2014-10-10 By Amatzia Baram In October 2006 and more so since early 2007, more than three years into the insurgency in Iraq the US decided to approach the Sunni tribes in a systematic way for cooperation against al-Qa`ida. By late 2008 with the Surge and through cooperation with the Sunni…
2014-10-08 By Robbin Laird The USMC is the only tiltrotar-enabled assault force in the world. The USS America has been built to facilitate this capability and will be augmented as the F-35B is added to the Ospreys, and helicopters already operating from the ship and as unmanned vehicles become a…
2014-10-08 By Richard Weitz From August 24-29, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held “Peace Mission 2014” at China’s Zhurihe Training Base, in Inner Mongolia in North China. This is China’s base for engaging in large-scale exercises with foreign armies on its soil. Peace Mission 2014 was the largest military exercise…
2014-10-07 By Kenneth Maxwell The first round of the most tightly contested Brazilian Presidential election in recent memory, which took place on Sunday (5th October 2014), has continued to produce surprises. 143 million Brazilians voted. Since 1996 100% of the voting has been by direct recoding electoral voting machines. So the results…
2014-09-27 In a recent article in The National Interest, China analyst Gordon Chang focused on how tensions within the Chinese leadership undercut efforts to secure a new positive working relationship with the Indian government. Chinese leader Xi Jinping was humiliated during his just-completed meeting with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi,…
2014-09-27 By Ed Timperlake ISIS is a brutal force, which asserts that only they have the right to rule in the Middle East and beyond. We can call them extremist; but that is not enough. We need to engage in the battle of ideas as well for it is Western…
09/25/2014: In the first part of the video, the guided-missile destroyer USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) is seen launching Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles (TLAM) against ISIL targets. In the remaining part of the video, the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea (CG 58) launches Tomahawk Land-Attack Missiles (TLAM) against ISIL targets. Philippine…
09/24/2014: The fifth iteration of Valiant Shield came to a close Sept. 23 after nine days of joint air, land and sea interoperability training between the Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Army. “Overall, Valiant Shield 2014 was a very successful exercise,” said Rear Adm. Russell Allen, Valiant Shield exercise…