Defense & Security Archive

JERUSALEM — One of the many strange features of the Sept. 6 event involving Israeli overflights of Syrian airspace is the peculiar route through which the world has gradually discovered what happened — or what might have happened — on that possibly fateful night. Normally, one would expect Israeli reporters, the ones with the best contacts, sources and understanding of Israeli operations, to uncover and report details about such a secretive operation. Not this time. The much-discussed operation, now described by Israeli journalists in half-mocking tone as “The alleged air strike that the IDF did or did not carry out […]

Iraq’s refugees tell heartbreaking accounts of suffering, displacement, and shattered dreams, but these refugees represent more than mere human interest stories. Collectively, the outpouring of millions of Iraqi refugees into a very small number of neighboring countries poses a dramatic security threat to the Middle East, and there is no sign that threat is going away. In the lead up to the Iraq war, most of the U.S. government discussion about refugees assumed that refugee flows would be sudden, massive and brief. When more than a million Kurds fled Iraq into Turkey and Iran in 1991 to avoid Saddam’s wrath, […]

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization last week announced that it is contemplating scaling back its highly publicized NATO Response Force, the Alliance’s rapid reaction military force and its catalyst for military transformation. As is often the case for NATO, the real world intruded on its military ambitions. “There is an examination underway” within NATO to see how to sustain the response force, which requires a steady state of 25,000 troops trained and ready to deploy, said spokesman James Appathurai at a press briefing in Brussels. “We could have an NRF that is not always at 25,000” he postulated, “rather than […]

For approximately 36 hours last month, the U.S. Air Force lost track of half a dozen nuclear weapons. Although Air Force leaders characterize the event as a unique occurrence, the incident will likely encourage opposition to the Bush administration’s Prompt Global Strike plan, which aims give the United States the option of using nuclear and non-nuclear weapons on the same delivery systems. On Aug. 30, the crew of an Air Force B-52H Stratofortress unknowingly carried six nuclear-tipped AGM-129 cruise missiles while flying from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Throughout the three-and-a-half-hour […]

MADRID, Spain — Let justice takes its course: A fine phrase to cap an argument, but not one you’re likely to hear from Europeans in a state of high moral dudgeon over terrorists being confined in cages at Guantanamo. From the objectionists, expect no more than a glare in reply to the question, “Well, then, what would you do to keep terrorists from killing more innocent people?” A minority, however, will sometimes make a profession of faith in civilized Europe’s instruments and institutions for administering justice, based on due process and humane and corrective sanctions for the guilty. That is […]

Recent weeks have seen intense interest displayed in the English-language media to signs of a potential reorientation of French foreign policy under new President Nicolas Sarkozy. Following the publication earlier this month of former French Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine’s report to the President on France and “Globalization” — which, as the extensive extracts published on World Politics Review show, was largely misinterpreted by the media as a plea for change — some seemingly improvised remarks by current French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner gave renewed impetus to such discussions. During an hour-long interview on the French talk show “Grand Jury” on […]

In his role as national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie is one of the key figures in the Iraqi government. Shortly before General David H. Petraeus presented his Iraq report to the U.S. Congress on Sept. 10, reporter Urs Gehriger of the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche met with Rubaie at his home in Baghdad. In a 90-minute interview, the British-trained neurologist spoke about progress in Iraq, continuing challenges, and the consequences of a withdrawal of American troops. World Politics Review presents this wide-ranging interview for the first time in English. -o- Next week will be a crucial moment for Iraq. General […]

LONDON — Pomp, pagentry and the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas accompanied Ethiopia’s celebration of its entry into the third millennium, seven years after the rest of the world but in line with the Coptic calendar of the Horn of Africa nation. But with the exchange of fiery rhetoric threatening to upset a fragile peace with neighbor Eritrea, new broadsides in the internal conflict raging in the Ogaden region on the country’s border with Somalia, and dissatisfaction with progress toward improved social welfare, Ethiopia has entered the 21st century much the way it wrapped up the 20th: divided and poor. […]

JERUSALEM — The people who write books about what has come to be known as “asymmetrical warfare” could fill many chapters by examining Israeli frustration with Palestinian rocket attacks on Israeli towns. One full chapter could be written about what happened this Wednesday, when the Israeli government decided on a new set of measures to try to stop the rocket fire, only to find their decision to name Gaza an “enemy entity” managed to upset just about everyone, from Palestinians to Israelis, along every point on the political spectrum. Almost every day Palestinians have been firing Qassam rockets into Israeli […]

Last week’s testy public exchange between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush could foreshadow continued security tensions between Washington and Seoul even as the negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program move towards a denouement. Bush and Roh held a one-hour private meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney, Australia. Afterwards, they conducted a joint media appearance. Both leaders delivered formal statements to reporters outlining their assessment of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. In his subsequent comments, Roh remarked that he had not heard Bush explicitly affirm […]

The Iraqi armed forces are struggling to become self-sufficient in the face of constant insurgent attacks, a dearth of experienced leaders and in a divisive political environment. Several years after the establishment of Baghdad’s new army and air force, U.S. and British forces still take the lead in most combat operations in Iraq. But in two key areas — armored trucks and counterinsurgency aircraft — the Iraqi military is actually more advanced than its American partner, reflecting key differences in the two nations’ overall military strategies. Armored Trucks In April 2006, the U.S. Department of Defense solicited bids from American […]

JERUSALEM — When a Palestinian rocket hit a training base in Israel on Sept. 11, sending 67 soldiers to the hospital, many in Israel, in Gaza, and beyond thought it would be the event that would launch a full-scale Israeli invasion of Gaza to put an end to the rocket attacks once and for all. Hamas quickly began evacuating key locations, and many in Gaza began stocking up on food and water, fearing a massive Israeli response. Instead, what they heard was thundering demands for action from the Israeli right, followed by a statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert […]

The arrest earlier this month of three Islamic radicals suspected of planning attacks on American military installations in Germany has again called attention to the southern German towns of Neu-Ulm and Ulm. The alleged leader of the trio, Fritz G., comes from Ulm. As Roland Ströbele of the local Neu-Ulmer Zeitung reports, the twin cities on opposite banks of the Danube have in recent years become a bustling hub of Jihadist activism. NEU-ULM/ULM, Germany — And once again the trail leads to Neu-Ulm. One of the three presumed members of an Islamic terror group arrested earlier this month in Germany […]

At the end of August, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar and former Sen. Sam Nunn visited Russia to reinvigorate the pioneering U.S.-funded Comprehensive Threat Reduction Program (CTR) they helped launch a decade-and-a-half ago. The CTR program, widely known as the Nunn-Lugar Program, aims to secure and eliminate the weapons of mass destruction the new Russian Federation inherited from the Soviet Union following the U.S.S.R.’s demise in 1991. On Aug. 30, the two senators visited the chemical weapons destruction facility that the United States and other foreign governments — most notably Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Italy, Norway and Switzerland — are […]

VIENNA, Austria — Jamel, Germany, is haunted. Fastened onto the plains near the Baltic Sea, Jamel is a hamlet of a few dozen people; a quiet retreat from a quickened world. But this would-be sleepy little outback stirs with trouble, strangled by the choke hold that a clan of neo-Nazis have held it in for more than 15 years. Led by 30-something-year-old Sven Krueger, the gang of neo-Nazis has rooted out anyone who has dared to complain about their Nazi celebrations, their Nazi music blasting, their Nazi flags waving or the Nazi graffiti that mars the city’s infrastructure. Residents who […]

JERUSALEM — In Israel, a country where everyone has an opinion and every home has at least one senior military expert, the events that (may or may not have) transpired in Syria last Thursday have fueled a frantic round of nervous speculation and analysis. Last week, Syrian authorities announced they had fired anti-aircraft weapons at Israeli planes illegally flying over their territory. At the time, Israeli officials refused to comment. Since then, the entire government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has maintained complete silence on the issue, displaying a level of discipline that has left Israelis utterly amazed. The government […]

On Sept. 3, the Russian government indicated it would insist on challenging conditions for negotiating any limitations on its tactical nuclear weapons (TNW). Russian Col. Gen. Vladimir Verkhovtsev, head of the Defense Ministry’s 12th Main Directorate, which is responsible for Russia’s nuclear weapons, told reporters that Russia would require that other countries — “above all France and Britain” — join with Moscow and Washington in any future TNW arms control talks. For years, Western officials, legislators, and analysts have called for additional measures to eliminate, or at least sharply reduce, the remaining TNWs in the U.S. and Russian arsenals. TNWs […]