After Afghanistan Withdrawal: A Return to ‘Warlordism?’

As the United States withdraws from Afghanistan, Washington is considering options to ensure its intelligence-gathering and counterterrorism capabilities are maintained. Recent reporting suggests that United States is looking to use bases in Pakistan and in the former Soviet Republics in Central Asia — although without success so far. Washington is …

Read More »

The Rumsfeld Rules

“A number of human beings have been liberated and they are out from under the heel of a vicious, brutal regime,” I rarely read the newspapers these days (what’s the point?) but that statement caught my eye during a quick glance last week. That was Donald ‘Defense’ Rumsfeld at a …

Read More »

IDF on alert in the South after latest round of Hamas clashes

MILITARY AFFAIRS: A month and a half after Guardian of the Walls, it’s back to ‘normal’ for the IDF on the Gaza border. A month and a half after Operation Guardian of the Walls, the border between Israel and Gaza is quiet but tense. The stores and roads are open …

Read More »

Israel needs to stop neglecting wartime media front – opinion

Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi’s recent decision to appoint two officers without media experience to key roles in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit is puzzling. Imagine for a moment that the IDF chief of staff decided to appoint an officer from the Spokesperson’s Unit to serve as the commander of …

Read More »

‘The Worst Seemed Very Far Away’: Andrew Exum on the Afghanistan War

Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his decision to fully withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan by Sept.11. After 20 years and two generations of American service members fighting there, America’s longest war will come to an end. What will the legacy of that war be for the U.S. military? …

Read More »

What the ‘Restrainers’ Get Wrong About U.S. Alliances

Proponents of a U.S. grand strategy of “restraint” are perhaps most well-known for advocating the end of America’s “forever wars” and reducing the country’s military footprint in the Middle East and Afghanistan. But the so-called restrainers have also questioned the rationale for maintaining the United States’ extensive networks of alliances …

Read More »

How the U.S. Should Respond to Russia’s New Escalation in Ukraine

For the better part of six years since Russia and Ukraine signed the Minsk II cease-fire accord for the disputed eastern Ukrainian region of Donbass, one question has loomed: How will the U.S. and NATO respond if Russian troops again cross back over the so-called Line of Contact, dividing Ukrainian …

Read More »

Russia Grants Qaterji Militia Investment in Deir-ez-Zor Oil Field

Russia has awarded the al-Qaterji militia an investment contract lasting five years, for the al-Taym and al-Ward oil wells in Deir-ez-Zor, each producing 2,500 barrels per day. Russian forces gave the investment of the al-Taym and al-Ward oil fields in the Deir-ez-Zor governorate to Arfada company. Last year, this company …

Read More »