2013-11-10 by Robbin Laird We have focused frequently on what Paul Bracken has called the Second Nuclear Age. Put succinctly, the rules are being made with every crisis involving the smaller nuclear powers or aspirational nuclear powers. These powers are not deterred by the old rules of the Cold War…
2013-11-09 By Baris Kirdemir Recently, Turkish authorities decided to start talks with China Precision Machinery Export Import Corporation (CPMIEC) to procure FD-2000 air defense missile systems. On September 26, Turkey’s Undersecretariat for Defence Industries (SSM) announced that the “Defense Industry Executive Committee” decided to start negotiations with CPMIEC to sign a…
2013-11-08 by Brittney Warrick According to documents leaked by now former American defense contractor Edward Snowden, the United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) has for some time, engaged in large-scale efforts to target the communications of countries, embassies, political leaders, and diplomats worldwide. Over the course of a few months,…
2013-11-07 By Robbin Laird Having visited the Italian Air Ministry building and after this summer working through the history of military aviation in the 1930s, it was natural for me to explore the history of this striking building. The modernist building was constructed in the early 1930s and was used by…
2013-11-05 by Kenneth Maxwell On Monday, November 4th, the fallout of the Spying scandal continued in Brazil. The "Folha de Sao Paulo," Brazil's principal daily newspaper, reported that the Brazilian government, during the first two years of the Lula administration in 2003 and 2004, had spied on foreign diplomats in Brasilia, Brazil's capital, including Russia…
2013-11-05 by Thomas Enders, the CEO of EADS German outrage over high-level mobile phone surveillance continues unabated, sweeping the nation in repeated waves. Well-known anti-American agitators like Hans-Christian Ströbele have even journeyed to Moscow in order to castigate the US together with whistleblower Edward Snowden. The debate is starting to…
2013-11-03 Ed Timperlake, the editor of the Second Line of Defense Forum, visited this weekend with a father of a friend who had the distinction of flying no less than 37 B-17 combat missions over Europe. Ed reports that when he discussed his experience visiting with World War II veteran,…
2013-11-02 As we have written elsewhere, the Russians are recovering their place in global affairs. Clearly, when one looks back on 2008, the actions against Georgia were the beginning of a more assertive Russian policy. A line in the sand was placed on NATO expansion, and neither the United States…
