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

Needed in Asia: Security and Energy Cooperation

SummaryMany commentators have discussed the possibility of the Six-Party Talks on North Korea - which consist of China, Japan, US, Russia and the two Koreas - as the future basis for a security forum for Northeast Asia. East Asia is an important and dynamic region with growing economies and equally ...

Iran and the Bomb: What’s the Cost of In/Action?

Down at the Winds of Change.net, the Armed Liberal and Trent Telenko have been discussing what to do with the Iranian situation. I have made my own comments at WoC, but I am repeating them here because I think laying out the choices in this manner really helps in providing ...

Jyllands-Posten Cartoons: Feeding the Clash of Civilizations

Commentary Jyllands-Posten Cartoons: Sparking a Clash of Civilizations The Jyllands-Posten cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad have sparked a global culture clash being seen around the world. Brussels Journal has done an exemplery job covering this event as it unfolds and their article, “The War is On“, is among others a must read. The ...

Quick Post: Europe’s Demographic and Cold Spell Challenges

Note: Posting has been and will be very light for a 1-2 weeks with work projects due and a vacation trip to Tahoe coming this weekend. As mentioned earlier, article contributions are welcomed. ——————- Introduction While oil, the Middle East and terrorism steal the headlines, we must not forget the need to seriously ...

Quick Post: Nukes, New-Core, and New Realities

Introduction Tom Friedman’s recent NYT column, “Axis of Order?”, is a very interesting article not because of its main topic, dealing with Iran, but its recognition that we need to adjust to new realities of the new-core states. In essence, the need for bringing in the new-core states like China, Russia ...

Market-States, Challenge of Changing Demographics, and The Netherlands

Summary Declining birthrates in places like Europe, Japan and Russia and increasing immigration in once homogenous states (like France) is becoming an issue of mainstream discussion. Just last week (January 04 & 05), the WSJ and the Economist both ran articles on the issue of demographics, commenting on the opposite ends ...

Global Swarm: Explaining GWOT through Thomas Barnett, Huntington, Global Guerillas

Introduction I wrote a paper some years ago that I’d like to bring out to StrategyUnit, since I feel there is still a lot of room to discuss the (mislabeled) Global War on Terror (GWOT). Indeed, I believe that there is a supreme lacking in the mature development of a conceptual ...

East Asia Summit: A Future Without America

This week begins the first East Asia Summit (EAS) with over 16 countries invited, representing “3 billion people and one-fifth of global trade“. As the Washington Post writes: As proposed by Malaysia and championed by China, the summit was conceived as a way for the 10 countries of the Association ...

US and the New Allies?

As in update to my previous posting “Barnett’s Path to a U.S. Grand Strategy in Three Paragraphs“, Curzon at “Coming Anarchy” has an excellent post (”The New Allies”): The United Kingdom is our main ally inside the EU. Althouh a part of the union, Britain does not use the Euro ...

Barnett’s Path to a U.S. Grand Strategy in Three Paragraphs

Too many people are stuck in the old ways of thinking, be it ideaologues like neoconservatives to International ANSWER or jingoism of the Anti-China folks. Thomas Barnett is not one of them. In his blog posting today, Thomas Barnett succinctly offers a very different perspective and game plan on what 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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