Latest Articles about Military/Security
Unrest in Northern Afghanistan Heralds Regional Threats
By carrying out the biggest offensive in 14 years in previously peaceful northern Afghanistan, the Taliban is once again threatening Afghan stability and the survival of the country’s current political system. This offensive heralds the return of fugitive Central Asian and Russian jihadists to their... MORE
Russia’s 2015 National Security Strategy Cements Strained Ties With US
On December 31, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin signed into law the new National Security Strategy, which replaces its 2009 version. The 2015 Strategy soon prompted a cacophony of critical opinions from commentators who have highlighted the extent to which it designates the United States and... MORE
Attack in Dagestan Undermines Claims That Republic Is Stable
On December 29, unidentified individuals carried out an attack at the Naryn-Kala fortress, a well-known tourist site in Derbent, Dagestan, killing a Russian border guard officer and injuring 11 other people (Lifenews.ru, December 30, 2015). The slain border guard officer was identified as Semyon Sporyshev.... MORE
Russian Strategy Seeks to Defy Economic Decline With Military Bravado
President Vladimir Putin concluded 2015 with the approval of a revised National Security Strategy, which defines the strengthening of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a threat and commits to countering it by securing the unity of Russian society and by building up the... MORE
Italy’s Lady Jihad: Maria Gulia Sergio of the Islamic State
The Islamic State has drawn an overwhelming number of female followers, who play a key role in recruiting other female volunteers, promoting the organization’s propaganda online and even engaging in combat operations. This contradicts perceptions that women are less prone to partake in violent Islamist... MORE
Aman Abdurrahman: Indonesia’s Most Influential Extremist
Aman Abdurrahman has become arguably the most influential extremist ideologue in Indonesia today. A former Salafist preacher, Abdurrahman has become the foremost promoter of the Islamic State in Indonesia from his cell in the country’s so-called “super-maximum security” prison. His reputation among local Islamic State... MORE
Burhan Muzafar Wani: The Viral Poster Boy of Kashmir Jihad
Hizbul Mujahideen’s (HM) newly recruited commander, Burhan-ud-Din Muzaffar Wani, has taken Kashmir’s militant landscape by storm by using his social media skills and guns. One of his recent photographs featured the 21-year-old commander surrounded by at least ten other militants of roughly the same age... MORE
A Post-Mortem Analysis of Wisam al-Zubaidi: The Leader of the Islamic State in Libya
In November 2015, sources in the Pentagon suggested that the United States killed the leader of the Islamic State in Libya, Wisam al-Zubaidi (a.k.a. Abu Nabil al-Anbari). According to American sources cited by Jeune Afrique, al-Anbari was killed in an airstrike carried out by F-15... MORE
New Tensions, Old Problems on the Sino-Indian Border
As China deepens its economic and strategic relations with Pakistan, and makes diplomatic in-roads with Nepal and Myanmar, it is worth examining an issue that continues to mar Sino-Indian relations. The China-India border dispute has long stirred tensions between Beijing and New Delhi, in spite... MORE
The Latest Indication of the PLA’s Network Warfare Strategy
Comparing the Strategic Guidance for Military Struggle in Cyberspace from the 2013 and 2015 editions of The Science of Military Strategy The 2015 text of The Science of Military Strategy (战略学), published by the PLA’s National Defense University (NDU) in April, offers an interesting contrast... MORE