Armchair foreign policy

Drones make oppression much more cost-effective

2011-11-04T14:06:00.003-04:00

John Robb writes: Drones are changing the dynamics of warfare in very scary ways. They make oppression much easier (and cost-effective). To recap: Drones are extremely cost effective vs. ground/air assets (particularly in that with drones, operators aren't put at risk). They also enable extremely centralized command and control (as in: operations can be micro-manged in DC, down to the

Botnets in the skies

2011-09-08T16:53:00.003-04:00

MIT Technology Review: The Next Wave of Botnets Could Descend from the Skies. In two separate presentations last month, researchers showed off remote-controlled aerial vehicles loaded with technology designed to automatically detect and compromise wireless networks. The projects demonstrated that such drones could be used to create an airborne botnet controller for a few hundred dollars.

CIA focuses on killing targets

2011-09-02T13:53:00.002-04:00

Washington Post: CIA shifts focus to killing targets

Delivering drugs by UAV

2011-08-29T11:38:00.002-04:00

cnet: Matternet delivers drugs by robocopter

Economist: UAVs will be smaller, lighter, cheaper

2011-08-17T14:03:00.000-04:00

The Economist: Joining the drone club: The future of air power is likely to be unmanned. It may also be surprisingly small. Reapers and Predators grab the headlines, but these big, high-profile drones are already outnumbered by small and cheap but capable craft.

Drones, and the future of war

2011-08-03T17:08:00.001-04:00

Link: The DIY Terminator: Private Robot Armies And The Algorithm-Run Future Of War [...] as the tech becomes more democratized and more deadly, what happens when anyone can assemble an army of killing machines?

Pentagon looks to double drone air force

2011-05-31T18:07:00.002-04:00

Via Wired Magazine: Pentagon Looks to Double Its Unmanned Air Force

Tunisia: the first Wikileaks revolution?

2011-01-14T22:49:00.002-05:00

Posted over at my other blog: Tunisia: the first Wikileaks revolution?

Chavez given decree powers

2010-12-17T20:35:00.000-05:00

Reuters: Venezuela assembly gives Chavez decree powers Venezuela's parliament gave President Hugo Chavez decree powers for 18 months on Friday, outraging opposition parties that accused him of turning South America's biggest oil producer into a dictatorship.

FT: A new global balance

2010-12-17T00:25:00.003-05:00

FT columnist Philip Stephens writes:We are living through one of history’s swerves. A multipolar world has been long predicted, but has always seemed to be perched safely on the horizon. Now it has rushed quite suddenly into the present. Two centuries of western hegemony are coming to a close rather earlier than many had imagined.

US embassy cables: China 'would accept' Korean reunification

2010-11-29T18:10:00.006-05:00

Guardian reposts a wikileaked cable. [Vice Foreign Minister Chun Yung-woo] commented that China had far less influence on North Korea "than most people believe." Beijing had "no will" to use its economic leverage to force a change in Pyongyang's policies and the DPRK leadership "knows it." Chun acknowledged that the Chinese genuinely wanted a denuclearized North Korea, but the PRC was also

Planning for North Korean collapse

2010-11-18T23:23:00.002-05:00

strategypage writes: U.S. military planners have discovered that China's current arsenal of non-nuclear ballistic and cruise missiles could probably knock out five of six major American air bases in Japanese and South Korea. Oops. To make matters worse, this has become an issue as North Korea stumbles towards political collapse, and China indicates that it will assume control in the north if

Bush: Mubarak wanted me to invade Iraq

2010-11-12T17:33:00.000-05:00

From Foreign Policy's blog: Bush writes [in his new book] that President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt "told Tommy Franks that Iraq had biological weapons and was certain to use them on [American] troops," a VOA article highlights. Bush goes on to say that Mubarak "refused to make the allegation in public for fear of inciting the Arab street."

WPR: Arabs arming for war with Iran

2010-10-14T20:59:00.002-04:00

World Politics Review reports: While Western diplomats and sanctions-enforcers ply their trade to pressure Iran into stopping its uranium enrichment, much of the Middle East is already preparing for war. Headlines might focus on United Nations resolutions initiated by Western powers, or on fiery speeches delivered by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But just a few hundred miles from Tehran,

Germany makes final reparation payment

2010-09-29T23:30:00.001-04:00

Foreign Policy reports: Oct. 3, the 20th anniversary of German unification, will also mark the completion of the final chapter of World War I with the end of reparations payments 92 years after the country's defeat. The German government will pay the last instalment of interest on foreign bonds it issued in 1924 and 1930 to raise cash to fulfil the enormous reparations demands the

Turkey changing its constitution?

2010-09-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

BBC News: Turkish voters have given strong backing to a package of constitutional changes. With nearly all votes in the referendum counted, about 58% had voted "Yes" to amending the constitution.

Israel, Iran and The Bomb

2010-08-30T01:29:00.003-04:00

The Atlantic hosts a debate in support of their current cover story, contemplating whether Israel will attack Iran once Iran activates nuclear reactors.

STRATFOR: geopolitics and dual citizenship

2010-07-20T13:20:00.003-04:00

Geopolitics is central to STRATFOR’s methodology, providing the framework upon which we study the world. The foundation of geopolitics in our time is the study of the nation-state, and fundamental to this is the question of the relationship of the individual to the nation-state. Changes in the relationship of the individual to the nation and to the state are fundamental issues in geopolitics,

Army's Unmanned Trucks

2010-07-12T18:00:00.000-04:00

Wired Magazine: As insurgents in Afghanistan target the U.S. military’s soft underbelly — its long logistics lines — trucking materiel through war zones has become an increasingly dangerous mission. One U.S. Army solution? Self-driving trucks that let the humans behind the wheel look out for bombs, instead.

Cuba travel closer?

2010-06-30T13:45:00.000-04:00

Reuters reports: A congressional panel is poised to take the first step toward ending a decades-old U.S. ban on travel to Cuba and removing other hurdles to food sales to the Caribbean island, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Russian spying (cont.)

2010-06-30T04:06:00.002-04:00

UN: Russia's den of spies: This length FP article recounts Russian spying in and around the United Nations. Putin's reaction: The police went "out of control" The BBC profiles Russia's SVR intelligence service.

Russian spies captured in US

2010-06-28T23:30:00.004-04:00

New York Times: Ten people arrested on charges of spying for Russia's SVR, the Russian successor to the KGB. Pajamas Media has insta-reaction and additional details, comparing this to the Rosenberg case.

American contacts with Hamas

2010-06-28T11:32:00.000-04:00

YNetNews reports: A senior Hamas figure said Friday that official and unofficial US sources have asked the Islamist group to refrain from making any statements regarding contacts with Washington, this following reports that a senior American official is due to arrive in an Arab country in the coming days to relay a telegram from the Obama Administration.

Saudis clear skies for Israel?

2010-06-13T01:08:00.003-04:00

The Times reports: Saudi Arabia has conducted tests to stand down its air defences to enable Israeli jets to make a bombing raid on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Defence sources in the Gulf say that Riyadh has agreed to allow Israel to use a narrow corridor of its airspace in the north of the country to shorten the distance for a bombing run on Iran. To ensure the Israeli bombers pass unmolested,

STRATFOR: A Global Crisis of Legitimacy

2010-05-04T10:06:00.002-04:00

By George Friedman Financial panics are an integral part of capitalism. So are economic recessions. The system generates them and it becomes stronger because of them. Like forest fires, they are painful when they occur, yet without them, the forest could not survive. They impose discipline, punishing the reckless, rewarding the cautious. They do so imperfectly, of course, as at times the