Blog Posts

"The Islamic State seeks to project an image of strength, and that image has attracted many followers. In the past few years, the above-ground caliphate has collapsed and infighting is growing, but the group still stresses its prowess and leadership in its propaganda."

"America's top brass can no longer operate under the assumption that every problem is the responsibility of the U.S. military."

"The collapse of Islamic State’s caliphate has delivered a crushing blow to the extremist group, but the conditions that nourished that insurgency and others in war-shattered Syria and Iraq remain perilously in place."

"Five years after the Islamic State group swept across Iraq, Baghdad is bidding to reclaim its role as a regional player while walking a tightrope between rival backers the US and Iran.'

"Four years after Saudi Arabia led a military intervention in Yemen to back the government against rebels, the only hope for peace in a country threatened by famine hangs on a fragile truce."

"Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and armed police are stationed in this lush region at the foot of the Himalayas. India and rival Pakistan have always disputed the area and in the past three decades, an uprising against New Delhi's rule has killed nearly 50,000 civilians, militants and soldiers, by official count."

"Gunmen killed at least 134 Fulani herders in central Mali on Saturday, a local mayor said, the deadliest such attack of recent times in a region reeling from worsening ethnic and jihadist violence."

"U.S.-backed forces declared the final defeat of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate Saturday, bringing to an end the brutal experiment in state building that had lured foot soldiers from around the world and inflicted unimaginable suffering on those caught up in the militants’ rampage through Iraq and Syria."

"For consecutive nights, bombs rained down on the last scraps of Islamic State-held territory, lighting up the night sky over the northeastern Syrian town of Baghuz. By Saturday morning, all that remained was a landscape littered with burned-out vehicles, abandoned campsites and other provisions the last of the terror group’s fighters and their families left behind."

"The Islamic State group has lost all the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria, but its shadowy leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” is still at large."

"A four-year military operation to flush the Islamic State from its territory in Iraq and Syria ended on Saturday, as the last village held by the terrorist group was retaken, erasing a militant theocracy that once spanned two countries."

"Insurgency remains a threat in the region and beyond; officials warn a U.S. pullout from Syria could let fighters regroup."

"A whopping 87 percent of information security specialists believe we're in the middle of a global cyber war. That comes from Venafi, a firm that provides technologies to large companies to protect their networks against cybercrime. Venafi got opinions expressing this sentiment from over 500 security professionals at the recent RSA conference in San Francisco."

"The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) says the Islamic State group's five-year "caliphate" is over after the militants were defeated in Syria."

"World leaders are criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement that the United States will recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights."

"President Trump on Friday again announced the Islamic State’s nearly five-year territorial grip in Syria had ended, even as Pentagon officials and U.S.-backed ground forces said they were still fighting."

The military has warned in a series of reports under past administrations that climate change is a security threat on many fronts. That includes "through direct impacts on U.S. military infrastructure and by affecting factors, including food and water availability, that can exacerbate conflict outside U.S. borders," the federal government's grim climate report said last year.

"After the 'money for nothing' years in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. is approaching post-conflict stabilization in a way that reduces the upfront cost to the taxpayer and provides an off-ramp if the stabilization effort is not bearing fruit within five years. This will give Congress the opportunity to demand proof that local political actors are making real progress before it appropriates funds for large-scale (and expensive) reconstruction"

Over at The American Conservative, Michael Horton highlights Somaliland as “a success story without billions and bombs.”

"In a campaign that spanned five years and two U.S. presidencies, unleashed more than 100,000 bombs and killed untold numbers of civilians, the U.S. military engineered the destruction of the Islamic State group’s self-proclaimed empire in Iraq and Syria. That’s a military success, but not necessarily one that will last. The Islamic State group is down, but it is not done."

Allegations by a human rights group that U.S. Africa Command is responsible for civilian casualties in Somalia are not correct, Defense Department officials said. Amnesty International released a report alleging that five Africom-directed airstrikes in 2017 and 2018 resulted in civilian casualties.

"The commandant of the Marines has warned the Pentagon that deployments to the southwest border and funding transfers under the president's emergency declaration, among other unexpected demands, have posed 'unacceptable risk to Marine Corps combat readiness and solvency.'"

"Today even the smallest countries can buy digital espionage services, enabling them to conduct sophisticated operations like electronic eavesdropping or influence campaigns that were once the preserve of major powers like the United States and Russia. Corporations that want to scrutinize competitors’ secrets, or a wealthy individual with a beef against a rival, can also command intelligence operations for a price, akin to purchasing off-the-shelf elements of the National Security Agency or the Mossad."

"The United States’ longest war may finally be coming to an end. But in practice, the peace negotiations are unlikely to achieve Washington’s main national security objective in Afghanistan—preventing the formation of a terrorist safe haven—if they do not include a plan to directly address the country’s opium problem."

"President Trump said on Thursday that the United States should recognize Israel’s authority over the Golan Heights, one of the world’s most disputed territories, in a significant shift of decades-long American policy."