Blog Posts

"Nearly 17 years after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, the international coalition in Kabul is putting down new roots with hardened permanent structures to replace temporary ones at its headquarters in the increasingly violent capital.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, and Defence Minister Ron Mark have announced an extension of the New Zealand Defence Force military training deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a renewal of three peacekeeping missions in the Middle East and Africa.

“For many in the Armed Forces, the 17 years of the ‘Long War’ have become an abiding focus of their lives. For our soldiers, it is now possible to die on your 13th deployment to a combat zone. We must adapt our policies to ensure that this doesn’t become a Forever War.”

"Western military forces operate from at least nine bases in Niger, government officials said. One recent day at Niamey’s airport, two French Eurofighters screeched skyward from the runway as a giant American C-130 transporter plane taxied below. The U.S. is finishing a large air base in Agadez, while the Central Intelligence Agency has begun flying armed drones from an airstrip outside the northern town of Dirkou, Nigerien officials said."

Written by a reserve officer who spent a tour in the Philippines producing a classified history for US Special Operations Command, this first-ever publicly available history of OEF-P provides both a detailed accounting of the operation’s successes and a model for trainers and advisers providing assistance to host-nation security forces around the globe.

“Many have interpreted the Air Force’s OA-X light-attack experiment as something solely focused on acquiring a cost-effective close-air support aircraft for U.S. forces entangled in low-intensity conflicts. But in reality, the program is also being crafted to increase the capabilities of partner nations across the world.”

“Although the United States and its NATO allies have increased military activities in Central and Eastern Europe, the West is still militarily vulnerable in the region. The Russian military has built up anti-access zones and increased forces next to Poland and the three Baltic states. These actions, made worse by vulnerable geography including the so-called Suwaki Gap, require a firm, long-term response.”

"They dug trenches around towns, reinforced caves for cover and put up sand bags around their positions. They issued calls to arms, urging young men to join in the defense of Idlib, the Syrian province where opposition fighters expect to make their last stand against Russian- and Iranian-backed government troops they have fought for years. This time, it's 'surrender or die.'"

As alleged Russian plots, conspiracies and crimes unfold against the West, prosecutors and pundits routinely blame Vladimir Putin or a circle of Kremlin insiders said to be acting on direct orders from the president. Putin may indeed have involvement in some shadowy schemes, but is he micromanaging every suspected poisoning, computer hack and influence campaign?

The increasing fragility of peace talks between the Colombian government and the country’s last remaining guerrilla group could see the rebels double down on their criminal prospects in the Andean nation.

When Defense Secretary James N. Mattis declared last month that he had “no plans” to cancel future joint military exercises with South Korean forces, it brought him a very public rebuke from President Trump. “There is no reason at this time to be spending large amounts of money on joint U.S.-South Korea war games,” Trump fired back the next day in a tweet he labeled “Statement from the White House.” He underscored only “the President” could restart exercises he had abruptly suspended after his June summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says he has no intention of backing down in the face of a "resurgent" Russia, insisting the Western alliance will hold a firm but fair line with Moscow while continuing to accept former Soviet states.

"Only two grisly questions remain in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s fight against his civil war rivals: how long before the last major armed resistance, in the northwestern province of Idlib, is crushed; and how many of the estimated three million civilians there will escape. Yet even amid the preparations for a final assault, a different battle has been taking shape: among outside powers in the seven-year war, each with its own interests. How that ends will have implications not just for Syria, but the wider Middle East, Europe, and for the balance of power between Russia and the United States."

"The United States has presented a draft Security Council resolution aimed at toughening the UN response to failures by peacekeepers in their mission to protect civilians, US Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday. UN peacekeeping missions are facing a damaging wave of allegations of sex abuse and of failing to come to the aid of civilians caught up in violence, notably in the Central African Republic and South Sudan.+

"German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday Berlin was boosting military cyber capabilities to respond to Russian hybrid warfare that is targeting its troops deployed on NATO's eastern flank. NATO allies have accused Russia of using "hybrid warfare" techniques, including subversion, propaganda and cyber warfare, to undermine the West without triggering a full NATO military response."

"Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned Thursday that the current global approach in the fight against Islamist terrorism adopted since the 9/11 attacks has failed. A more complex strategy is needed, he said."

"The U.S. Agency for International Development’s biggest program for Afghan women has spent almost $90 million over three years and so far has placed just 55 women in Afghan government jobs, a watchdog report said Thursday. The much-touted Promote program was unveiled at a $216 million price tag three years ago, intended to show U.S. support for Afghan women after the Obama administration had announced it would withdraw all troops by 2016."

"Negotiations between the United States and the Afghan Taliban for a political settlement to end the protracted war in Afghanistan are stuck over the issue of maintenance of U.S. military bases in the country, according to Waheed Muzhda, a former Taliban official in Kabul who remains in regular contact with Taliban leaders. The “U.S. wants the Taliban to accept at least two military bases, Bagram and Shorabak. The Taliban are not willing to accept it,” Muzhda said, adding the insurgent leaders are unwilling to accept anything more than a nominal number of troops required to secure the U.S. diplomatic mission."

"A senior U.N. official reports a readiness plan has been developed to assist hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in Syria’s northern province of Idlib, while diplomatic moves to prevent all-out war accelerate. The U.N. Regional Coordinator for the Syrian Crisis said he has appealed for the protection of civilians in Idlib to countries of influence attending a Humanitarian Task Force meeting in Geneva."

"Iraq may be on the brink of its biggest crisis since 2006, when a civil war threatened to topple its nascent democratic system. Government formation talks have dragged out as pro- and anti-Iranian factions jockey for influence. Corruption and basic governance failures have triggered mass protests—particularly in Basra, Iraq’s second-largest city and primary oil-export hub."

As the African Union Mission in Somalia prepares to implement the planned phased withdrawal of more than 21,000 troops fighting militant groups, including al-Shabab and the Islamic State in Somalia, some experts are concerned that the country may not be prepared to take on the task in the face of growing political divisions and lack of military equipment and training.

“It’s widely understood that warfare evolves with the technology available to combatants. But it’s often forgotten that tactical leadership—the art of command in battle—likewise evolves. For centuries, fighting generals such as Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan, Hannibal, and Saladin exemplified tactical leadership, creating great reputations in the process. Today, however, lieutenants and corporals play the battlefield roles once held by these famous leaders.”

"Anyone who has lived through the lies the U.S. government told about the war in Vietnam, or its failure to honestly report the uncertainties regarding Iraq’s continued pursuit of weapons of mass destruction that led to the U.S. invasion in 2003, knows how dangerous it is for the U.S. government to paint a false impression of success in a war or crisis, and to lie directly or by omission."

“The conventional wisdom is that Russia is too nuclear and too big to fail. But it’s also too big to secure — and that means Moscow has pursued a somewhat counterintuitive foreign policy in the surrounding regions.”

“The Taliban are ready for a second round of talks with the U.S., possibly this month, which is likely to focus on prisoner exchanges, confidence building measures, and ways to move from back-door meetings to formal negotiations, said Taliban officials in separate interviews in recent days.”