Pakistan and the Afghan End Game

01/04/2011
[caption id="attachment_12920" align="alignleft" width="150" caption=" "][/caption] By Dr. Richard Weitz 12/22/2011 - Following the November 26 incident, the Pakistani government convened an emergency session of the Defence Committee of the Cabinet (DCC), Pakistan’s highest forum for defense policy consultation and coordination. The DCC decided to retaliate for the attack by…

Crafting Energy Security in the 21st Century: A German View of the Challenge

01/03/2011
By Caroline Mükusch 01/02/2011 - Securing the availability of energy resources – namely oil and gas – in accordance with environmental sustainability is a key challenge of the 21st century. (See treatment of the issue by the German Minister of Foreign Affairs) Also, history shows that conflicts over resources are…

The Longer Term Effects of the Ian King Letter

01/03/2011
No-One Likes A Harsh Awakening Defence Analysis Vol 13 No 12 (December 2010) 01/02/2011 - The Chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee expressed outrage at having “a gun held to the head” by BAES over the naval shipbuilding/support Terms of Business Agreement (ToBA) which includes the contract…

The Afghan Drug Challenge

12/19/2010
A Russian Perspective By Dr. Richard Weitz and Dmitri Titoff, October 21, 2010 12/21/2010 - Translation provided by Dr. Richard Weitz Q: What accounts for the fact that, since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the flow of narcotics from that country has increased significantly? Victor P. Ivanov:…

The Arctic Sea Competition (Part IV)

12/17/2010
Lessons from Canada and The Way Ahead By Caroline Mükusch German Correspondent, Second Line of Defense 12/21/2010 - In order to meet the Arctic challenges and opportunities of the 21st century Canada formulated a comprehensive Northern Strategy in 2009. Underpinned by science and technology progress the Canadian Northern Strategy pursues…

The Mukawama Effect

12/09/2010
Israel: « No Second Chance » An Interview With Amos Harel   Amos Herel (Credit: www.haaretz.com)    12/09/2010 - During the Second Line of Defense Visit to Israel in November 2010, an article was published by Amos Harel of Haaretz, which caught our eye [1]. The article began with a…

The Arctic Sea Competition (Part Three)

12/09/2010
Europe’s Key Challenges By Caroline Mükusch German Correspondent, Second Line of Defense [email protected] ESA’s CryoSat-2 is designed to collect new insights into the role of ice in the Earth system. The April 20th mission plan was to underfly the satellite over the Arctic Sea Ice. Credit photo: http://earthsky.org 2010-12-09 -…

Putting Afghanistan in the Rear View Mirror

12/06/2010
Rethinking “Contingency” Operations By Heather Penney 12/6/2010 - With the deluge of media and congressional attention on the budget, deficit, and national debt, it is surprising that the connection between our current/future economic predicament and OEF/OIF has been conspicuously absent from the debate. According to the CRS, costs for OEF/OIF/GWOT…