The U.S. Aggressor Squadron (AGGRON) is dedicated to playing the enemy in exercises, but there must be caveats as to how accurately that can be done.
Retracting ice makes Canadian Arctic easier to navigate
New study documents that the Canadian Arctic has become significantly easier to navigate in the last decade.
Chasing the wrong kind of misinformation: The HMS Defender case
Western journalists were so busy labeling Russian warning shots as misinformation, that they overlooked the real information deceit.
Lukashenko weaponizes refugees against Lithuania
Belarus is apparently channeling migrants from the Middle East and Africa into Lithuania as a way to put pressure on their neighbor.
How Donald Rumsfeld deserves to be remembered
Not in a positive light.
Russia and the West moving into state of more “professional antagonism”
The Russian Prosecutor General has declared Bard College an “undesirable organization”. This means that any Russian citizen who maintains a relationship with the American liberal arts school faces up to six years in prison, while all foreign professors and students are banned from Russia. Bard runs a mini-campus in Saint Petersburg, so the number of […]
The argument that Russia’s security zones around Crimea are legal
Since HMS Defender’s recent freedom of navigation operation close to Crimea, there has been an interesting public debate about the legal aspects of innocent passage. My attention has been drawn to this article by professor Stefan Talmon where he makes the case that Russia’s suspension of this right in certain areas in the Black Sea […]
HMS Defender’s encounter with Russia’s coastguard off Crimea
Here are a few quick thoughts on yesterday’s incident where Russian ships and aircraft fired warning shots on the British destroyer HMS Defender off Crimea. This was a deliberate freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) by the Royal Navy. HMS Defender purposefully transited closer than 12 nautical miles from Crimea. This point is important to stress […]
Do tripwire forces work?
Not according to Paul Poast and Dan Reiter. In this article in War on the Rocks titled Death without deterrence, or why tripwire forces are not enough they argue that nobody is deterred by a militarily insignificant body of soldiers whose only job it is to die. Though tripwire forces offer little deterrence power, larger […]
Russian submarines are dangerous, says U.S. general
Joseph Trevithich writing for The Drive: A senior U.S. military officer has again sounded the alarm about the threat that advanced, very-quiet, cruise-missile-armed Russian submarines, as well as Chinese ones, increasingly present to the United States. At a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday, U.S. Air Force General Glen VanHerck, who is head of U.S. Northern Command […]