2018-02-15 By Robbin Laird Helsinki, Finland During my current visit to Helsinki, I had a chance to meet and to discuss the way ahead for Finnish defense with Janne Kuusela, Director General, Defense Policy Department of the Finnish Ministry of Defence. According to the Finnish Ministry of Defence website: The…
2018-02-14 By Robbin Laird Helsinki, Finland During my visit to Helsinki during the week of February 11, 2018, I had the chance to sit down with Matti Pesu, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. https://www.fiia.fi/en/expert/matti-pesu In a paper published late last year entitled “What non-alignment? Finland’s…
2018-02-11 By Stephen Blank Although the U.S. announced late in 2017 that it would transfer Javelin anti-tank missiles to Ukraine; nobody should think that this transaction suffices or will terminate USA defense ties to Ukraine. Quite the opposite, in fact, is true. This relationship is only beginning and in the…
2018-02-08 By Paul Bracken The 2018 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a thoughtful, deliberative report that captures the big strategic issues facing the United States in the area of nuclear force structure.[1] This is surprising and welcome in my view. The previous two NPRs, in 2002 and 2010 respectively, were ideological tracts with…
2018-01-25 By Danny Lam Militarily defeating a nuclear armed North Korea with minimal risks, low allied and DPRK casualties is possible. But that leads to the question of what sort of a post war Korea would emerge and how the peace can be won. Winning the peace is a distinctly…
2018-01-21 The new President of France visited the UK on January 18, 2018 to discuss a range of issues with the Prime Minister of Britain. One of these issues was defense cooperation. According to an article published on the UK Ministry of Defence website, the two leaders agreed to a range…
2018-01-19 By Robbin Laird When have you read a positive review of our combat experience in Afghanistan from the Pentagon’s Inspector General? Not a common experience for sure, but very recently, the IG underscored a significant advance in how the battle in Afghanistan is going forward. “Less than two years…
2018-01-19 The Trump Administration released today the new national defense strategy and as our colleague Colin Clark, Editor of Breaking Defense, noted, it is a significant change from that of the Obama Administration. “The Trump Administration’s first National Defense Strategy is a vigorously and well written document that marks a major…
