Blog Posts

"The State Department unit overseeing the fight against the Islamic State group will stay in business for at least six more months, reversing an administration plan for the unit’s imminent downgrade even as President Donald Trump presses ahead with a speedy U.S. exit from Syria."

“When 20-year-old Khamzat Azimov went on a deadly stabbing spree in Paris this month, a May 12 attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, details about his upbringing caught the attention of psychoanalyst and counterterrorism expert Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin. Considering Azimov's infancy in war-torn Chechnya, and the fact that he continued to live with his mother in a one-room Paris apartment until he was shot dead by police in the midst of his attack, Kobrin saw a pattern reflected in other Islamist terrorists she has studied and written about.”

"His self-declared caliphate was in ruins when Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi summoned some of his top aides to a meeting in eastern Syria last year. The Islamic State’s capital in Iraq had already fallen, and its Syrian headquarters was under siege. Yet the terrorist leader had something else on his mind: schoolchildren."

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the recently completed U.S. defense strategy, the first in 10 years, will be used to guide the revamping of the military during the Trump administration. “Without a sound strategy, the most brilliant generals, the most well-equipped troops, the most high-tech equipment, fine tactics — none of that works unless your strategy, your framework for what you’re doing, can actually tie ways and means together,” Mr. Mattis said in a recent speech.

“The Taliban announced Friday that they intend to focus their attacks on Americans and their foreign allies, rather than Afghan government forces, according to an Al Jazeera report. The statement comes on the heels of an unsuccessful bid by the insurgent group to take the city of Farah in the western part of the country.”

“American authorities say insurgent activity in Bahrain, a key hub for U.S. naval operations, has increased over the past year as a handful of Iranian-backed groups armed with smuggled weapons plan attacks against security forces.”

“Even as the Pentagon shifts its focus from low-intensity conflict to full-spectrum war, the U.S. Air Force might finally buy a prop-driven light attack plane.”

“In its former heartland of Syria and Iraq, the once mighty Islamic State has turned, at least for now, into little more than a nuisance. But that’s not the case for the self-declared caliphate’s far-flung “provinces,” from West Africa to Afghanistan to Southeast Asia.”

There has been a lot of discussion recently about what impact developments in artificial intelligence might have on the military, but there is also a growing amount of talk regarding how emerging advancements in human intelligence will influence tomorrow’s wars – much thanks to remarkable work occurring in neuroscience.

“Airstrikes against Syrian rebels have gone up 150 percent since Russia intervened in the conflict in 2015, helping the regime triple the territory under its control, a report published on Tuesday showed. The analysis by IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center (JTIC) also found that just 14 percent of the strikes were against the Islamic State group.”

United States Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) has informed SIGAR that they had provided SIGAR with incorrect personnel strength figures for the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) for use in SIGAR’s quarterly report published on April 30, 2018. This is the latest in a series of problems SIGAR has faced with DOD’s responses to our requests for ANDSF information.

“U.S. forces are preparing for a battle with Islamic State over a valley that was once the Afghan hub of the group’s campaign to create a world-wide caliphate. The militants have been probing American and Afghan positions and hiding weapons caches in the ridges overlooking Mohmand Valley, which was controlled by ISIS fighters until allied troops chased them into the Spingar mountains at the end of last year.”

"Russia or China could “overrun” US allies at the outbreak of war, senior military leaders fear, and our plan to stop them is very much a work in progress. Iraq and Syria have given sneak previews of how the US can combine, say, hackers, satellites, special operators, and airstrikes in a single offensive, but we’re not yet ready to launch such a multi-domain operation against a major power."

"The Marine Corps is making sweeping changes to the structure and equipment of its ground-combat forces aimed at improving lethality and agility on the battlefield. Officially announced last week, the modifications are the result of nearly two years of study and experimentation known as Marine Corps Force 2025 and Sea Dragon 2025."

"More than two years after the United Nations began leading an internationally backed peace process for Libya, that effort faces severe challenges. Rival Libyan regimes still claim national authority, and battles among hundreds of militia groups continue."

“Fighters loyal to Islamic State killed four American soldiers in Niger last fall, surprising even some Members of Congress who apparently had no idea the U.S. is fighting ISIS in Africa. Last week the Pentagon published a highly critical summary of its investigation into the incident, but it should lead to military improvements not a U.S. retreat from Africa."

In March, Harper’s Magazine convened a panel of former soldiers at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The participants, almost all of whom saw combat in Iraq or Afghanistan, were asked to reflect on the country’s involvement in the Middle East. This Forum is based on that panel, which was held before an audience of cadets and officers, and on a private discussion that followed.

"The House Armed Services Committee unanimously endorsed Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s efforts to improve the infantry and added a few suggestions of its own. Let’s give infantry units more drones and train them more like special operators, the amendment to the annual defense policy bill said, and maybe consider creating a special training center for small unit leaders, like a Top Gun for grunts."

In a televised Pentagon briefing, the commander of U.S. Africa Command laid out the bottom line for the October Niger ambush that killed four U.S. soldiers: “The responsibility is mine,” Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser said.

"There may not be much Iran can do about President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, but across the Middle East, it has a variety of ways it can hit back at the United States and America’s regional allies."

Pentagon investigators on Thursday blamed multiple "individual, organizational and institutional failures" for the ambush that left four U.S. solders dead in Niger in October 2017. The six-month investigation, which resulted in an eight-page summary report released Thursday, determined no single person or entity was to blame for the deaths.

There has been a serious clash between Israel and Iran in Syria. Israel launched a fierce assault on more than 50 Iranian targets in Syria. The military said the Air Force hit weapons depots, logistics sites and intelligence centers used by elite Iranian forces, many of them near Damascus.

"Confrontation between Israel and Iranian forces in Syria sharply escalated early Thursday morning as Israel said Iran launched a barrage of 20 missiles toward its positions in the Golan Heights. Heavy military jet activity, explosions and air-defense fire could be heard throughout the night in the area."

In a conflict that has no easy answers and no solutions in sight, Boko Haram is already and will remain one of Africa’s enduring insurgencies. In order to better understand Boko Haram now and in the future, this report, edited by Jacob Zenn, challenges some key misconceptions about the insurgency and provides new analyses and insights based on many exclusive primary source materials and datasets.

It took Iraqi forces three years to significantly drive Islamic State militants out of the country, but the group’s nontraditional tactics have damaged Iraq’s special forces, according to one major Iraqi military commander.