Small Wars Journal

Blog Posts

SWJ Blog is a multi-author blog publishing news and commentary on the various goings on across the broad community of practice.  We gladly accept guest posts from serious voices in the community.

by The New York Times | Wed, 05/08/2019 - 12:20am | 0 comments
"When the United States said this week that American forces in Iraq faced threats from Iranian “proxies,” it was referring to the armed groups that helped fight the Islamic State and have bedeviled Iraq ever since. The Iraqi armed groups, some with ties to Iran, have a footprint in every Iraqi province. Whether they function as Iranian proxies, however, is far from settled."
by The Washington Post | Wed, 05/08/2019 - 12:14am | 0 comments
"Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a sudden, unscheduled trip to Baghdad on Tuesday as U.S. officials warned that Iran was positioning missiles that could be used against American forces in the region."
by Marine Corps Times | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 7:58pm | 0 comments
"Marines are headed to the state of Indiana in August as part of a restart of the Corps’ long-running interest in urban warfare."
by Parameters | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 11:54am | 0 comments
Continue on for links to all the latest articles.
by War on the Rocks | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 11:22am | 0 comments
"I still believe that urban combat poses some of the most difficult challenges a military can face. Nevertheless, as this current urban combat juggernaut picks up momentum, it is time to ask several fundamental questions: Why would you fight in cities? Who will you fight in cities? Which cities are possible combat sites in the future?"
by The Wall Street Journal | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 5:39am | 0 comments
"The U.S. State Department is opening new, military-style training facilities around the world, expanding plans to prop up local forces battling terrorism as the Trump administration seeks cutbacks in conventional diplomacy and development programs."
by The New York Times | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 5:32am | 0 comments
"More than two dozen people were killed and homes and businesses destroyed in the weekend’s fighting between Israel and Gaza, but on Monday leaders on both sides declared themselves satisfied with the outcome."
by Voice of America | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 4:18am | 0 comments
"In response to last week's accusation by the military that Pakistan's Pashtun Tahafuz Movement (PTM) has been receiving funds from Afghanistan's and India's intelligence agencies, its leader, Manzoor Pashteen, blamed the country's most powerful institution of turning the war on terror into a lucrative business in their region."
by The New York Times | Tue, 05/07/2019 - 3:47am | 0 comments
"Two prizewinning Reuters journalists were released from prison in Myanmar on Tuesday after more than a year in detention for covering the country’s deadly crackdown on the Rohingya minority group, ending a drama that had brought global scrutiny upon the country’s de facto civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi."
by Voice of America | Mon, 05/06/2019 - 11:10am | 0 comments
"Palestinian officials say a cease-fire with Israel has been agreed to by Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The agreement, reached with the help of Egyptian mediation, was to take effect at 01:30 UTC. So far the cease-fire seems to be holding."
by SWJ Editors | Mon, 05/06/2019 - 9:19am | 0 comments
CNBC: "The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday it responded to a cyberattack from a Hamas-controlled compound in Gaza with an airstrike, a rare mix of physical and cyber conflict on the world stage."
by The Wall Street Journal | Mon, 05/06/2019 - 1:05am | 0 comments
"New intelligence suggests allied interests and American forces could be imperiled."
by Jerusalem Post | Mon, 05/06/2019 - 12:31am | 0 comments
"Shortly after the IDF announced on Sunday the targeted assassination of a Hamas commander responsible for transferring funds from Iran to Gaza, a security official said that the security cabinet directed the IDF to 'intensify the attacks against the terrorist organizations in Gaza.'"
by The British Broadcasting Corporation | Mon, 05/06/2019 - 12:22am | 0 comments
"Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has said he is considering asking the US to launch a military intervention in the embattled country. Speaking to the BBC's Nick Bryant, he said he would 'evaluate all options' to oust President Nicolás Maduro."
by Associated Press | Mon, 05/06/2019 - 12:17am | 0 comments
"The Taliban on Saturday said the gap is narrowing in talks with Washington’s special peace envoy over a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The two sides are continuing to meet in Qatar, where the insurgent movement maintains a political office."
by World Politics Review | Sun, 05/05/2019 - 10:00am | 0 comments
"Whenever the United States becomes involved in counterinsurgency, it eventually wishes that it hadn't. As Judah Grunstein wrote this week, the recent counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan were just the latest episode in the U.S. military's long cyclical history of fighting counterinsurgencies—known variously as small wars, unconventional warfare and asymmetric warfare—as they arise, then tossing aside the operational lessons learned when they were no longer needed."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sun, 05/05/2019 - 9:07am | 0 comments
"Venezuela’s opposition came tantalizingly close to removing President Nicolás Maduro from power this week, according to more than a dozen people involved in talks to oust him. But in the end, it all went wrong."
by The Washington Post | Sun, 05/05/2019 - 8:33am | 0 comments
"President Trump’s senior national security aides met Friday at the Pentagon to review what acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan called a 'comprehensive set of options' for the administration’s next steps in Venezuela."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sun, 05/05/2019 - 7:31am | 0 comments
"Netanyahu orders ’massive attacks’ on Gaza during worst fighting in months."
by The New York Times | Sun, 05/05/2019 - 6:02am | 0 comments
"In one of the deadliest cities in the world, an embattled group of young men had little but their tiny patch of turf — and they would die to protect it. Journalists from The New York Times spent weeks recording their struggle."
by SWJ Editors | Sat, 05/04/2019 - 6:22pm | 0 comments
Foreign Policy Research Institute - "After three days of talks in Turkey, representatives from Washington and Ankara failed to reach agreement on the terms of a proposed safe zone in northeastern Syria."
by The Washington Post | Sat, 05/04/2019 - 1:42pm | 0 comments
"It was one of the last places anyone expected the Islamic State to strike. Just weeks after its decisive defeat in Syria, the radical group claimed responsibility for coordinated attacks more than 3,000 miles away in Sri Lanka, an island nation in the Indian Ocean."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sat, 05/04/2019 - 1:36pm | 0 comments
"Regime insiders in talks with opposition are said to have lost confidence in the bid to remove Maduro. Venezuela’s opposition came tantalizingly close to removing President Nicolás Maduro from power this week, according to more than a dozen people involved in talks to oust him."
by The British Broadcasting Corporation | Sat, 05/04/2019 - 1:33pm | 0 comments
"The Taliban in Afghanistan has rejected calls for a Ramadan ceasefire and attacked the traditional council, or loya jirga, which made the proposal."
by Voice of America | Fri, 05/03/2019 - 8:03pm | 0 comments
"Russia has increased its airstrike campaign on the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib in the past few days, which rights group warn could lead to a new humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country."