Latest Articles about Military/Security
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Ryukyu Chain in China’s Island Strategy
In late August the Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun reported that the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) intend to stage their first-ever island defense exercises in December. The maneuvers will be held in concert with U.S. Navy forces to refine plans for recapturing the lightly protected Ryukyu... MORE
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China’s Emerging Debate on Military Transparency
A reconsideration of traditionally skeptical attitudes about military transparency appears to be underway in China. Whereas Beijing formerly rejected Western calls for greater military transparency—arguing that transparency benefits the strong at the expense of the weak—a new calculus seems to be emerging that reflects China’s... MORE
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China’s Evolving Anti-Access Approach: “Where’s the Nearest (U.S.) Carrier?”
China’s military planners covet the ability to prevent U.S. and allied forces from intervening effectively in the event of a future Taiwan Strait crisis and to constrain the latter’s influence on China’s maritime periphery, which contains several disputed zones of core strategic importance to Beijing.... MORE
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Taiwan’s Military Shores Up Indigenous Defense Capabilities
While Taiwan is stepping up calls for the United States to sell the island new F-16 jets and diesel submarines, there are signs that the Taiwanese military has been shoring up the island’s indigenously developed military capabilities. Recent pronouncements by a prominent Taiwanese legislator from... MORE
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Suicide Bombers Further Destabilize Dagestan
August 2010 saw violent incidents all across Russia’s North Caucasus region, above all in Dagestan, where rebels and Russian police dealt heavy blows to each other. On August 21, forces from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and local police supported by army units conducted a... MORE
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Ingush Rebels Tied to Major Suicide Attack in Vladikavkaz
The death toll from the September 9 suicide bombing in Vladikavkaz, North Ossetia, rose today (September 10) to 18 (a toll that includes, according to some reports, one suicide bomber) with the number of wounded put at 158, more than 100 of whom remain hospitalized.... MORE
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Russia Using Bait-And-Switch Tactics in Mistral Negotiations With France
French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, received Russia’s defense and foreign affairs ministers, Anatoliy Serdyukov and Sergei Lavrov, at the Elysee Palace on September 7, capping a regular meeting of the Franco-Russian Council for Security Cooperation. This body brings together the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers... MORE
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Russia Launches International Tender for Warship Procurement
On September 7 in Paris, a regular session of the Franco-Russian Council for Security Cooperation turned into another French embarrassment over Russian procurement of Mistral-class warships. Russia is using bait-and-switch tactics. The defense and foreign affairs ministers, Anatoliy Serdyukov and Sergei Lavrov, officially informed their... MORE
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Floods Wash Out Counterterrorist Operations in North Waziristan
Recent political developments in Pakistan seem to have put a military operation in North Waziristan on the backburner once more. If current political trends continue, the much awaited military operation in the region may not start for a long time, if ever. The recent floods,... MORE
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The “Persian Alliance” and Geopolitical Reconfiguration in Central Asia
August 5 marked the fourth occasion in the last four years that the leaders of the Persian-speaking countries of Iran, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan convened, this time in Tehran, to chart the future of their trilateral cooperation. The meeting, dubbed the “Persian summit,” led to a... MORE