Defense & Security Archive

Over the past 30 years, the process of globalization has revolutionized international affairs. The amount of trade has tripled, and the ease with which goods, money, services and people now circulate globally has resulted in soaring economic growth and development that has benefitted almost all countries. Perhaps the most significant change has taken place in the Global South. Developing countries’ share of world trade has risen from around 10 percent in the mid-1990s to around 20 percent today. Even amid the recent global economic downturn, developing countries have still managed to significantly increase their share of global trade (.pdf). Partly […]

While America has begun an economic recovery of uncertain strength and staying power, we Americans nonetheless face a far longer-term and more substantial national rebuilding project. This daunting task has placed us in a contemplative space, in which we nervously toggle between bouts of renewed self-confidence and crippling self-doubt. But the same thread runs through both cycles of this national bipolar disorder: the assumption that we must bear this burden alone. That assumption is our greatest weakness right now, for it blinds us to the economic opportunities at hand, while encouraging us to adopt an unwise defensiveness in our national […]

A prominent Syrian businessman has predicted the regime of President Bashar al-Assad will fall in the coming months as his forces continue their bombardment of the city of Homs. World News Videos by NewsLook

At first glance, the ongoing efforts to remove Bashar al-Assad from power in Syria and the unrecognized referendum held in the majority-Serbian areas of northern Kosovo would not appear to have much in common. But both are symptoms of a larger problem that has accelerated in recent years: the delegitimization of the territorially defined state. The classic definition of a state in the international system, as provided by Max Weber and incorporated into international law by the 1933 Montevideo convention, gives the national government the exclusive right to use force to secure its existence and territory. But that norm is […]

All eyes have been on Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping this week, as the heir apparent to Chinese President Hu Jintao continues his tour of the United States. But Xi will not be the only new face to emerge this fall, when the Chinese Communist Party will convene its 18th National Party Congress to announce a new generation of leaders in the top party and government positions. The congress convenes every five years to announce changes in policy or to make changes in personnel. But this year, the political transition is particularly important, with more than half of the 25 […]

Libyans celebrate the one year anniversary of the first anti-Gadhafi protest and reflect on life without the fallen leader. World News Videos by NewsLook

A US aircraft carrier sails through the Strait of Hormuz after Iran threatens to close the strategic waterway. World News Videos by NewsLook

The vice president of tactical intelligence at the geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor examines attacks by Islamic militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria and explains why the group remains a regional, rather than a transnational, threat. World News Videos by NewsLook

After years of controversy and disagreement, the U.S. and Japan agreed last week to decouple the terms of an agreement to close the U.S. Marines’ Futenma air base in Okinawa, after negotiations over relocating the base elsewhere on the island had reached a stalemate. The 2006 agreement had required the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another site on Okinawa as a precondition for reducing the amount of U.S. troops stationed there. But heavy opposition among residents of Okinawa to hosting a new base, even in a less populated part of the island, had made the issue a […]

Since returning to civilian rule in April 2011, Niger has achieved a measure of political stability. In July, President Mahamadou Issoufou weathered his first major domestic crisis, a coup attempt, whose plotters were arrested by authorities soon thereafter. The president recently increased the salaries of civil servants and reduced the costs of electricity and water, moves calculated to address economic grievances. Critically for this impoverished country, external donors regard Issoufou’s administration favorably; aid suspended after the February 2010 coup that removed former President Mamadou Tandja from power has been restored or increased. Finally, a small amount of oil — around […]

Over the past two weeks, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps conducted Bold Alligator, an exercise off the Atlantic seaboard designed to refine expertise in amphibious operations and test new amphibious capabilities. The exercise included the USS Enterprise supercarrier, three amphibious assault vessels — the USS Wasp, the USS Kearsarge and the USS Iwo Jima — as well as a bevy of support vessels. Nine international partners joined Bold Alligator in some fashion, including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom, with the French LPD Mistral representing the most significant allied commitment. The […]

Despite receiving little attention in the lengthy written testimony (.pdf) presented to the Senate and House intelligence committees’ recent hearings on threats to the United States, the question of the viability of reaching a peace agreement with the Taliban was raised repeatedly in the discusions at the two public sessions. Many in Congress are rightly concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and any nascent peace process. So it is important to understand the specific risks involved in negotiating with the Taliban before Congress’ last annual hearing on worldwide threats to national security takes place Thursday in the Senate Armed Services […]

Amateur video out of Syria appears to show ongoing violence as diplomats engage in a war of words. World News Videos by NewsLook

Stratfor’s Vice President of Tactical Intelligence Scott Stewart examines the attack on an Israeli diplomat in New Delhi, India, on Feb. 13. World News Videos by NewsLook

China announced last month that it will send a contingent to participate in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. In an email interview, Courtney Richardson, a research fellow at the International Security Program at Harvard University’s Belfer Center and a doctoral student at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, discussed China’s peacekeeping deployments. WPR: What is the recent history of China’s involvement in international peacekeeping missions? Courtney Richardson: From the time it assumed its seat at the United Nations Security Council in 1971 until the early 1980s, China was morally opposed to the international peacekeeping regime; it abstained on Security Council […]

While the debate over whether Israel will strike Iran ebbs and flows on an almost weekly basis now, a larger collision-course trajectory is undeniably emerging. To put it most succinctly, Iran won’t back down, while Israel won’t back off, and America will back up its two regional allies — Israel and Saudi Arabia — when the shooting finally starts. There are no other credible paths in sight: There will be no diplomatic miracles, and Iran will not be permitted to achieve a genuine nuclear deterrence. But let us also be clear about what this coming war will ultimately target: regime […]

Although Syria’s Kurds have a long history of opposing the central government in Damascus, they have so far refrained from widespread, proactive participation in the ongoing rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad’s Baathist regime. However, if they continue to limit themselves to being mere spectators to the unfolding drama, they may well find themselves deprived of any long-term political gains in a post-Assad Syria. The Kurds’ forbearance to date does not signal a fear of government repression or an unwillingness to make sacrifices. They have demonstrated such willingness on numerous occasions, most recently in 2004-2005, when clashes between civilian protesters and […]