Daily Telegraph – The Ministry of Defense is to cut another five warships, leaving the Royal Navy only capable of “one small-scale operation”.
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Foreign Affairs – Paul Collier offers strong recommendations for helping “the bottom billion” — those living in poor countries caught in growth traps. But he cannot overcome a basic problem: how to create growth where no functioning economy exists.
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Defense and the National Interest – William Lind puts the happenings in Anbar province in a wider context and shows how they may represent a path ahead in the battle against Fourth Generation opponents.
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New Yorker – Garry Kasparov takes aim at the power of Vladimir Putin.
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Aviation Week and Space Technology – Another look at France’s new ship the Mistral, a landing helicopter dock ship.
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Washington Post – Security failures at multiple levels last month led to six missiles being flown across America for 36 hours without notice, U.S. Air Force sources show.
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Armed Forces Journal – The Littoral Combat Ship serves too many masters with too many roles
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NOSI will next update on Monday September 24. See you then???
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New Yorker – George Packer asks how should we withdraw from Iraq?
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Foreign Affairs – China’s environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.
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Global Security Newswire – In a closed-door meeting in November, advisers to U.S. Strategic Command are slated to report their recommendations for what could become the Navyís next nuclear weapons-carrying submarine.
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The Times – It was just after midnight when the 69th Squadron of Israeli F15Is crossed the Syrian coast-line. On the ground, Syriaís formidable air defences went dead. An audacious raid on a Syrian target 50 miles from the Iraqi border was under way???
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NOSI is taking a short break and will next update on Thursday September 20. See you then!
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Guardian – India has kept its efforts to build a nuclear submarine under wraps for more than 30 years, but a top Indian scientist has confirmed that the ongoing project at the Kalpakkam nuclear facility near Chennai to develop a nuclear reactor fuelled by enriched uranium was in fact intended to power the country’s first indigenously built submarine.
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AfterWords – LTC John Nagl, interviewed by journalist Sean Naylor, on the topic of counterinsurgency and the new US Army field manual on the subject.

Here is an excellent essay from 2004 that introduces you to LTC Nagl:

New York Times Magazine – Professor Nagl’s War
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Slate – Does Russia have a Doomsday Machine?
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Foreign Affairs – Deep divisions at home about the nature of the United States’ engagement with the world threaten to produce failed leadership abroad — and possibly isolationism. To steady U.S. global leadership and restore consensus to U.S. foreign policy, U.S. commitments overseas must be scaled back to a more politically sustainable level.
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Indian Express – Malabar Exercise: From tracking nuclear submarines to managing 200 aircraft and taking on deep-sea terror threat, five Navies cover a sweeping range of maritime operations.
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Small Wars Journal – David Kilcullen who has just completed a tour in Iraq as senior counterinsurgency adviser to the Multi-National Force summarizes the current state of affairs in Iraq.
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Asia Times – India begins to secure the Indian Ocean.
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