why an intransigent minority can make everybody adopt something they didn’t want. He explains why a three percent minority which won’t eat genetically-modified (GM) food or a small section of the population that wants halal meat effectively forces the entire world to change its tastes.

Economics for dummies: Raghuram Rajan’s take

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan

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A look at the excerpts from some of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's speeches

RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan never hesitated while speaking his mind on various issues. Rajan, who will unveil the 6th bi-monthly policy statement for FY16 on Tuesday, took on defaulters, explained how people benefit from low inflation and spoke about tolerance without fear or favour in the last two-and-a-half years as the head of the central bank. A look at the excerpts from some of his speeches:

Wilful defaulters are freeloaders of capital

In 1947, India deliberately let Muzaffarabad go: Lt. Gen (Retd.) Sinha

Lt. Gen (Retd.) Sinha

February 01, 2016 

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In 1947, India deliberately let Muzaffarabad go: Lt. Gen (Retd.) Sinha

Former Governor of J&K Lt Gen (Rtd) S K Sinha was among the first Armymen of the Indian Army to enter Kashmir on 27 October 1947. As a major, he was assigned to plan and oversee the conduct of operations, and also given the task of controlling airlift of troops from Delhi to Srinagar. Hence he is not only an eye witness of the political and war happenings of 1947, but also has performed an important role to shape them.

In an interview with Pervez Majeed, Gen Sinha, 90, talks about several important and interesting incidents of those momentous days, and for the first time shares some of his personal observations as well.

Terrorism and Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICNs): A Growing Menace

By Animesh Roul*

February 22nd, 2014

http://acdemocracy.org/terrorism-and-fake-indian-currency-notes-ficns-a-growing-menace/

The fake currency trade has been haunting Indian security establishments as well as economic intelligence agencies for quite a long time. Most recently in February 2014, the finance minster of India informed the Upper House of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) that counterfeit Indian currency notes worth INR 107.33 crores (approximately US $ 17 million) have been seized between January 2010 and June 2013. If the intelligence agencies are to be believed, the FICNs are printed in Pakistan and brought to India through couriers via Bangkok, Kathmandu and Dhaka airports. There are also reports that the FICN cartels are pushing counterfeits through China, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Denmark, Netherlands, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

Islamicide: How the Mullah Mafia Is Destroying Pakistan

MAAJID NAWAZ

02.01.16 

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A boy cuts off his own right hand because it offended God. Pedophilia is holy. To question is to risk execution. Welcome to a nation in thrall to suicidal fanaticism.

LONDON — Somewhere in the world there is a Muslim-majority country in which a 15-year-old boy accidentally raised his hand to answer the wrong question at a religious sermon. The boy said yes, when he meant to say no.

His religious instructor, his mullah, had been asking, “Who among you loves their prophet?” All present raised their hands. The mullah then followed with another question: “Who among you doesn’t believe in the teachings of the Holy Prophet? Raise your hands!”

Pak-Saudi Nuclear Weapon Collaboration? Challenge to Middle-East Stability

By Bhaskar Roy

29-Jan-2016

http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/node/1938

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Abdel Al-Jubeir recently gave a loaded answer to a CNN question about his country’s nuclear co-operation, raising red flags from the Middle East to South Asia. He replied (Jan. 22) “I am not going into details of the discussions we have with foreign governments, and certainly not allied governments. I’m sure you understand”, adding that Saudi Arabia does not negotiate over two things – “faith and security”. Al-Jebeir went on to say that his kingdom will do whatever it takes to protect the nation and its people from any harm. He declined to say any more, leaving the international community to decipher his statement.

Al-Jubeir’s statement came a day after US Secretary of State, John Kerry warned both Saudi Arabia and Pakistan against indulging in nuclear weapons trade, adding that there would be “all kinds of NPT consequences” if Riyadh went ahead with such a plan. Saudi Arabia is a signatory to the NPT, while Pakistan is not.

Who is afraid of 'hyphenated' US policies?

February 01, 2016 

'There is the perennial worry in the Indian mind regarding the US 'hyphenating' India and Pakistan.

Frankly, this is a completely nonsensical hypothesis. The US has always 'hyphenated' India and Pakistan and it couldn't have been otherwise,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.

IMAGE: US President Barack Obama and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at the White House, October 22, 2015.

'If the US has largely managed to do the balancing act, it is largely because there is an uncanny similarity in the DNA of the Pakistani and Indian elites. Both elites seek defining partnerships with Washington,' says Ambassador Bhadrakumar.

What an erstwhile American diplomat and South Asia hand Robin Raphel once said still holds true -- it takes no time at all to raise dust in New Delhi. Indians are a prickly lot.

What Does 2016 Hold for China-US Relations in Cyberspace?

By Franz-Stefan Gady

January 29, 2016

http://thediplomat.com/2016/01/what-does-2016-hold-for-china-us-relations-in-cyberspace/

Sino-U.S. relations in cyberspace in 2016 will be defined by three key policies. 

Sino-U.S. relations in cyberspace in 2016 will be defined by three key policies: attribution, sanctions, and norms. The first two tacks will be used by the United States to contain malicious Chinese activities in cyberspace (and to assuage the U.S. private sector and U.S. public opinion), whereas the last device will be used for promoting strategic stability between both nations by deepening the understanding of what is acceptable behavior in the cyber realm.

First, while it is true that attribution, i.e. tracing a cyber attack back to its originator, remains difficult, it is not impossible. Both the U.S. government and the private sector have repeatedly called out Chinese hackers in so-called “naming and shaming” campaigns. This tactic consists of either leaking classified intelligence to the press or publishing cyberattack reports by U.S. cyber security firms (which over the years became a clever marketing ploy for those companies). And while “naming and shaming” sustained a severe setback with the Snowden revelations, we will certainly witness a number of such cyberattack disclosures in 2016. However, the shock value—and as a consequence its potential negative impact on the Sino-U.S. bilateral relationship—will be less severe than in 2014 and 2015, given that, after the recent Office of Personal Management data breach and the Snowden disclosures, the threshold for disclosures with the potential to severely undermine the Sino-U.S. bilateral relationship has substantially risen. At the same time “naming and shaming” will at least contain both sides from going overboard when it comes to cyber espionage activities and aggressive network intrusions.

NSA Details Chinese Cyber Theft of F-35, Military Secrets

BY: Bill Gertz

January 22, 2015 

Source Link

China obtained more than 50 terabytes of data from U.S. defense and government networks, notably the Joint Strike Fighter’s stealth radar and engine secrets, through cyber espionage, according to newly disclosed National Security Agency documents.

A NSA briefing slide labeled “Top Secret” and headlined “Chinese Exfiltrate Sensitive Military Data,” states that the Chinese have stolen a massive amount of data from U.S. government and private contractors.

The document was made public by the German magazine Der Spiegel in a two articles detailing how NSA in the mid-2000s was capable of conducting global cyber intelligence-gathering by tapping into the networks of foreign intelligence services and stealing the data they were collecting from others.

The unique capability of spying on the spies was described in a series of documents that were stolen in 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, currently a fugitive in Russia.

Chinese Military Revamps Cyber Warfare, Intelligence Forces

BY: Bill Gertz

January 27, 2016 

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A recent Chinese military reorganization is increasing the danger posed by People’s Liberation Army cyber warfare and intelligence units that recently were consolidated into a new Strategic Support Force.

The announcement of the military reorganization made on Dec. 31 by the Chinese government provided few details of what has changed for three military intelligence units formerly under the now-defunct General Staff Department.

However, U.S. officials and China analysts say the major cyber warfare and intelligence-gathering groups were elevated into the new Strategic Support Force, a military service-level force equal in standing to China’s army, navy, air force and missile services.

They include the 3rd Department, or 3PLA, that is believed to have as many as 100,000 cyber warfare hackers and signals intelligence troops under its control. The group includes highly-trained personnel who specialize in network attacks, information technology, code-breaking, and foreign languages.

Why China hacks the world

By Adam Segal,

JANUARY 31, 2016

Source Link

Can aggressive espionage fuel the innovation that Beijing needs to reinvent its global role?

NEW YORK; AND WUZHEN, CHINA — The e-mails wouldn’t have struck anyone as unusual. The messages to employees at Boeing Co.’s offices in Orange County, Calif., where the aerospace giant works on the big C-17 military transport, looked like any of the hundreds of messages from colleagues and contacts flooding inboxes every day. But beginning in the winter of 2009, two Chinese hackers began sending malicious e-mails to Boeing employees disguised to look as if they came from familiar people. Even if one employee opened the mail and downloaded the attached file, it could give hackers a portal to secrets, corporate and US Department of Defense plans, engineering details, and potentially classified Pentagon files stored on Boeing networks. And that’s exactly what happened.

China in Transition: Concerns Vastly Overblown

by Elliott Morss

January 31st, 2016 

Introduction

China: every day, the media reports disquieting news. We hear that China is in recession, pulling down all other emerging countries with it, stock markets crashing, currency manipulations, et al. Some fact checking is in order.

Follow up:

There are concerns about the accuracy of China government data. For that reason, I have supplemented data from the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics with data collected by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and FocusEconomics. The latter derives much of its data (consensus forecasts) from private banks and other financial entities that report regularly on China.

China’s Great Economic Leap Forward Spurred by Spying

Adam Segal

January 31, 2016

Why China hacks the world

New York; and Wuzhen, China — The e-mails wouldn’t have struckanyone as unusual. The messages to employees at Boeing Co.’s offices in Orange County, Calif., where the aerospace giant works on the big C-17 military transport, looked like any of the hundreds of messages from colleagues and contacts flooding inboxes every day. But beginning in the winter of 2009, two Chinese hackers began sending malicious e-mails to Boeing employees disguised to look as if they came from familiar people. Even if one employee opened the mail and downloaded the attached file, it could give hackers a portal to secrets, corporate and US Department of Defense plans, engineering details, and potentially classified Pentagon files stored on Boeing networks. And that’s exactly what happened.

Over the next two years, hackers stole some 630,000 files from Boeing related to the C-17, the third most expensive plane that the Pentagon has ever developed, with research and development costs of $3.4 billion. They obtained detailed drawings; measurements of the wings and fuselage, and other parts; outlines of the pipeline and electric wiring systems; and flight test data – a gold mine for any criminal looking to sell information on the black market. But the hackers, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, already had a buyer: Su Bin, a Chinese national and aerospace professional living in Canada.

Israel doesn’t trust NGOs that get money from U.S. and Europe. Here’s why

By William Booth and Ruth Eglash 

January 31,2016 

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Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked at a ceremony in Jerusalem in April welcoming her at the ministry. Shaked has sponsored a bill that would affect organizations that receive more than half their funding from a foreign government. (Gali Tibbon/AP) 

JERUSALEM -- Ayelet Shaked is Israel’s justice minister and the sponsor of a contentious bill that would require nongovernmental organizations that receive a majority of their funding from “foreign government entities,” including U.S. aid, to be labeled as such. It may also obligate members of those groups to wear special badges when they appear in the Israeli parliament. 

Critics have called the bill a right-wing witch hunt designed to muzzle dissent, especially dissent about Israel’s 49-year military occupation of the West Bank. 

WHO has only declared three public health emergencies in its history—Zika virus just became the fourth

Svati Kirsten Narula

February 01, 2016

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WHO leaders sounding the alarm in Geneva today. (Reuters/Pierre Albouy) 

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that the Zika virus is a global health emergency, escalating the level of alarm the agency signaled last week when it announced the creation of a special committee to evaluate the threat.

The mosquito-borne virus has been linked to dangerous neurological impairments including newborn microcephaly, with thousands of new cases reported in Brazil. Health authorities have warned pregnant women throughout the Americas to take precautions, including advice to delay pregnancies in some countries.

As a result of the declaration of an international public health emergency, countries will be expected to coordinate measures to prevent its further spread. No trade or travel restrictions have been advised by the committee. WHO itself cannot enforce any recommended policies.

This is only the fourth such declaration in the agency’s history. Previously, international public health emergencies were declared in response to the Ebola virus, polio, and swine flu.

chechen-leader-puts-russian-opposition-in-the-crosshairs-on-social-media

BY REID STANDISH

FEBRUARY 1, 2016 

Source Link

Ramzan Kadyrov, the MMA loving, gun-toting leader of Chechnya, knows the power of social media. The strongman has over 284,000 followers on Twitter, 352,000 on Vkontakte (a Russian site similar to Facebook), an active following on LiveJournal, and over 1.6 million onInstagram — where he opines on everything from chest workouts to his favorite Quran verses to reasons why Russian President Vladimir Putin is great.

Kadyrov’s love for Putin now seems to be leading him to emulate the Russian autocrat: nearly a year after the assassination of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, Kadyrov is using his massive online following to call for a violent crackdown on the Kremlin’s opponents.

Fukuyama: 'Putinism,' Radical Islam No Alternative To Liberal Democracy

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WATCH: Political scientist Francis Fukuyama says Russian President Vladimir Putin's economic model is 'falling apart'

Russian President Vladimir Putin and the extremist Islamic State group are sworn enemies that might seem to have little in common.

But both are engaged in efforts at state building that U.S. political scientist Francis Fukuyama says share two qualities: each seeks to create a political alternative to a modern liberal democracy, and each is doomed to failure.

Speaking in a wide-ranging interview with RFE/RL while visiting Tbilisi this month, Fukuyama said history shows that the process of modernization leads societies to form liberal democracies with market systems. Yet some leaders insist on trying to create alternative models, even though those models are unstable and retrograde.

Ukraine’s Economic Revival Starting in the West

BY JAMES BROOKE

JANUARY 25, 2016

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An Electron electric tram stops at Franka Square in Lviv, Ukraine, August 24, 2013. Credit: Creative Commons/Buka.

What do coastal China, northern Mexico, and western Ukraine have in common?

After Beijing dropped Maoist economics in the 1970s, low-wage China began to thrive. The economic boom started with the coast, the area closest to the Pacific coast ports of Canada and the United States, with its access to a huge market.

Low-wage northern Mexico boomed after the January 1, 1994, start of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Like those two other countries, Ukraine is about to benefit from its own proximity to Western consumer markets, beginning with the region closest to the European Union. Little noticed in today's news of dropping oil prices and terror bombings, the country has recently won duty-free access to the European Union for most of its products.

A US Army War College Analysis of Russian Strategy in Eastern Europe, an Appropriate US Response, and the Implications for US Landpower

Following the Kremlin's 2014 intervention in Crimea and Ukraine, this paper provides an overview of what it sees as the reemergence of Russia as a strategic landpower. More specifically it examines 1) Russia's strategic environment; 2) how Russia has applied its strategic landpower in recent years; and 3) the strategic approach Russia is taking towards NATO. It argues that Russia's actions in Crimea and ongoing war against Ukraine marked a turning point in its relations with Europe and the US. It then provides recommendations for US policymakers and their NATO allies on how to answer this emerging threat in Eastern Europe.

This publication is subject to Title 17, United States Code, Sections 101 and 105. It is in the public domain and may not be copyrighted.

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English (PDF · 170 pages · 4.0 MB)

Russia's cyber aggression is in European Command's crosshairs

By Mark Pomerleau 

Jan 27, 2016 

After nearly a decade and a half of intense focus on counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, the United States is taking aim at more assertive nation-state actors. Air Force Gen. Phillip Breedlove, commander of European Command, this week published an update to the October theater strategy with the fresh inclusion of six priorities. Topping the list is deterring Russian aggression, and although the document addresses Russia’s overall military and political activity, the country’s cyber operations of late have been noteworthy.

Russia has engaged in a proxy war of sorts aimed at destabilizing the central government of Ukraine, which, following protests that led to the ouster of Ukraine’s pro-Russian leader, is drifting farther from its former Soviet parent. Over the past eight years, Russia has demonstrated advanced technological savvy, from the cyber events that served as the precursor to Russia’s military engagement in Georgia in 2008 to advanced electromagnetic spectrum activity and, most recently, to the first documented case of cyber activity shutting off electricity, which occurred in Ukraine. 

The malware discovered in the Ukrainian power grid is believed to have been implanted by a Russia-affiliated hacking group. The aggression and sophistication of Russian-affiliated cyber actors has caught the notice of military officials with implications for allies as well as U.S. domestic infrastructure (Russian-affiliated hackers are believed to have orchestrated an intrusion to the White House’s unclassified systems last year and the distributed denial of service attack on the Joint Chiefs of Staff email service.) 

America’s Delicate Dance Between Deterrence and Assurance

David SantoroJohn K. Warden

February 1, 2016 

Source Link

With allies and adversaries alike, U.S. diplomacy is a complex exercise.

U.S. security guarantees are extraordinary and complex commitments. The United States puts at risk its deployed forces and personnel, and potentially its homeland, for the sake of shared interests with allies. While the benefits of each alliance are unique, they provide the United States with security and economic partners that help to maintain international stability, promote economic growth and trade, and protect liberal values. But in extending deterrence to cover allies, the United States also increases its likelihood of being drawn into an unwanted war. As a result, the United States must sometimes deter its allies from undertaking certain actions and, conversely, assure its adversaries that it will behave in a measured manner. Plainly, it must balance assurance and deterrence both among and between its allies and potential adversaries.

Trolls Threaten The Future Of Social Media

Wed, Jan 27th, 2016

http://curacaochronicle.com/columns/trolls-threaten-the-future-of-social-media/

A troll is “someone who exists to hurt people, cause harm, and break a bunch of stuff because that is something nasty trolls just do. In that sense, calling someone a Troll is not so different from the pre-Internet tactic of calling someone a monster – implying that they lack all the self-control and self-awareness a normal human being would have.

A troll makes a deliberately offensive or provocative online posting with the aim of upsetting someone or eliciting an angry response from them.”

For his malicious objectives, a troll will lie, fabricate stories, falsify data, hack your page, name or logo. Trolls can be part of a revengeful personal attack, a concerted corporate effort, or a full out cyber war.

It is estimated, that Jihadist terrorists of the ISIS-network post about 40,000 troll messages per day, worldwide, as part of their cyber war. These messages range from ISIS-recruitment propaganda, false messages about the progress of the war, to bashing the “enemy”, such as the coalition of USA, France, England, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Israel. Specifically, a barrage against Israel, which is no party in the present Middle East conflict, as if it were the sole instigator, can be noticed.

Army Support of Military Cyberspace Operations

January 2015

Joint Contexts and Global Escalation Implications

This monograph examines the US Army's cyberspace operations, including how they have developed and the part they play within US joint military cyber operations. In particular, the author examines 1) the founding of US Cyber Command, its initial and ongoing operations, and its mission; 2) the development of Army Cyber Command, including its initial and ongoing operations; 3) the international cybersecurity environment and the extent to which the existing US cyber force is capable of dealing with it; and 4) how cyberspace activities can be integrated within traditional military operations as well as what part such activities can play in deterrence and conflict escalation.

This publication is subject to Title 17, United States Code, Sections 101 and 105. It is in the public domain and may not be copyrighted.

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English (PDF · 106 pages · 2.0 MB)

Cloud, cyber policy documents trickle out of DoD

Amber Corrin

January 29, 2016 

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In recent days Defense Department entities publicly released documents outlining strategies and policies related to cloud practices and cyber operations, months after they were issued internally to personnel.

The Defense Information Systems Agency’s Cloud Connection Process Guide (CCPG), which was issued last year but has just beenmade available to the public, aims to help DISA cloud customers – DoD components – navigate the security requirements and onboarding processes for implementing commercial cloud services.

“This document incorporates the lessons learned and process insights from cloud pilots and various other DISA led efforts. The CCPG is a living document and will be updated to remain compliant with policies,” incorporating evolving security requirements with the goal of making DISA’s guidance DoD-wide policy, according to the CCPG.

Stratcom pushes a unified approach to joint spectrum operations

By Mark Pomerleau 

Jan 29, 2016 

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Military officials recently gathered to discuss the proliferation wireless electronic devices of all kinds—from weapons systems to smartphones—and the importance of managing and securing those devices in contested environments. The goal is the development of an Electromagnetic Battle Management system. 

The January 12-14 sessions included over 70 participants from across the military spectrum—combatant commands, the military services, the Defense Department CIO’s Office Department of Defense Chief Information Office, combat support agencies and international experts in electromagnetic spectrum operations. 

The meeting sought to examine requirements to enable joint electromagnetic spectrum operations planning, as well as recommend and catalog user requirements for the development of future Electromagnetic Battle Management operations, a release from Strategic Command, which hosted the gathering, stated. 

Managing the chaos of portable networks

By Joel Dolisy 

Jan 27, 2016 

Source Link

The technology the military uses to manage international skirmishes must evolve as the nature of battles changes. This is becoming painfully obvious in a world that has gone from fighting relatively traditional threats to tackling the chaos of ISIS and increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. 

In battles with this disparate enemy, which seemingly has no centralized headquarters, troops are continually moving, trying to keep pace with the threat. It’s no longer adequate for Defense Department IT personnel to equip the warfighter with traditional communications or networking solutions, which are built for the long haul. Increasingly, there’s a need for modernized, secure and highly portable networks and systems that can be easily transported from one location to the next, and set up – and broken down – as necessary, similar to the Army’s “Technical Control Facility in a Box,” a mobile version of its traditional telecommunications hub.

The mobility of these solutions allows troops to “take the network with them” while making it more difficult for potential intruders to access critical information. A network on the go is simply less prone to the type of cyberattacks that often plague traditional networks. Bad actors are far less likely to be able to pin down and infiltrate a portable network.

Report Finds FBI Warnings of Danger of Strong Encryption Overblown, Bureau Has Lots of Means to Monitor Internet Activity

David E. Sanger

February 1, 2016

New Technologies Give Government Ample Means to Track Suspects, Study Finds

WASHINGTON — For more than two years the F.B.I. and intelligence agencies have warned that encrypted communications are creating a “going dark” crisis that will keep them from tracking terrorists and kidnappers.

Now, a study in which current and former intelligence officials participated concludes that the warning is wildly overblown, and that a raft of new technologies — like television sets with microphones and web-connected cars — are creating ample opportunities for the government to track suspects, many of them worrying.

“ ‘Going dark’ does not aptly describe the long-term landscape for government surveillance,” concludes the study, to be published Monday by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard. 

The study argues that the phrase ignores the flood of new technologies “being packed with sensors and wireless connectivity” that are expected to become the subject of court orders and subpoenas, and are already the target of the National Security Agency as it places “implants” into networks around the world to monitor communications abroad.

Welcome to the Age of the Commando

By MATT GALLAGHER 

JANUARY 30, 2016 

Source Link

A FEW months ago, my wife and I had dinner with a couple we didn’t know very well. It was awkward at first, but there was wine, and conversation soon followed. At one point, the wife asked about my tour in Iraq, where I served four years as a cavalry officer. I began talking about the desert, the tribal politics and the day-to-day travails of counterinsurgency. “That’s all fine,” the husband interrupted. “But tell us about the super-soldiers. The Special-Ops guys. That’s what people care about.”

He had no time for “G.I. Joe.” He wanted “American Sniper.”

Russian Military Transformation

May 2014

Goal in Sight?

This monograph explores the major structural reforms the Russian military has undergone since 2008 and concludes that they have been driven by flawed interpretations of the threats the country faces. The text additionally assesses the different ways that Moscow might close the capability gap it obviously has with the United States and its allies.

This publication is subject to Title 17, United States Code, Sections 101 and 105. It is in the public domain and may not be copyrighted.

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English (PDF · 72 pages · 3.0 MB)

Reflections: Looking Back at the Need for Goldwater-Nichols

John Hamre

January 27, 2016

http://defense360.csis.org/goldwater-nichols-2016/

The Congress is again turning to the challenging question of whether changes in the international system require amended organizational structure in the Department of Defense. The Senate Armed Services Committee has launched far-reaching hearings to solicit views from knowledgeable experts on the problems facing the Defense Department. Almost every witness has argued that there are problems that need to be fixed.

In this inaugural essay, I will reflect on the situation we faced back in the early 1980s that led to passage of the landmark Goldwater-Nichols Act. I was a member of the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee and was involved in Senate deliberations that led to Goldwater-Nichols. CSIS played a critical role at that time. Senator Sam Nunn led a major effort at CSIS to examine the organizational problems at the time in the Defense Department. That work became the foundation for much of the subsequent review undertaken by the two Armed Services Committees.