Small Wars Journal

Blog Posts

SWJ Blog is a multi-author blog publishing news and commentary on the various goings on across the broad community of practice.  We gladly accept guest posts from serious voices in the community.

by Voice of America | Tue, 09/24/2019 - 12:05am | 0 comments
U.S. President Donald Trump has long opposed globalism and criticized the multilateralism that is the foundation of the United Nations. However, as the leader of the country that hosts the world body, Trump is obligated to attend and speak to the U.N.’s General Assembly every year, which he will do for the third time on Tuesday.
by Reuters | Mon, 09/23/2019 - 10:53am | 0 comments
"A Taliban delegation met China’s special representative for Afghanistan in Beijing to discuss the group’s peace talks with the United States, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgency said."
by Voice of America | Mon, 09/23/2019 - 9:36am | 0 comments
At least 40 members of a wedding party, including women and children, were killed and another 13 wounded in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan Sunday night, according to a provincial council member from Helmand province.
by Voice of America | Mon, 09/23/2019 - 5:02am | 0 comments
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the U.S. is working to find a diplomatic outcome to tensions with Iran, which has been blamed for an attack on Saudi oil facilities, but he warned if diplomacy fails President Donald Trump "will make necessary decisions to achieve our objectives."
by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Sun, 09/22/2019 - 2:56pm | 0 comments
Afghan authorities say Taliban militants have suffered heavy casualties in the latest security operations in several provinces across the country.
by Foreign Policy | Sun, 09/22/2019 - 1:49pm | 0 comments
"Future conflicts will mostly be waged by drug cartels, mafia groups, gangs, and terrorists. It is time to rethink our rules of engagement."
by Voice of America | Sun, 09/22/2019 - 1:44pm | 0 comments
At least 20 Somali government soldiers were killed and 18 others were wounded when al-Shabab raided a military base south of Mogadishu, security sources told VOA Somali. The sources said militants detonated a suicide car bomb at the El-Salin military base followed by an infantry attack in the early hours of Sunday.
by The Wall Street Journal | Sun, 09/22/2019 - 12:42am | 0 comments
"Key FARC drug smugglers renew the guerrilla war.... It’s doubtful there was ever a FARC commitment to peace."
by SWJ Editors | Sun, 09/22/2019 - 12:21am | 0 comments
On the fifth anniversary of the Houthis' takeover of Sanna, Al Jazeera provides an overview of the five-year conflict.
by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Sat, 09/21/2019 - 7:33pm | 0 comments
Riyadh has taken a "wait-and-see" response to the announcement by Huthi militants in Yemen that they are halting all drone and missile attacks against Saudi Arabia.
by The Wall Street Journal | Sat, 09/21/2019 - 7:21pm | 0 comments
"The information has been passed along to the Saudis and the U.S., according to people briefed on the warnings."
by Voice of America | Sat, 09/21/2019 - 1:55am | 0 comments
As the world waited for the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to decide what to do next in response to last weekend's drone and missile attack on two major Saudi oil fields, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the most bellicose statement yet on the attacks, unambiguously accusing Iran of launching them and declaring the attacks an "act of war."
by The Wall Street Journal, by Military Times | Sat, 09/21/2019 - 12:25am | 0 comments
"The U.S. said it would send military forces and hardware to Gulf allies and moved to sever some of Iran’s last ties to world markets on Friday, while preparing to outline a case for international action next week when world leaders gather at the United Nations."
by Marine Corps Times | Fri, 09/20/2019 - 1:49pm | 0 comments
"As the Marine Corps and its sister services shift focus to near peer battles and the range of ways to meet that fight, some experts think they may be losing sight of ways in which other threats could emerge both separate from peers and from them through other means."
by Military Times | Fri, 09/20/2019 - 1:07pm | 0 comments
"Reintegrating the Taliban and other combatants in a cornerstone to securing sustainable peace in Afghanistan, according to John Sopko, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan."
by The Wall Street Journal | Fri, 09/20/2019 - 2:50am | 0 comments
"U.S. may send more antimissile batteries and jet fighters to region in wake of attacks on Saudi Arabia."
by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty | Fri, 09/20/2019 - 2:29am | 0 comments
A series of attacks on Saudi oil facilities has escalated tensions in the region and put Iran's ties with Yemen's Huthi rebels in the spotlight.
by The British Broadcasting Corporation | Fri, 09/20/2019 - 12:13am | 0 comments
"Saudi Arabia says it has evidence showing Iran sponsored Saturday's drone and missile attacks on two of its oil facilities, and called on the international community to take action. The question is whether there could be a war."
by Voice of America | Fri, 09/20/2019 - 12:12am | 0 comments
A car bomb attack claimed by the Taliban near a compound used by Afghanistan’s intelligence agency in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province in southern Afghanistan, left at least 15 dead and more than 90 wounded Thursday morning.
by Voice of America | Thu, 09/19/2019 - 12:47pm | 0 comments
Prospects for peace in Afghanistan appeared more remote Thursday after an early morning Taliban suicide car bomb attack on a government building in southern Afghanistan killed at least 15 people, bringing to more than 70 the death toll in such attacks this week. The violence is expected to increase further as Taliban insurgents have warned of attacks on polling centers just days ahead of the country’s planned presidential elections.
by Associated Press | Thu, 09/19/2019 - 12:04pm | 0 comments
"Iran's foreign minister warned Thursday that any attack on his country over a drone-and-missile strike on Saudi Arabia's oil industry will result in 'all-out war,' further pushing up tensions across the Persian Gulf."
by The British Broadcasting Corporation | Thu, 09/19/2019 - 10:03am | 0 comments
"Twenty people have died after a truck packed with explosives was detonated by Taliban militants outside a hospital in southern Afghanistan."
by Military Times | Wed, 09/18/2019 - 9:05pm | 0 comments
"A draft agreement for peace between the U.S. and the Taliban in Afghanistan got a lot of hopes up late this summer, but the former head of U.S. special operations ― most well known for overseeing the mission that ultimately took out Osama Bin Laden ― said that making concessions to the extremist group is the wrong move."
by Voice of America | Wed, 09/18/2019 - 7:52pm | 0 comments
President Donald Trump said Wednesday the U.S. has "many options" in addition to military strikes to respond to Iran's missile and drone attacks that knocked out half of Saudi Arabia's oil production last weekend.
by Center for Strategic & International Studies | Wed, 09/18/2019 - 6:45pm | 0 comments
"The history of warfare has never been filled with good predictions of how warfare would evolve in the future. Aside from the odd science fiction writer, no one predicted the technical, tactical, and strategic nature of World War I. World War II began with gross exaggerations of the threat posed by poison gas and the air forces of the day."