7/1/12: by Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake In a recent report by The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, the evolving threat to U.S. space capabilities was highlighted. “China is pressing forward with an ambitious counterspace program, including a ground- and space-based space surveillance systems, electronic warfare capabilities, and kinetic kill…
6/29/12: In mid- June 2012, Second Line of Defense talked with Victor Gervais, a young French researcher who recently published his dissertation on the UAE military. Gervais had just returned from a two-week visit to the UAE when we discussed with him his perspectives on how the UAE leadership was…
6/29/12: By Robbin Laird By building on the F-35 and leveraging its capabilities, the U.S. and its allies can build the next phase of power projection within affordable limits. U.S. forces need to become more agile, flexible, and global in order to work with allies and partners to deal with…
06/28/12: Has the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code) prevented the expansion of organized crime, and reduced the threat to maritime shipping and to society by extension? Activity in US ports and major regional ports such as Australia and Canada suggest a mixed picture. In some ways,…
6/27/12: By Dr. Stephen Blank Evidently the Administration thinks it can persuade Russia to resolve Syria’s civil war by simply abandoning its ally, Bashear Assad, and thereby facilitate a Yemeni type solution there where Assad simply leaves Syria.[i] Moscow too has sent envoys around the world telling everyone that it…
A key impact of the F-35 as a fleet will be to enable deployed air power to work simultaneously as a strike and defense force. The F-35 fleet will take multi-mission to a new level. A core enabler for such a role will be the combat system capabilities of the…
06/26/12: Second Line of Defense’s Murielle Delaporte recently spent ten days with the French forces in Afghanistan on the ground. We interviewed her today by phone, just after her return to Paris. She returned on the same plane with the dead and wounded from the Taliban terrorist attack in Kapisa.…
6/25/12: By Richard Weitz Sino-Iraq relations will likely continue to strengthen in the near future. China, which imports more than half its oil, needs Iraqi energy, while Iraq, which continues to suffer from sectarian violence and an unstable political environment, depends heavily on China’s willingness to invest in the country…
