Blog Posts

"Iranian leaders, under pressure from domestic protesters, Israeli intelligence operatives, and the Trump administration, which is reimposing economic sanctions lifted under President Barack Obama, are making contingency plans to strike at the country’s adversaries in the event of open conflict, according to American, European, Middle Eastern and Israeli officials and analysts who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence."

"Seeking to inject new energy into the long-stalled Afghan peace process, the top American diplomat charged with helping find a way to end the war has met with Taliban representatives in Doha, Qatar, officials and a Taliban source said on Saturday."

"The Marine Corps is going to double the size of a Virginia-based schoolhouse where leathernecks learn the cultural and language skills needed to train and advise foreign militaries."

Continue on for abstracts and links to all of this month's articles.

"Russia has been cultivating ties with the Taliban to increase its influence in Afghanistan three decades after Moscow’s humiliating defeat there helped hasten the Soviet Union’s collapse."

“Egypt is waging a hidden war in the Sinai Peninsula, uprooting thousands of people as the Arab World’s largest land army attempts to strike a decisive blow against Islamic State’s deadly local affiliate. Government troops have destroyed thousands of homes, burned farmland and cut off hundreds of thousands of residents with a seven-month blockade.”

"The United Nations on Thursday said NATO-trained, local security forces are creating conditions for most eligible Afghans to vote, as Afghanistan braces for a spike in violence ahead of parliamentary elections next week."

The founder of the U.S.-based Blackwater security firm has been meeting with powerbrokers in Afghanistan to rally support for his plan to privatize the Afghan war. Erik Prince heads the private military company known as Academi, renamed in 2011.

“While the Marines and the U.S. military are amid an overhaul to prep the force for a fight with near-peer adversaries, the Corps hasn’t lost focus on its counterinsurgency mission. And on Wednesday, the top Marine told reporters at a media roundtable event that the Corps plans to double its foreign military training adviser group that aids in stability operations and helps train future Marine foreign advisers.”

"Although the Islamic State has lost nearly 98 percent of the territory it once controlled, the group is ripe for a comeback in Sunni-majority areas of Iraq and Syria. The main reason is its existing war chest, coupled with its skill at developing new streams of revenue."

"Mukalla, former Al Qaeda bastion of about 500,000 people, is one of the safest cities in a nation torn apart by a brutal civil war that has claimed at least 10,000 lives, displaced 2 million and forced the internationally recognized government into exile. It may be the only place in Yemen that doesn’t allow civilians to carry firearms in public, a common sight elsewhere."

“The Russians are really good at this, better than us,” said the UK’s Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney, who just wrapped up a year as deputy commander of Operation Inherent Resolve. “We saw a very clever, assiduous information campaign aimed at discrediting the campaign of the coalition. And I would argue in many of our nation’s capitals, we didn’t realize we were being played.”

"Syrian rebel fighters have pulled the last of their heavy weapons from front-line positions in Idlib Province, meeting the deadline for a truce negotiated by Russia and Turkey - and possibly sparing the civilian population from a bloody government offensive."

"U.S. lawmakers from both parties are challenging the Trump administration’s support for Gulf allies battling Iran-aligned fighters in Yemen, putting new pressure on the U.S. president to scale back ties with Saudi Arabia during an especially sensitive time."

"The ongoing conflict in Yemen cannot be resolved militarily, rather efforts should be made by all parties to the conflict to find a political solution, the U.S. ambassador to Yemen told U.S.-funded Alhurra TV last week."

“Two days after Operation Enduring Freedom’s anniversary, Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley brought attention to the ongoing conflict in a speech Tuesday at the AUSA annual meeting in Washington, D.C. ‘Amid all the headline news, it seems like we hardly notice we are still a nation at war in some places, and in others we are preventing war,’ Milley said.”

“With the rise of social media over the last decade, the Internet has changed to allow all of us to become individual collectors and sharers of information. As a result, it has also become something else: a battlefield where information itself is weaponized. The online world is now just as indispensable to governments, militaries, activists, and spies as it is to advertisers and shoppers. And whether the goal is to win an election or a battle, or just to sell an album, everyone uses the same tactics.”

"Many U.S. weapons have 'mission-critical cyber vulnerabilities,' including some currently under development and some whose flaws were first identified years ago, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office, or GAO."

“There’s a lot of talk in military circles about future threats, operating environments and shifting the focus to a more complex fight. But military and civilian leaders, fresh from Operation Inherent Resolve, have brought back a message from the battlefield – the future is now.”

The negative effects of Chinese cyber theft are well known. The need for action is now. By raising the punishment for those caught in cyber theft, President Trump can reaffirm the US commitment to pursue action against these criminal acts. By halting these thefts, Trump can show his true commitment to putting American interests first.

"Libyan forces captured a former Egyptian army commander wanted for a series of deadly attacks in Egypt, a boost for Cairo as it struggles to put down an Islamist insurgency."

"Jihadist terrorism until recently had Europe on the defensive. Now the continent is getting tough and fighting the threat with measures that would have been unthinkable six or seven years ago."

"Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict between Maoist guerrillas and the Indian state. Alpa Shah lived among the tribal villagers in their guerrilla strongholds for a year and a half to understand why they shunned democracy to take up arms."

"The United Nations on Sunday called on militants in Afghanistan to stop using improvised explosive devices in civilian areas, after it documented a sharp rise in civilian casualties caused by the explosives this year."

The public identification this week of more than 300 suspected agents of Russia’s military intelligence service, the GRU, is being dubbed by security analysts the largest intelligence blunder in Russian post-Cold War history.