Defense & Security Archive

In a move that signals India’s resolve to stay the course in Afghanistan after NATO troops withdraw in 2014, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) with visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai in New Delhi last week. The SPA includes a major security component, with India “agreeing to assist, as mutually determined, in the training, equipping and capacity-building programs for Afghan National Security Forces.” That this was the first security pact of any kind signed by India on the subcontinent was not lost on Islamabad, with former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf immediately dubbing the pact “anti-Pakistan.” […]

With a variety of major political and military events unfolding across Asia and the Middle East, many countries are re-examining longstanding formal and informal partnerships and alliances. As a result, the coming months and years will bring about a recasting of important strategic links, some of which have been part of the global landscape for decades. The combined effect of America’s war in Afghanistan, its fight against Muslim extremists inside Pakistan and the ongoing Arab uprisings are prompting a fundamental rethinking of some of the bilateral and multilateral ties that have served as the bedrock of international affairs in recent […]

PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria — On Oct. 2, Nigeria celebrated the 51st anniversary of its freedom from British rule. A large gala was planned in Abuja, the fast-growing Nigerian capital located in the center of the country. But, days before the celebrations, Boko Haram, a Muslim extremist group based in the country’s north, and the Movement to Emancipate the Niger Delta (MEND), based in the country’s oil-rich south, both threatened to disrupt the festivities with violence. Boko Haram had already made it clear that it was capable of attacking Abuja on Aug. 26, when it exploded a bomb at the United […]

Is the world about to see a “drone race” among the United States, China and several other major powers? Writing in the New York Times, Scott Shane argued that just such an arms race is already happening and that it is largely a result of the widespread use of drones in a counterterror role by the United States. Shane suggests that an international norm of drone usage is developing around how the United States has decided to employ drones. In the future, we may expect that China, Russia and India will employ advanced drone technologies against similar enemies, perhaps in […]

The recent revelation that a computer virus had infected the digital cockpits of Predator and Reaper drones at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada raises the question of whether America’s pre-eminent tool in the war on terror could become a victim of cyber-espionage. The fact of the matter, says Noah Shachtman, who broke the story for Wired last Friday, is that “the more we rely on computers and robots to wage our wars, the more vulnerable we become to viruses and worms and trojans.” However, in speaking with Trend Lines, Shachtman stressed how little is actually known about the current […]

In June 2011, Ollanta Humala was elected president of Peru after campaigning on a platform of change. Significant for Peru, but also for South America more broadly, Humala advocated for moderate, not revolutionary, change — calling for a better and fairer distribution of the fruits of Peru’s impressive economic growth and for lower levels of corruption and crime. That kind of program won’t entail upending the prevailing system. It will, however, require serious institutional reform. The Peruvian case dramatically illustrates wider trends in South America, where sustained economic growth and sound macroeconomic policymaking in recent years have coexisted with continuing […]

With North and South Korea technically still at war after more than 60 years, a possible reunification of the two remains hindered by vast ideological differences and recent military altercations. However, South Korea continues to entertain the notion and is now promoting a government-funded Internet news outlet that advocates reunification with the North.

On Sept. 6, members of Afghanistan’s upper house of parliament declared that the Afghan government and the international community have failed in their counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan. Just three months earlier, Afghan Deputy Minister for Counternarcotics Baz Mohammad Ahmadi told reporters that more than 3 million Afghans continue to participate in the illicit drug industry. He pleaded with the international community to support further operations, especially in Afghanistan’s border provinces, and to consider establishing a counternarcotics academy within Afghanistan. Ten years after the United States first invaded the country on Oct. 7, 2001, the drug menace emanating from Afghanistan remains […]

The decision this week by Russia and China to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for its use of violence against its domestic opponents has attracted much attention — and opprobrium. What has generated less discussion is the fact that the three states of the IBSA bloc — India, Brazil and South Africa — abstained from the vote. But their unwillingness to support the resolution has clear implications both for the future of the “responsibility to protect” doctrine as well as for America’s own relationships with the rising democracies of the South. […]

The transition from U.S. Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen to Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has triggered a wave of speculation about how the U.S. military is destined to evolve during the coming years. Some have gone so far as to paint Mullen’s departure as a turning point in American military history. In interviewing Mullen last week, for instance, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius found himself wondering “if we are entering a ‘post-military’ age when our top officers understand that the biggest problems can’t be solved with military power.” While it’s a […]

In its goal to significantly decrease its dependency on foreign oil, the U.S. Navy has successfully tested its first unmanned reconnaissance helicopter powered by biofuel. The trial was the second successful test for the Navy in as many weeks.

This report produced by the human rights advocacy organization Amnesty International asserts that 10 years after a US-led military invasion removed the Taliban from Afghanistan, the Afghan government and its international supporters have failed to keep many of the promises they made to the Afghan people.

Videos posted on YouTube apparently show the aftermath of recent fighting between Syrian troops loyal to the government and defectors in the Syrian city of Rastan.

Apart from spawning fresh debate over the legal fog surrounding America’s drone war, the recent attack that killed American-born al Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki has put the spotlight back on Yemen as a potential haven for Islamist terrorists — especially as the country edges closer to civil war. At the very least, the al-Awlaki case offers a window onto what Carrie Giardino, the director of strategic initiatives at IDS International, a national security consulting firm based in the Washington area, calls a unique problem that Yemen presents for the U.S. counterterrorism effort. Giardino told Trend Lines this week that a […]

While much has been written about China’s port development projects in the Indian Ocean region, it is actually Beijing’s undersea activities in the area that may prove to be the greater source of consternation for India and its navy. In July, the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association announced that it had secured approval from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to explore the southwestern Indian Ocean ridge for polymetallic sulphide nodules. The move was not received well in Indian policymaking circles, which believe that it not only reflects Beijing’s intentions to extract resources from the Indian Ocean region […]

On Monday, an F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter completed its first vertical landing at sea, aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp. The F-35B has been the most troubled of the problem-beset F-35 family, suffering from a variety of teething pains as well as concerns about range, payload and stealth characteristics. As the Defense Department worries about austerity, some have targeted the F-35, and the B model in particular, for cuts. A recent article in the Marine Corps Gazette suggested that the United States Marine Corps, heretofore the strongest proponent of the F-35B, should abandon the aircraft in favor […]

Serious communication gaps between the humanitarian sector and refugees in Dadaab, Kenya, are increasing refugee suffering and putting lives at risk, according to a new joint assessment report released by Internews, an international media development organization. Internews led the assessment and produced this video.