Presidential Visit to Australia: A Strategic Opportunity for Darwin and Australia?

12/02/2011
11/16/2011 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake President Obama is focusing on the Pacific this week and he will go to Australia.  The President is scheduled to visit with the Australian Prime Minister, and Darwin, a port city, in the Northern Territories.  Darwin is the home of many things; among…

LM Global Vision Center: A SLD Site Visit

12/02/2011
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 12/02/2011 - Second Line of Defense was recently invited to participate in an open house for Lockheed Martin’s Affordable Innovation Technology Demonstration at the LM Global Vision Center in Arlington, Virginia. The demonstrations from the Lockheed Martin Global Training and…

US Joins Russia in Suspending Adherence to Conventional Weapons Treaty

12/02/2011
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 12/02/2011 - The United States announced recently that it would stop sharing data with Russia under the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. In announcing the decision, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland noted that Russia had suspended its participation in…

Afghan-Pakistan Border Incidents: The Underlying Problem

11/29/2011
11/27/2011 By Richard Weitz Pakistan and the United States have experienced their most serious incident along the Afghan-Pak border. According to Pakistani sources, confirmed by NATO, U.S. helicopters acting as part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan attacked a military checkpoint in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing…

Putin Seeks Arctic Riches

11/27/2011
By Dr. Richard Weitz 11/27/2011 - Given the importance that Putin assigns to maintaining control of Russia’s energy resources, it is unsurprising that he has already outlined have ambitious goals to develop Arctic hydrocarbon resources in coming years. Geological experts believe that the Arctic holds more than 22% of the…

The USAF Takes a Decision (2)

11/24/2011
by Ed Timperlake How many bad press releases can one firm issue? https://www.sldinfo.com/the-usaf-makes-a-decision/ Hawker Beech just issued another one: Following the notification last week that Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) was excluded from the Light Air Support (LAS) bidding process, the company has requested that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) review the…

MemoGate Affair Highlights Need to Reform Pakistan’s Security Sector

11/24/2011
12/24/2011 by Richard Weitz The resignation of Husain Haqqani as Pakistani Ambassador to the United States over the so-called “memogate” scandal highlights the need for further reform of Pakistan’s security sector. Its main elements--the Pakistani armed forces, intelligence agencies, and police force—are responsible for ensuring Pakistan’s external and internal security…