tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48640434392794985952024-09-02T04:21:02.584-04:00Silly foreign policy musings of little consequence.Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.comBlogger146125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-37052539868234730622012-06-18T08:55:00.001-04:002012-06-18T08:55:18.235-04:00

Wired: War With Friends: Pentagon Eyes a Drone App Store Inside the Pentagon’s Acquisition, Technology and Logistics directorate, a team is working on ways to operate different types of drones with a single controller. It’s a big technical challenge — one that’s failed in the past — since the different manufacturers of different drones each have proprietary control software. But the official in

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-83867874601767952712012-06-14T10:11:00.002-04:002012-06-14T10:11:58.873-04:00

Slashdot: 64 drone bases now in US soil.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-48226192456351731172012-06-08T22:51:00.003-04:002012-06-08T22:51:41.544-04:00

Boeing’s Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system (UAS) completed its first autonomous flight June 1 at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-74560888494506040972011-11-04T14:06:00.003-04:002011-11-04T14:06:33.989-04:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-81520516322279881042011-09-08T16:53:00.003-04:002011-09-08T16:53:39.163-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-31645889700727065432011-09-02T13:53:00.002-04:002011-09-02T13:53:52.029-04:00

Washington Post: CIA shifts focus to killing targets

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-41593999831139384632011-08-29T11:38:00.002-04:002011-08-29T11:38:44.551-04:00

cnet: Matternet delivers drugs by robocopter

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-38153209499759597872011-08-17T14:03:00.000-04:002011-08-17T14:03:07.970-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-16212561622062645182011-08-03T17:08:00.001-04:002011-08-03T17:08:34.595-04:00

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?

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-31517113015098530212011-05-31T18:07:00.002-04:002011-05-31T18:07:41.189-04:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-58836848308181960092011-01-14T22:49:00.002-05:002011-01-14T22:49:40.525-05:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-72233405590622652102010-12-17T20:35:00.000-05:002010-12-17T20:35:40.964-05:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-81396240069109504312010-12-17T00:25:00.003-05:002010-12-17T00:26:14.965-05:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-73365746024294355472010-11-29T18:10:00.006-05:002010-11-29T20:20:43.614-05:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-71903336318750992892010-11-18T23:23:00.002-05:002010-11-18T23:24:10.420-05:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-71815924627441756822010-11-12T17:33:00.000-05:002010-11-12T17:34:55.336-05:00

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."

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-79905081077776719972010-10-14T20:59:00.002-04:002010-10-14T21:00:17.166-04:00

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,

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-54542239380527167662010-09-29T23:30:00.001-04:002010-09-29T23:32:59.186-04:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-51777655659205912512010-09-12T19:10:00.000-04:002010-09-12T19:11:56.917-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-48617047800905048842010-08-30T01:29:00.003-04:002010-08-30T01:32:01.449-04:00

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

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-43034761089838861962010-07-20T13:20:00.003-04:002010-07-20T13:23:53.661-04:00

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,

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-89593071771548668652010-07-12T18:00:00.000-04:002010-07-12T18:01:21.939-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-18480412828431038632010-06-30T13:45:00.000-04:002010-06-30T13:46:14.446-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-88366059095599820972010-06-30T04:06:00.002-04:002010-06-30T04:09:31.417-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4864043439279498595.post-27789040737636856432010-06-28T23:30:00.004-04:002010-06-28T23:34:33.577-04:00

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.

Jeff Garzikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11664909333009539129noreply@blogger.com0