By Robbin Laird Recently, I had a chance to visit Portsmouth, UK and talk with senior Royal Navy officers about the coming of the carrier and did so after talking with the team of senior RAF and Royal Navy officers standing up F-35 at RAF Marham. Those interviews will be…
In a new report produced under the aegis of NORDEFCO, the Nordic cooperation effort is assessed and analyzed. The authors of the report, Tuomas Iso-Markku, Eeva Innola, and Teija Tiilikainen, focused on the history and the way ahead with regard to Nordic cooperation. https://www.fiia.fi/en/project/a-stronger-north-developing-nordic-cooperation-on-foreign-and-security-policy Eeva Innola is a research fellow…
By Robbin Laird As Norway looks to its defense transformation and working out ways to work more effectively with its allies in extended defense and deterrence, it faces change in Europe associated with significant dynamics of change in Europe from Brexit to Catalonia. At the same time, the US is…
This past March, the Dutch government released a new defence white paper. According to the MoD statement published on March 26, 2018: The Netherlands Ministry of Defence can once again have confidence in the future. After years of budget cuts, the Defence organisation is investing in its people, capabilities and…
By Robbin Laird During my visit to Norway in April 2018, I had a chance to meet with and discuss the Norwegian way ahead on airpower with Brigadier General Aage Longva, Vice Chief of the Norwegian Air Force. We met at his office at Rygge Air Station south of Oslo.…
By Robbin Laird The strategic shift is a crucial one for the liberal democracies. That strategic shift is from a primary focus on counter insurgency and stability operations to operating in a contested environment with high tempo and high intensity combat systems as a primary tool set. It is about…
With the dynamics of change underway in the Pacific, Japan has been changing its defense and security policies to provide for more focus and capability to deal with threats and challenges in the region. The latest element of the change is the new Japanese ocean policy. According to an article…
By Stephen Blank Recent Pentagon deployments display a growing realism about the Russian military threat. And the announced recreation of the II Fleet to be based at Norfolk to patrol the North Atlantic and counter the upsurge of Russian submarine and surface vessels probes there demonstrates this heightened awareness of…
