StrategyUnit:Foreign Policy & Security Issues Blog

“I must study politics and war that my sons many have liberty to study mathenatematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, navel architecture,navigation, commerce, and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.” - John Adams from Letter to Abigail Adams

Van Creveld on the Iraq War: The Other Side of Connectivity

Intoduction (Via John Robb) Martin Van Creveld, military strategist who foresaw the raise of non-western warfare (e.g. War on Terrorism) to the shrinking of the tradition role of states, has written in Forward Newspaper (Major Jewish-American publication) an gives his pessimistic analysis on the War on Iraq: [A] divided, chaotic, government-less Iraq ...

Netwar’s Border Nightmare: Mexican Narco State?

Introduction A week back, John Robb did a concise overview of Moises Naim’s Illict: “Moises copiously documents how globalization and rampant interconnectivity has led to the rise of vast global smuggling networks….He shows how these networks make money through an arbitrage of the differences between the legal systems (and a desire to ...

Turkey Weekend Reading: James Fellows’s Article, Kazakhstan v. Iran, China Military Bases

Howdy All Y’All…Happy Thanksgiving Day. Here’s quick Weekend Reading…just in case you need a break from all that turkey and gravy. By the way, I’ve been doing some light posting this past two weeks, but I’ll start going back to the normal beat of things soon. OxBlog on Jame’s Fellow’s “Why ...

Cossack’s Revival. Tool of the Imperial State and Ethnic Cleansing?

Weekend Reading on the Cossack Revival Since the fall fo the Soviet Union and more prominently under President Putin, there has been a great revival (See Radio Free Europe’s Piece) of the Cossack culture and increasing political clout including a movement to reassert their role as a security/military instrument of ...

Economic: Immigration, Jobs and Polish Plumbers

Polish Plumbers: Handsome and Good for the Economy? From the BBC: The “Polish Plumber” was the catch-phrase of the French “Non” referendum on the constitution, and later became a tongue-in-cheek slogan for the Polish tourist board. Out of all the arguments against immigration, economic fears - from “natives” losing their jobs ...

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, they play the Great Game too

Summary In November 10, General John Abizaid, Chief of U.S. Central Command visted Kazakhstan (America’s best friend) and stated that US presence in Central Asia is in no way part of “a repeat of great games of the 18th and 19th centuries”. Indeed, he is right, this is definately not Arthur Conolly’s ...

Quick Post: The Strategic Overview, Econbrowser on Oil Peak

Quick Posting The Strategic Overview: Tigerhawk’s Update Back in 2003, Den Beste of USS Clueless wrote the greatest touchstone piece on the *Islamofacist war, writting out in a relatively short 20 pages the strategic overview of the war. Today, Tigerhawk writes an excellent update to Den Beste’s essay. Its a must read ...

Events in Context: Paris Riots and SAFTA

While abating (only 400+ cars burning a night), the Paris Riots continue passing a two-week milestone. As I have mentioned, the rioters use of blogs and sms-texting for coordination and planning have been a demonstration of “netwar” on a small scale. Many have taken the next logical step and declare ...

Veterans Day, November 11 – Support the Troops!

It is on this day that the Great War (World War I) ended and so everyone thought all wars would come to an end. And, it is for this day we commemorate Veteran’s Day. But, unfortunately, wars are still being fought…and now we are fighting in the Global War on ...

Paris Riots – Quo Vadis France?

After 11 plus days, the French government sent in the Gendarmerie (Military Police) and enforced curfews…and thus, the riots appear to be abating. Sending in the military-police and curfew - as I mentioned at GlobalGuerillas - was something the French Government should have done during day 2 or 3. The ...

December 28th 2006
Tags: Commentary, Enviormental Security One Comment

Global Warming Preparedness and Security?

London Underwater, by the Telegraph 12/28/2006 Raising Water Levels on London and China's Drought/Grain Problem As we close 2006 and look to 2007, two global warming major reports - one from Finland and other from China - presents the increasingly dire environmental situation we are facing globally. And whether or not one ...
December 24th 2006
Tags: Commentary, Iran No Comments

The Strategy on Iran and The NY Times Retracted Op-Ed

Introduction: Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann's Retracted Op-Ed Many should know by the the issue involving White House censorship of the Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann's New York Times Op-Ed (see image on left). I have no issue regarding the prepublication review by the CIA's Publication Review Board to ensure to classified ...
November 28th 2006
Tags: Europe, Islamic Terrorism 3 Comments

751 No-Go-Zones in France: The Gap Societies

A "Zones Urbaines Sensibles" (No-Go-Zone) in Nice, France (PDF) . Via Thomas Barnett, Daniel Pipes discusses the 751 Zones Urbaines Sensibes (Sensitive Urban zones) demarcated by the French Government, which are "are conveniently listed on one long webpage, complete with street demarcations and map delineations." Daniel goes on to state: What are they? Those ...

The Mujahideen Network in Spain: Supporting Fighters in Iraq

Quick Post In Jamestown Foundation's Terrorism Focus (11/21/06), there are reports that "agents of the Spanish National Police in Madrid arrested four men because of their involvement in a document falsification ring that had, as its primary mission, the objective of providing documentation cover to "mujahideen" leaving Iraq and trying to ...
November 25th 2006
Tags: 4gw, Iraq and Afghanistan One Comment

Iraqi Global Guerrillas and the Sustainable Ecology

Iraqi Guerrillas are now Financially Self-Sufficient Only last week did John Robb at Global Guerrillas noted that: Iraq's non-state guerrillas aren't mere proxies of Iran. Instead, they are largely autonomous. First, these groups don't rely upon Iran for their operating income since they can manufacture income through participation in black globalization's multi-trillion dollar ...

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