Dive into the archives.
- Turkish Options
As the Turkish-Iraqi tensions rise and small scale cross border operations begin, let’s examine Turkey’s situation and options at the moment.
First of all, much fuss was made about the recent weak agreement between Iraq and Turkey which did not include an allowance for Turkish troops to cross into Iraq in so-called “hot pursuit” operations against [...]
- The Future of Terrorism
Could this be the the kind of future terrorism we’ll face? The cost of an attack is almost zero and the returns in the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions. No bomb making or specialist training necessary.
An interesting question: Why haven’t and/or why wouldn’t a terrorist group want to claim responsibility for this. [...]
- Canada stirring it up in Japan
Remember that confusing security debate happening in Japan?
Well, things are looking to get a little more complicated as more international voices join in. Next week eleven envoys will be speaking up to Japanese lawmakers in support of the refueling mission. So far only three countries — United States, Britain, Pakistan — have been named, but [...]
- Dystopian travel future
I haven’t been on a good trip for a few years. Wife, school and a lack of finances have restricted me to bouncing back and forth between Canada and Japan. I have only been able to make trips within the (respective) country. International travel has gotten pretty expensive, especially due to “fuel surcharges.” A friend [...]
- Be Careful What You Wish For
The border between Iraq and Turkey has been heating up the past few weeks and has reached a boiling point. Yesterday, a clash on the border claimed the lives of around 17 Turkish soldiers and over 30 PKK militants. The PKK purports to have taken hostages, a claim which has thus far been denied by [...]
- US Passport Renewal Warning
The U.S. State Department is urging travelers to apply for passports and visas now during a traditionally slower period for passport renewal rather than wait until next year.
The department’s concern comes amid reports that demand for passports is expected to be unusually high in 2008 as a result of the January 31, 2008 implementation of [...]
- Great Leader
Just how big is that statue of Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang? Peter Hitchens took a trip to the great north and took a picture to show us the statues scale.
- Chinese nuclear sub-spotting
Via the strategist comes a post by Hans M. Kristensen from FAS who used Google Earth to spot and identify two Chinese nuclear Jin-class submarines. Mr Kristensen was the man who spotted the original Jin earlier this year, though that time he didn’t use Google Earth. Someone went to the yard and took an oblique [...]
- Burma + human rights aid workers = “Your worst nightmare.”
Who says Hollywood has run out of recycled plotlines? Synopsis here.
- Technology lessons from the Iraq war
William Saletan has an excellent piece in Slate on the US military’s struggle against “improvised explosive devices” in Iraq and Afghanistan. IEDs have be responsible for more than half of all casualties in Iraq (2,000) and wounded 20,000 more. From January to July, there was one IED explosion attack every 15 minutes. [...]
