2014-06-22 by Robbin Laird The crisis in Iraq is the latest chapter in the post-Arab spring narrative. But Iraq is not an-itself crisis but part of a wider context starting with Benghazi, to Egypt, to Syria, to Iran and back again. Actions across any one part of the region reverberate…
2014-06-20 By Stephen Blank It appears that we are reaching an inflection, if not a decisive, point in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Even as Presidents Putin and Poroshenko are directly communicating with each other about Poroshenko’s proposed peace plan, the level and intensity of fighting has escalated. On June 18-19…
2014-06-16 By Stephen Blank Bismarck famously observed that Europe as such represented merely a geographical notion, certainly not a unified political entity. The Western reaction to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea has again validated this acerbic insight. And amid the absence of any Western or European…
2014-06-16 by Robbin Laird Inside the Beltway is a tough place to get real changes done. And innovation within the confines of the Pentagon is notably challenging. This decade will see significant innovation generated by the strategic and combat challenges facing American and allied forces and the introduction of several new…
2014-06-16 We just released our latest Special Report. European Defense, the Arctic and the Future: Highlighting Danish Perspectives In this Special Report, Second Line of Defense looks at the evolving defense and security situation in the Baltics and in the Arctic. Russian actions in Crimea have returned direct defense to…
2014-06-09 by Richard Weitz For the third year in a row, Russia and China conducted a major bilateral naval exercise last month, following the previous joint drills off the coast of Russia’s Far East in July 2013 and those in China’s Yellow Sea in April 2012. The Russians called the…
2014-06-14 by Ed Timperlake On the eve of the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of World War I, there is a word describing German Army doctrine employed in their advance into neutral Belgium that resonates to this day: “Schrecklichkeit”. The word means “terror” or “frightfulness” a doctrine employed by the…
2014-06-13 by Robbin Laird As the Middle East moves further from an Arab Spring congenial to Western interests, the tinderbox returns. In the tinder box, one rarely gets to choose the folks one likes; one has to work with whomever one can to achieve one’s strategic interests. It is not…
