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 Wall Street Journal | Sat, 04/27/2019 - 5:54am | 0 comments
"Syria’s opposition has pinned its hopes on a new constitution that could allow for political transition in a country devastated by civil war, as it struggles for relevance eight years after an uprising began to oust the Assad regime."
by The Center for a New American Security | Fri, 04/26/2019 - 4:03pm | 0 comments
"The question facing the United States and other Western allies is how to deal with challenges in the Middle East without getting sucked into complex and costly civil wars."
by The Strategist | Fri, 04/26/2019 - 3:09pm | 0 comments
"The Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka rank among the deadliest terrorist attacks in modern history, and underscore the metastasising scourge of Islamist violence in Asia. Radical Islamist groups, some affiliated with larger extremist networks, have been quietly gaining influence in an arc of countries extending from the Maldivian to the Philippine archipelagos, and the threat they pose can no longer be ignored."
by U.S. News & World Report | Fri, 04/26/2019 - 2:17pm | 0 comments
"The number of security contractors the military employs in Afghanistan is higher now than at any time since President Barack Obama declared an end to combat operations in the country in 2014, Defense Department documents show."
by The Washington Post | Fri, 04/26/2019 - 1:30pm | 0 comments
"The Pentagon is preparing to approve a loosening of rules that bar troops from interacting with migrants entering the United States, expanding the military’s involvement in President Trump’s operation along the southern border."
by The New York Times | Fri, 04/26/2019 - 11:35am | 0 comments
"America risks a catastrophic defeat if it doesn’t radically change the way it thinks about war."
by U.S. News & World Report | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:01pm | 1 comment
"International support, considered critical to Afghanistan’s ability to govern, will evaporate if rights for women are not secured, inspector general John Sopko says."
by The Atlantic | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 12:03pm | 0 comments
"When ISIS claimed responsibility for the Easter attacks in Sri Lanka, it did so in Arabic and English—and in languages spoken in just a few regions across South Asia."
by Voice of America | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:42am | 0 comments
"A peace treaty to end more than 17 years of war in Afghanistan could usher in a new era of instability and erase many of the gains made by international reconstruction efforts, a key U.S. official cautioned Wednesday."
by Military Times | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 2:04am | 0 comments
"The drug lab bombing campaign that was championed as a game-changer didn’t have the intended effect of hitting the Taliban’s purse and was probably a waste of resources."
by Jerusalem Post | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 1:00am | 0 comments
"Since the US left the Iran Deal and began exerting pressure on Tehran via sanctions, there have been tensions between the US and pro-Iranian groups in Syria and Iraq. This includes the Hashd al-Shaabi (PMU), a group of mostly Shi’ite paramilitaries in Iraq that are now part of the Iraqi Security Forces."
by Defense News | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 12:58am | 0 comments
"Trump tweeted that 'Mexico’s Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border,' but he didn’t offer any support for the drug-smuggling claim.
by The New York Times | Thu, 04/25/2019 - 12:18am | 0 comments
"Sri Lankan investigators are being assisted by a team of F.B.I. agents who flew into Colombo amid a sense of urgency. The American ambassador to Sri Lanka, Alaina Teplitz, said there were 'ongoing terrorist plots' and Mr. Wijewardene said 'there could be still a few people out there.' He urged Sri Lankans to remain vigilant."
by The Washington Post | Wed, 04/24/2019 - 10:25am | 0 comments
"Before he spent five years in prison for murdering a suspected al-Qaeda detainee, Michael Behenna was a rising military officer from a prominent law enforcement family."
by Military Times | Wed, 04/24/2019 - 12:45am | 0 comments
"Ever since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine and sponsored separatists in the Donbas, Eastern Europe has collectively wondered: 'Where will the Kremlin strike next?'"
by Voice of America | Tue, 04/23/2019 - 11:26am | 0 comments
"People in Sri Lanka are experiencing a second day without access to some of the most popular social media sites within the country, after the government shut down the services in the wake of a terror attack that killed nearly 300 people and injured hundreds on Easter Sunday."
by The Wall Street Journal | Tue, 04/23/2019 - 6:38am | 0 comments
"Authorities here said an international terror group likely supported an obscure local Islamist group in carrying out a series of bombings that killed at least 321 people on Easter Sunday, weeks after the government had received warnings from the U.S. and India about a possible attack."
by The Washington Post | Tue, 04/23/2019 - 5:34am | 0 comments
"Sri Lanka on Tuesday described the devastating string of bombings on Easter that killed 321 people as a response to the attack on two mosques in New Zealand last month."
by The Washington Post | Mon, 04/22/2019 - 4:47pm | 0 comments
"Eight separate bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels on Easter Sunday left 290 people dead and another 500 injured. A day after the coordinated explosions, which mostly targeted Sri Lanka’s capital city of Colombo, the names and stories of those who died are beginning to trickle out."
by The Wall Street Journal, by The Washington Post, by The New York Times | Mon, 04/22/2019 - 1:34am | 0 comments
Continue on for an update concerning the terror bombings in Sri Lanka.
by The Washington Post | Sun, 04/21/2019 - 12:23pm | 0 comments
"The White House said Friday that President Trump, in a phone call with renegade Libyan general Khalifa Hifter, praised Hifter for fighting terrorism and protecting Libya’s oil, comments that were far afield from the administration’s stated policy on Libya."
by Reuters | Sun, 04/21/2019 - 3:07am | 0 comments
"Explosions shook the Libyan capital Tripoli late Saturday after an airstrike, residents said, in an escalation of a two-week offensive by eastern forces on the city held by the internationally recognized government."
by The Washington Post | Sun, 04/21/2019 - 2:50am | 0 comments
"A series of coordinated explosions struck three churches and two hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing at least 75 people and injuring more than 200. Blasts took place in churches in the cities of Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa"
by The Wall Street Journal | Sat, 04/20/2019 - 3:47pm | 0 comments
"Suspected Islamic State militants attacked a government building in teeming central Kabul on Saturday, killing seven and triggering a gunbattle with government forces that sent terrified workers scurrying for safety and left others huddled in their offices awaiting rescue."
by The Wall Street Journal | Sat, 04/20/2019 - 3:38pm | 0 comments
"Suspected militants attacks a government building, triggering a gunbattle with authorities and killing seven ."