France Responds: “We Are At War”

11/17/2015
2015-11-17  President Hollande has responded decisively against ISIS. "France is at war." “The acts committed Friday night in Paris at the Stade de France are acts of war. "We must respond with cold determination to the attack that our country was a target of." [caption id="attachment_82235" align="alignnone" width="300"] VERSAILLES, FRANCE…

Counterring Hybrid Threats

11/08/2015
2015-11-08 By Richard Weitz The United States and European allies and partners can respond more effectively against the kinds of hybrid threats we gave been discussing on Second Line of Defense. NATO can take actions, primarily in the military and intelligence fields, to deter and counter direct Russian threats against…

A Syrian No Fly Zone?

11/02/2015
2015-11-02 The Russian intervention in Syria represents strategic change for the region. Now Russia is backing the sovereign government of Syria, and any U.S. actions in the North of Syria would now come into conflict with both normal UN practice and possible Russian retaliation. In other words, the Russians are…

Royal Air Force Operations and Evolving Concepts of Operations: Shaping a Triple Transition

11/02/2015
2015-10-28 By Robbin Laird During my visit to Europe in October 2015, I had the chance to visit with senior RAF officers and to discuss RAF operations as well as the double transition with Typhoon modernization as well as the introduction of the F-35. For the RAF, it is really…

A Dominant 21st Century Fighting Force: The Role of the Large-Deck Carrier

11/02/2015
2015-11-02 By Ed Timperlake and Robbin Laird Fifty years ago, 1965, in Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy, Plebes (freshmen) were required when making a very loud announcement to a gathering of fellow Midshipman to began with the alert-“attention world, attention world.” It was a time when some…

A Look at NATO’s Trident Juncture 2015: Shaping Way Ahead for NATO’s Force Capabilities

10/28/2015
2015-10-20 by Murielle Delaporte As he embarked the Allied Command Transformation’s “fast train.” as he describes it, barely two weeks ago, General Denis Mercier just got back from attending his first North Alliance Council’s military committee (NAC) meeting as Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT). And he is getting ready for…