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“The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State group says it is helping local Syrian partners regroup after a major setback over the weekend as the militants fight for their last pocket in Syria, near the Iraqi border.”

"The Defense Department will deploy at least 5,200 active-duty troops to the southern border by the end of this week to help harden security there, officials announced on Monday, part of an election-season response by President Trump to hold off a group of Central American migrants moving north through Mexico."

"This paper asks two primary questions: How did these local programs integrate into the United States’ higher-level strategy for Syria over the years? And how did these programs relate to the broader political and security trajectories of the war?"

"Facebook has launched major reforms to its platform and processes since the 2016 U.S. presidential election made the company — and American users of Facebook — aware of how Russian actors were abusing it to influence politics far beyond their borders. But Ukraine’s warnings two years earlier show how the social media giant has been blind to the misuse of Facebook."

"The 64-year-old ex-super general looks just like any other businessman in this quaintly historic, affluent suburb of Washington where his McChrystal Group offers advice to firms hoping to learn a thing or two about leadership from an army man. More than a third of his 100 staff are ex-military, and the big challenge, he says, is recruiting those capable of adjusting to boardroom life."

"U.S. and other government’s officials said the uproar over a Saudi journalist’s grisly death has put Saudi Arabia’s ability to rally others against Iran at risk, posing a challenge for the Trump administration’s Middle East policy."

“Russia is supposed to be the master of hybrid warfare, that shapeshifting amalgamation of regular and irregular war. But has Russia met its match in little Finland?”

"Syria’s largest surviving rebel stronghold, Idlib, faces a complex, uncertain and possibly violent future. Right now, a deal between Turkey and Russia is holding off Syrian military action to recapture this area."

"While each country stressed its commitment to ending the seven-year conflict, the summit appeared to produce few concrete results — underscoring the challenges of reaching a formula for peace amid rival factions, extremist groups and Western reluctance to re-engage with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad."

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has told Arab leaders that Russia is no replacement for the United States in the Middle East, following Moscow's military intervention in Syria.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Saturday the "murder of Jamal Khashoggi in a diplomatic facility must concern us all." "Failure of any nation to adhere to international norms and the rule of law undermines regional stability at a time when it is needed most," Mattis said in prepared remarks for the annual Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain.

“A string of violent crises since the 1990s—from Somalia to Iraq to others—has underscored America’s need to coordinate better among military forces, relief and development organizations, diplomats and other responders, retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni said this week. The United States should consider creating a standing “interagency command” for such crises, Zinni told listeners at USIP.”

“Officials with the international coalition to defeat the Islamic State found none of the civilian casualty reports assessed in September to be credible, according to a monthly report released this week. ‘Out of the 104 completed casualty reports, none of the reports were determined to be credible and resulted in zero unintentional civilian deaths,’ according to Operation Inherent Resolve’s statement accompanying the report.”

"The U.S. defense secretary on Friday approved a request to deploy additional U.S. troops along the U.S.-Mexico border, fulfilling President Trump’s vow to use the American military in an expanding campaign to stop a caravan of migrants and asylum seekers."

“The devastating war in Yemen has gotten more attention recently as outrage over the killing of a Saudi dissident in Istanbul has turned a spotlight on Saudi actions elsewhere. The harshest criticism of the Saudi-led war has focused on the airstrikes that have killed thousands of civilians at weddings, funerals and on school buses, aided by American-supplied bombs and intelligence.”

"Early on the morning of Oct. 23, 1983, a truck bomb detonated beside the U.S. Marine barracks at Lebanon’s Beirut International Airport, killing 241 American servicemen. That evening President Ronald Reagan gave his final approval for Operation Urgent Fury— the American invasion not of Lebanon but of Grenada.'

Recent events in Afghanistan have reenergized those in favor of a U.S. military withdrawal. “Let someone else take up the burden,” urged one opinion piece in Slate. Another in the UK-based Guardian newspaper bluntly noted: “It’s time for America to end its war in Afghanistan.” Some media reports have also suggested that U.S. negotiators in Doha, Qatar have agreed to discuss the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan as part of a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.

A daylong conference on “Projecting Stability” provided the stage for U.S. Government agencies, the international community, non-governmental organizations, and academics to discuss principles and ongoing NATO efforts to define and integrate the concept across its members.

The Pentagon is considering sending hundreds of troops to the southern border after President Donald Trump reiterated Thursday the military would be used to prevent a caravan of Central American migrants from entering the United States.

"In 2007 the BBC’s Mark Urban was “embedded” with a platoon of soldiers in one of Baghdad’s most violent areas. Ten years later he tracked down four of the men from the unit. What effect did the war have on them?"

"Three years after its completion, a lengthy study of the Army’s role in the Iraq war remains unpublished, some say because of how it both praises certain Army leaders while also airing some 'dirty laundry' regarding wartime decision-making."

Michael Kovrig, at International Crisis Group, writes that "at the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and China-Africa Defence and Security Forum, Beijing showcased an increasingly strategic approach to its defence relations with African countries and its role in managing challenges to peace and security on the continent.

"About 100 members of a U.S. Army training brigade scheduled to leave Afghanistan next month will take the unusual step of returning in February to help the next unit of advisers coming in, U.S. military officials told The Associated Press."

Despite the anti-Islamic State campaign being waged in both Iraq and Syria, the terror group can still attack coalition forces and their local partners in both countries, Col. Sean Ryan, spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, said.

"American military officials said Wednesday that they had halted most face-to-face contacts with members of the Afghan security forces, and have temporarily withdrawn from Afghan security facilities, after two 'insider' shootings in the past week that killed a top Afghan regional police commander and a Czech soldier."