Russia: The Non-Reluctant Arctic Power

02/12/2011
Russia's Recent Arctic Moves By Dr. Richard Weitz Credit: www.wired.com   02/12/2011 - On January 14, the Russian newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta published an interview with Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council, on what he called an issue of “an enormous strategic and economic significance.” Patrushev stated that…

Global Impact Of Evolving PRC Military Capabilities

02/12/2011
Verbal Statement of Lt General David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret) U.S.-China Economic & Security Review Commission, January 27th, 2011 *** For General Deptula’s response to the written questions see the PDF file of the hearing. 02/12/2011 - Thank you very much for the opportunity to testify today on China’s active…

The JTRS Collaborative Enterprise

02/12/2011
Laying the Foundation for the Future Through Current Investments 02/12/2011 - In December, Second Line of Defense sat down with Marty Jenkins of Lockheed Martin to discuss the Airborne and Maritime/Fixed Station Joint Tactical Radio System or AMF JTRS.  This is a significant program which can help re-shape interactive connectivity.…

Lasers: The Last Line of Defense

02/11/2011
By Ambassador (ret) Jon Glassman (Director for Government Policy, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems) and Dr. Josef Shwartz (Technical Consultant, Marina del Rey, California) *** The views expressed in this article reflect only the personal views of the authors, neither those of Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems nor the US Government. 02/11…

Egypt-US Security Ties Provide Possible Anchor for Stability

02/07/2011
By Richard Weitz Further contacts between the U.S. and Egyptian armed forces arise from their joint participation in combined military exercises. The best known of these, the Egyptian-hosted Operation Bright Star exercise, is the largest multilateral military exercise in the Middle East and occurs every other year. Photo Credit :…

Iraq: The Missing Piece in the “Arab Awakening”

02/06/2011
By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake The Blindside of U.S. Strategy in the Middle-East Photo Credit: Damir Sagolj, Iraq, Reuters, as posted in www.abc.net.au, December 2007 02/06/2011 - Notably absent from any Western commentary about the Tunisian and Egyptian “awakenings” is Iraq.  Yet Baghdad is only 806 miles or 1297…

Systems Of Systems: Managing Complexity

01/28/2011
A French Take By General Gaviard «The rational optimization of systems of systems (...) will profoundly change our operational concepts, but their justification, ultimately, will always depend on their ability to still serve the soldiers who implement them.» Photo credit:  http://defensetech.org, 2006   01/28/2011 - The term “systems of systems” first…

China Gaining Control of Global Telecom Industry

01/27/2011
By Richard McCormack 01/28/2011 - This article was originally Published in Manufacturing and Technology News, January 19th, 2011 [caption id="attachment_14983" align="alignleft" width="280" caption="http://www.uscc.gov/index.php"][/caption] China’s steady rise as a telecommunications manufacturing and research powerhouse has “profound” national security and economic ramifications for the United States, according to the United States-China Economic…