The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan says that quelling anarchy in Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere, will require building on tribal loyalties-not imposing democracy from the top down
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BBC – The US has formally protested to China over its refusal to allow a number of US ships to dock in Hong Kong.
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The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan says the creation of AFRICOM, the U.S. military’s new Africa Command, offers the hope of steady, low-key progress in the war on terror.
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BBC – Helicopters from the USS Kearsarge have begun delivering relief supplies to survivors of the devastating cyclone that hit southern Bangladesh 10 days ago.
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Los Angeles Times – Robert Kaplan on how low-cost, low-risk operations such as those in Colombia and the Philippines show what the U.S. can achieve.
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Foreign Affairs – The rise of a democratic and increasingly powerful India is a positive development for U.S. interests. Rarely has the United States shared so many interests and values with a growing power as we do today with India. By reaching out to India, we have made the bet that the future lies in pluralism, democracy, and market economics.
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The Atlantic – Robert Kaplan on the new U.S. collaborative plan for policing the seas
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Associated Press – The top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said he’s “perplexed and concerned” by China’s last-minute decision to deny a U.S. aircraft carrier entry to Hong Kong for a previously scheduled port visit.
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Defense Technology International – Its origins date back to the 1970s. Yet the U.S. Navy’s Lockheed Martin-built Aegis weapon system will have to soldier on well into the 2030s. The arrival of the Aegis-equipped Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52) at BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, Calif., will herald a major renovation for this most widely-used naval combat system in service today.
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Defense Technology International – Sweden is going ahead with a plan to replace its current signal intelligence (Sigint) vessel, the 1,400-ton HMS Orion (A 201) built in the 1980s, with the much larger, 3,600-ton HMS Carlskrona (M 04) that is to be converted from its current role as a training ship to a Sigint platform.
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New Yorker – Jon Lee Anderson writes that the American military finds new allies, but at what cost?
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New York Times – Over the past six years, the Bush administration has spent almost $100 million on a highly classified program to help Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistanís president, secure his countryís nuclear weapons???But with the future of that countryís leadership in doubt, debate is intensifying about whether Washington has done enough to help protect the warheads and laboratories, and whether Pakistanís reluctance to reveal critical details about its arsenal has undercut the effectiveness of the continuing security effort.
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Foreign Affairs – It can, but only if U.S. officials start to think clearly about what success in the war on terror would actually look like. Victory will come only when Washington succeeds in discrediting the terrorists’ ideology and undermining their support. These achievements, in turn, will require accepting that the terrorist threat can never be eradicated completely and that acting as though it can will only make it worse.
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Daily Telegraph – The US-led coalition is building a permanent security base on Iraq’s oil pumping platforms in the Gulf to act as the “nerve centre” of efforts to protect the country’s most vital strategic asset.
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Washington Post – Thomas Ricks writes that senior military commanders in Iraq now portray the intransigence of Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government as the key threat facing the U.S. effort in Iraq, rather than al-Qaeda terrorists, Sunni insurgents or Iranian-backed militias.
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Defense Technology International – A British Defense Ministry decision to halt air-to-air refueling of its Nimrod MR2 maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft will almost certainly curtail the aircraftís operational availability in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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Armed Forces Journal – The new U.S. maritime strategy to be unveiled this fall is expected to fill the lack of a clear and well-articulated vision of the role of U.S. maritime forces in defense and protection of the national interests at sea and of those of its allies and other friendly nations. However, the lack of sound theory and doctrine for the employment of maritime forces at the operational level of war might pose some serious limitations and ultimately doom the execution of the new U.S. maritime strategy.
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Foreign Affairs – Over the past decade, Burma has gone from being an antidemocratic embarrassment and humanitarian disaster to being a serious threat to its neighbors’ security. The international community must change its approach to the country’s junta.
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Defense Technology International – Germany is deploying two fast patrol boats to augment the U.N.ís naval force off Lebanon.
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IEEE Spectrum – Terrorists are leveraging information technology to organize, recruit, and learnóand the West is struggling to keep up.
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