IRAQ
The Iraq War: Key Trends and Developments - Anthony Cordesman, CSIS
Deal to End Fighting in Sadr City - Freeman and Londoño, Washington Post
Sadrists and Iraqi Government Reach Truce - Alissa Rubin, New York Times
US Military Hits a Wall in Sadr City - Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times
Ceasefire Deal with Sadr Militia - BBC News
Iraqi Factions Agree to End Baghdad Fighting - Reuters
Sadrist Bloc Buckles - Bill Roggio, The Long War Journal
Sadr City Bomb Squad - Michael Gordon, New York Times
Lion's Roar: Next Stop Mosul - Dr. iRack. Abu Muqawama
Sadr City Ceasefire? - Dr. iRack. Abu Muqawama
Turkey Says it Attacked Kurdish Rebels in Iraq - Reuters
Mesopotamia Then and Now - Ubiwar, Ubiwar
Rethinking the Iraq Critics - Michael Barone, US News & World Report opinion
What Might Have Been... - Paul, Power Line
Iraq Status Report - Iraq Status Report
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN TRIBAL AREAS
Militants Die in Afghanistan Clash - Associated Press
US Operation Sparks Afghan Unrest - Alastair Leithead, BBC News
Australia Launches Abuse Inquiry - BBC News
Diggers Will Be Investigated - Patrick Walters, The Australian
IRAN
Shell Pulls Out of Iran Gas Deal - Reuters
Countering Iran - Reuel Marc Gerecht, Weekly Standard opinion
NORTH KOREA / SYRIA
Purchases Linked N. Korean to Syria - Wright and Warrick, Washington Post
THE LONG WAR
A Victory for Free Speech - Washington Times editorial
Military Tribunal Fiasco - Baltimore Sun editorial
Information Squeeze Play - John Guardiano, Washington Times opinion
Petronomics 101 - Oliver North, Washington Times opinion
2nd Thai Counterfeit Passport Ring Broken Up - Zachary Abuza, Counterterrorism
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Defense Budget Overkill - Los Angeles Times editorial
The Suffering of Soldiers - New York Times editorial
Milblogs: Letters from War - Ashley Hoffman, Diplomatic Courier
Maybe the Army's Not So Hidebound Afterall - Fred Kaplan, Slate
Fred Kaplan, What a Mensch - Charlie, Abu Muqawama
AFRICA
Somalis Targeted in Terror Campaign - Alex Strick van Linschoten, London Times
Zimbabwe Opposition to Participate in Runoff - Craig Timberg, Washington Post
Opposition Leader to Take Part in Runoff - Peta Thornycroft, Voice of America
Tsvangirai to Defy Mugabe's Thugs - Jon Swain, London Times
Tsvangirai to Run in Second Round - BBC News
Land Grab Weakened Mugabe - Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times
Inside Zimbabwe's Secret Torture Camps - London Daily Telegraph
Incursion Crushed, Sudan Reports - Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post
Sudan’s Army Beats Back Rebel Attack - Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times
Clashes with Darfur Rebels Reported Near Sudan's Capital - Associated Press
Sudanese Rebels 'Reach Khartoum' - BBC News
Sudan Says Rebel Attack on Khartoum Defeated - Reuters
Sudan Cuts Chad Ties over Attack - BBC News
Sudan Cuts Ties with Chad After Rebel Attack - Reuters
AMERICAS
Top Policeman Killed in Northern Mexico - Associated Press
Gunmen Kill Top Mexican Policemen - BBC News
Son of Mexico's Most Wanted Drug Lord Killed - Reuters
Bolivia: Morales Overplays Political Hand - Eduardo Gamarra, Miami Herald opinion
ASIA PACIFIC
Burma’s Cyclone Children Facing Wipeout - Harry McKenzie, London Times
Aid to Burma to Increase - The Australian
Burma Starts Vote As Aid Trickles In - Washington Post
Bodies Flow Into Hard-Hit Area of Burma - New York Times
Less Aid, More Show for Burma's Junta - Graeme Jenkins, London Daily Telegraph
Children Starve as Aid is Blocked - Sydney Morning Herald
Burma Set for Political, Economic Shocks - Associated Press
Sporadic Aid Trickles into Burma - BBC News
Risks Stop US Riding Roughshod Over Junta - Swain and Baxter, London Times
Burma's Generals Take Aid Credit - Richard Ehrlich, Washington Times
Voting Proceeds in Myanmar - Los Angeles Times
Referendum in Burma Likely to Solidify Junta's Power - Associated Press
Junta Hands Out Aid Boxes with Generals' Names - Associated Press
No Time to Hesitate - We Must Get Aid to Burma - London Times editorial
'Flexible' Aid for Burma - Toronto Star editorial
Shared History of Britain and Burma - Thant Myint-U, London Daily Telegraph opinion
Why Can't UN Be More Forceful? - Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer opinion
Burma’s Dying Cry Out to be Saved - Simon Jenkins, London Times opinion
Invasion Burma - Richard Fernandez, The Belmont Club
US Welcomes N. Korea Nuclear Move - BBC News
US Receives 18,000 Nuclear Documents From N. Korea - Voice of America
Law Chnage Launches Japanese Military into Space - Leo Lewis, London Times
All Eyes on Price of Rice - Bill Schiller, Toronto Star
New Allies In Asia? - Jim Hoagland, Washington Post opinion
EUROPE
Italy Needed Fascism, Says the New Duce - John Follain, London Times
19 Kurds Killed in Turkey Airstrikes; Rebels Deny Claim - Associated Press
Turkish Strikes 'Kill 19 Rebels' - BBC News
As Gazprom Goes, So Goes Russia - Andrew Kramer, New York Times
As Freedoms Wane in ex-Soviet Bloc, Ukraine Fills Gap - Associated Press
MIDDLE EAST
Arabs Hold Crisis Talks on Hezbollah ‘Coup’ - Uzi Mahnaimi, London Times
Lebanon Struggles to Defuse Crisis - Alia Ibrahim, Washington Post
Hezbollah Begins to Withdraw in Beirut - Worth and Bakri, New York Times
Lebanon Won't Take on Hezbollah - Wheeler and Gilbert, London Daily Telegraph
Hezbollah to End Armed Presence in Beirut - Ed Yeranian, Voice of America
Hezbollah Leave West Beirut - The Australian
Crisis Eases in Lebanon - Mark MacKinnon, Globe and Mail
US to Stand by Lebanon's PM - Olivier Knox, Sydney Morning Herald
Hezbollah Fighters in Beirut Melt Away - Associated Press
Hezbollah to End Beirut Seizure - BBC News
Lebanese Violence Reaches Tripoli - BBC News
Clashes in Northern and Eastern Lebanon - Associated Press
Lebanon’s Third Civil War - Michael Totten, Contentions
Is Lebanon in a Civil War? - Abu Muqawama, Abu Muqawama
US Looks Set to Offer Israel Powerful New Radar - Reuters
Bush's Odds for Mideast Peace Wane - Jon Ward, Washington Times
Embattled Olmert Vows to Lead Peace Drive - Reuters
Palestinian Negotiator Worries About Olmert Impact - Reuters
Israel to Hear Egypt on Gaza Truce Idea - Reuters
Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Blackout - Reuters
Israel's Unhappy Birthday - Benny Morris, Los Angeles Times opinion
A Triumph of Life and Hope - Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe opinion
Forget the Two-state Solution - Saree Makdisi, Los Angeles Times opinion
For Palestinians, Mourning - Yousef Munayyer, Boston Globe opinion
Israel Facing Demographic Challenge - Trudy Rubin, Miami Herald opinion
SOUTH ASIA
Pakistan's Perils - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette editorial
Sri Lanka Elections Marred by Irregularities - Associated Press
WORLD
Behind the Food Riots: Debate on How Best to Farm - Associated Press
Over a Barrel - Ariel Cohen, New York Post opinion
Great Article on Unflat World - Tom Barnett, Thomas PM Barnett
RECOMMENDED READING
Ten Links I LIked - Chris Blattman, Chris Blattman
Iraq Status Report - Iraq Status Report
UK CT & COIN Features - Will Hartley, Insurgency Research Group
EVENTS OF INTEREST
13 May 2008 - After the Iraqi Offensive: An Address by Colonel H. R. McMaster (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. The government of Iraq has made great strides both militarily and politically over the past year and a half. After dramatically reducing al Qaeda in Iraq’s operational capability, the Iraqi Security Forces have successfully undertaken operations to reclaim segments of Basra and Sadr City from Shiite extremist elements. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al Maliki has won increasing support from the major Sunni, Kurdish, and Shiite blocs due to his leadership in this offensive. Moreover, in a sign of bottom-up reconciliation, nearly 90 percent of Sunnis polled declared their intention to participate in the October provincial elections. How will Iraqi political dynamics evolve as operations against Shiite extremists continue? How will the security situation in Iraq evolve as the July drawdown in U.S. forces approaches? How have recent events in Iraq influenced our understanding of nation-building strategy? Having recently returned from working with Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus in Iraq, Colonel H. R. McMaster will address these and other questions at AEI on May 13. Following his address, Michèle Flournoy of the Center for a New American Security and AEI’s Thomas Donnelly will join Colonel McMaster for a discussion of these issues.
15 May 2008 - Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. In Ground Truth: The Future of U.S. Land Power (AEI Press, May 2008), AEI scholars Thomas Donnelly and Frederick W. Kagan pose a series of urgent questions for policymakers: What is the strategic role of American ground forces? What missions will these forces undertake in the future? What is the nature of land warfare in the twenty-first century? What qualities are necessary to succeed on the battlefields of the Long War? What is the ideal size and configuration of the force--and how much will it cost? On Thursday, May 15, Donnelly, Kagan, and Kathleen Hicks of the Center for Strategic and International Studies will discuss these and other questions about the size, shape, and costs of the land forces the United States will require in the years ahead.
4-5 June 208 - 2008 Joint Symposium - Strategic Re-Assessment: From Long-Range Planning to Future Strategy and Forces (Public Event). Washington, D.C. Sponsored by the Institute for National Strategic Studies, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and US Joint Forces Command. Fundamental to the development and implementation of a successful future defense posture is a foundation comprised of a well-reasoned assessment of the future security environment, a clear understanding of the “realm of the possible” for and limitations of military forces, and an understanding of the nation’s security objectives. Developing an appropriate assessment of the future security environment is not something done in a vacuum as it is impossible to fully separate purely military or national security issues from other elements of the national and global environment. This is particularly true for the United States. Technical innovation and adaptation, the rise and decline of other actors on the international stage, domestic politics, globalization and its effects on trade, migration, communications, and the power of nonstate actors all, bear heavily on any security assessment. There is no shortage of assessments of the future security environment. In the last decade, National Defense University itself has produced several, most recently, Strategic Challenges – America’s Global Security Agenda. The objectives of this symposium are to examine some of these strategic assessments, to review our success at incorporating their key elements into strategic and operational plans, and to propose ways to institutionalize best practices into the process for future force development and joint force planning. We will explore these issues through a series of panel discussions and keynote addresses. Featured speakers will include military officers, government officials, and experts from research institutes.
17-19 June 208 - 3rd Annual North American Security Colloquium: Wars Without Borders (Public Event). Kingston, Ontario. Sponsored by the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, Queen's Centre for International Relations, and Defence Management Studies at Queen's University, and the Canadian 'Forces' Land Doctrine and Training System. The conflicts today in Iraq and in Afghanistan are examples of what some leading scholars and many commanders have termed “continuous wars among the people.” This type of conflict is developing or occurring in other regions of the world, in Africa and in Latin America for example. In many of these situations traditional and legal borders no longer define or contain the conflict, nor do obvious sovereign entities control belligerents. International commitments to control these conflicts necessarily demand complex, multi-dimensional diplomatic, military, police, and humanitarian responses. What has been learned about such conflicts from operations in Iraq and Afghanistan may to some degree be transferable to conflicts in other regions. Assuming that the international community may well face future operations characterized by regional, borderless “wars among the people”, the centres at Queen’s University and their partners propose convening a distinguished group of approximately 200 experts from academic, military, governmental, and international institutions to examine how best to prepare commanders, military units and governments to plan for and conduct complex, multi-dimensional stability campaigns in this new environment.
16-18 September 2008 - The U.S. Army and the Interagency Process: A Historical Perspective (Public Event - Conference / Call for Papers). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Sponsored by the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute. The symposium will include a variety of guest speakers, panel sessions, and general discussions. This symposium will explore the partnership between the U.S. Army and government agencies in attaining national goals and objectives in peace and war within a historical context. Separate international topics may be presented. The symposium will also examine current issues, dilemmas, problems, trends, and practices associated with U.S. Army operations requiring close interagency cooperation.
