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The Australian Elections and Australian Defence

05/20/2019
The defeat of Labor was not widely expected in Australia. Scott Morrison led the Liberals to a largely unanticipated electoral victory. This will mean that as PM in which he clearly led the coalition to victory he will have more authority initially than might be normal in the Aussie context.…

2nd Marine Logistics Group in Trident Juncture 2018

05/20/2019
2nd Marine Logistics Group is participating in Trident Juncture 18 in Norway, supporting II MEF with the six functions of tactical Logistics.  Trident Juncture 18 enhances the U.S. and NATO Allies’ and partners’ abilities to work together collectively to conduct military operations under challenging conditions. 10.17.2018 Video by Lance Cpl. Scarlet…

A Look Back at the Remarkable US-Brazilian Military Relationship

05/19/2019
By Kenneth Maxell Frank D. McCann, professor of history emeritus at the University of New Hampshire, has long been an observer of US-Brazilian military relationships. He knows both sides very intimately. He taught at West Point in the 1960s during the Vietnam War. He met privately with the Vice-President of…

Indo-Pacific Endeavour, 2019

05/18/2019
A Joint Task Force consisting of up to four ships, maritime patrol aircraft and more than 1,200 personnel from the Australian Defence Force are deployed on Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019, a series of key engagement activities with Australia’s regional neighbours.  Running from March to May, Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019 is geared towards…

Moscow Conference on International Security, 2019

05/16/2019
By Richard Weitz Last month, Second Line of Defense attended the eighht annual Moscow Conference on International Security (MCIS-2019), which met from April 24-26. The Russian capital was surprisingly warm, with the temperature higher than in Washington, but the frigidity of the Russian-U.S. relationship was pervasive at the conference. The…

The Decade Ahead for Europe: An EU Perspective

05/15/2019
By Robbin Laird Clearly, Europe is in crisis. In my own view, it faces a double constitutional crisis. Brexit is an internal constitutional crisis in the "United" Kingdom and poses a constitutional crisis within the European "Union" which is itself undergoing significant regional devolution. The continental European economies are facing…

VMFA-232 Maintainers at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska

05/15/2019
U. S. Marines with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron (VMFA) 232, Marine Aircraft Group (MAG) 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, perform maintenance checks on an F/A-18C Hornet during Red Flag-Alaska (RF-A) 19-1 at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, Oct. 5.  RF-A 19-1 is a series of U.S. Pacific Air Force commander-directed…