Blog Posts

"President Trump’s veto of legislation designed to disentangle the United States from a punishing war in Yemen sets the stage for a continued stalemate in the conflict, former officials and analysts said, with civilians likely to pay the highest price."

"The gathering was to have been the first since the latest effort resumed that Taliban and government officials were to be in the same room."

"Suspected separatist militants ambushed a bus in southwestern Pakistan before dawn Thursday and killed 14 passengers, mostly navy personnel."

"ISIS-affiliated terrorists in Afghanistan, noted for their brutality in a brutal land, pose the top threat for spectacular attacks in the United States, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official."

"A meeting between the Taliban and Afghan politicians and civil society aimed at ending more than 17 years of war in Afghanistan has been postponed, officials and diplomats said on Thursday, citing Taliban objections to the size of the Afghan delegation."

"The Marine Corps plans to launch an urban-combat operations experiment this summer, and the service wants defense firms and academia to submit ideas for weapons and fighting technologies aimed at making Marine infantry units more effective in this deadly environment."

"Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's senior advisor, told foreign diplomats on Wednesday that the 'deal of the century' will be released in June, after Ramadan, a source familiar with the remarks told The Jerusalem Post."

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning had reason to believe that leaking U.S. military reports "would cause injury" to the country, federal prosecutors alleged in a newly unsealed court filing on Monday."

Jane's 360 - "The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) fighting in the Battle of Marawi in 2017 were forced to adjust to urban warfare with several novel uses for legacy equipment, senior sources have disclosed."

"Russia’s growing employment of non-linear forms of warfare (including private military contractors) has long historical traditions. This paper seeks to discuss the main milestones of historical evolution of Russia’s use of mercenary and irregular forces from Tsarist Russia to the final days of the Soviet Union."

"Piercing the Fog of Peace: Developing Innovative Operational Concepts for a New Era" is meant to stimulate discussion of, and ultimately spur action to develop, the concepts and capabilities the United States needs to prevail in a more dangerous world.

"Much remains uncertain about the U.S. withdrawal. But whatever the final troop levels turn out to be, Trump’s decision to significantly reduce the American footprint in Syria is unlikely to be reversed."

VOA News Video Report: "An already bad situation in the West African nation of Burkina Faso appears to be getting worse."

"The Pentagon is developing new military options for Venezuela aimed at deterring Russian, Cuban and Chinese influence inside the regime of President Nicolas Maduro, but stopping short of any kinetic military actions, according to a defense official familiar with the effort."

"New details on the Army’s future vertical lift program show more about what they and their Marine Corps and special operations partners want out of their latest helicopter program, the Future Long Range Assault Aircraft."

"The U.S. military confirmed Monday that it carried out an airstrike that killed the deputy leader of Islamic State militants in Somalia. U.S. Africa Command said Sunday's airstrike near the village of Xiriiro in Somalia's Bari region killed Abdihakim Mohamed Ibrahim."

"This week President Donald Trump signed an executive order extending a presidential declaration of a national emergency concerning Somalia for another year, calling the Islamist insurgency plaguing that country an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to the US."

"There’s No Good Way to End a Bad War, but Some Options Are Worse Than Others"

"The Philippines is edging further back into a once strained alliance with the United States as China, a friend of three years, keeps challenging Manila’s maritime claims and offers less aid than many Filipinos had hoped."

"With Islamic State’s physical caliphate destroyed, the West faces an urgent challenge: what to do with foreign fighters and their families. Mishandling the problem could create decades of security threats in the U.S. and Europe, and several American allies are bungling this test."

"The Taliban on Friday announced their annual spring offensive, which comes as the US and Afghan politicians try to negotiate for a peace settlement with the Islamist militants."

"More than four years after a brutal civil war in Yemen that has claimed thousands of lives and has pushed millions to the brink of starvation, Houthi rebels are ready to establish relations with the United States, an official responsible for the group's foreign affairs told VOA."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week described a powerful Iranian military commander as a “terrorist,” while discussing options the U.S. government could have to further punish Iran for its destabilizing activities in the Middle East. “Qassem Soleimani has the blood of Americans on his hands … as does the force that he leads,” Pompeo said during an interview with Fox News. “America is determined each time we find an organization, institution or an individual that has taken the lives of Americans, it is our responsibility.”

"Within the last two weeks, protests that are being called “Arab Spring 2.0” have led to the fall of presidents in Algeria and Sudan. But these aren’t just people’s revolutions: In both cases, the army stepped in, purportedly in support of the anti-government demonstrators."

"North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he is open to a third summit with President Donald Trump, but set the year’s end as a deadline for Washington to offer mutually acceptable terms for an agreement to salvage the high-stakes nuclear diplomacy, the North’s state-run media said Saturday."