The U.S. needs a revised approach to security in western Africa, as militant groups make inroads and Russian-backed mercenaries proliferate, U.S. Africa Command’s Gen. Stephen Townsend said Tuesday. Townsend, who has commanded military efforts in Africa from his Stuttgart headquarters for the past three years, said the tumult stretches from …
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Navy sets long-term priorities to counter Chinese and Russian aggression in new force-design plan
Navy leaders are strengthening their commitment to developing more advanced weapons and other capabilities over some traditional ships to challenge the increasing aggression from China and Russia around the globe, according to the service’s 2022 Navigation Plan released Tuesday. “Retiring legacy platforms that cannot stay relevant in contested seas — …
Read More »Biden’s Trip: A Total Disappointment to Allies
The Islamic Republic of Iran did not murder just one American journalist… in 1983, Iran murdered 241 American servicemen in the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut. To top it off, then in 2018, Iran was ordered by a US federal court to pay billions of dollars in compensation to …
Read More »Five Takeaways from Biden’s Visit to the Middle East
Russian, Iranian presidents aim to prevent Turkey from a new offensive in northern Syria. The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran are gathering in Tehran, with Ankara’s threat of a new incursion into northern Syria likely to top the agenda. While Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has both domestic and …
Read More »Five Takeaways from Biden’s Visit to the Middle East
Forget retrenchment: Strategic competition and boosting security cooperation, particularly to counter Iran, will keep Washington focused on the region. President Biden made his first trip to the Middle East last week, visiting Israel and Saudi Arabia. While the trip yielded little in the way of flashy announcements — like new …
Read More »China’s Search for a Permanent Military Presence in the Pacific Islands
After the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with Beijing in April, Kiribati may be considering a similar deal. In April, China signed an unprecedented security pact with the Solomon Islands, sparking regional concerns of a future Chinese military presence there. China’s pursuit of greater military reach in the Pacific …
Read More »Russia’s Ukraine War Has Narrowed — But Not its Goals
Putin remains fixed on erasing Ukraine. Ideas for peace talks can’t ignore that. Russia’s Ukraine war, launched in February along the 350 miles from Belarus to the Black Sea, has largely narrowed these weeks to a 45-mile-wide assault on cities in the Donbas region. This and other signals may suggest …
Read More »How Putin’s Flawed Assumptions Doomed Russian Victory in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine seems to be entering a transitional phase. Early on, Russia failed in its effort to take Kyiv—so Russian President Vladimir Putin scaled back his ambitions and shifted his military’s efforts to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. As both sides battle it out there, exhaustion and …
Read More »UK spy chief says he doesn’t think Iran supreme leader wants to reach nuclear deal
‘The deal is absolutely on the table but I don’t think the Iranians want it,’ MI6 director tells security forum; CIA chief says Tehran’s advance toward atomic bomb is ‘troubling’ Britain’s spy chief voiced doubt Thursday on reviving a landmark 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali …
Read More »Iran says it seeks nuclear deal guarantees so as ‘not to be stung twice’
‘The Americans must accept some commitments. We do not want an agreement at any price,’ Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Iran is seeking economic guarantees from the US to revive a long-stalled 2015 nuclear deal so as “not to be stung twice” the same way, its foreign minister said. The agreement, formally …
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