*** Army updates and renames cyber electromagnetic activity regulation

Mark Pomerleau

July 19, 2016 

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Among several recent developments bringing Army cyber and electromagnetic activities closer together, the service updated and renamed one of its regulations related to supporting the integrated multi-mission nature of cyber electromagnetic activities through software-based systems.

Army Regulation 525-15, titled “Software Reprogramming for Cyber Electromagnetic Activities,” provides a raft of changes such as expanding the scope of software reprogramming to support CEMA, adds responsibilities for headquarter commands and direct reporting units to support electronic warfare reprogramming mission requirements, and establishes CEMA software reprogramming integrations and interoperability implementation strategy, the Army said.

“AR 525-15 highlights the important role cyber electromagnetic activities will play in the future of warfare,” said Col. Jeffrey Church, the Army EW division chief at the Pentagon. “As the Army continues to invest and plan for long-term materiel solutions that will enable Soldiers to conduct CEMA operations, this regulation provides guidance that will allow Soldiers to fight and win in a contested electromagnetic spectrum.”

One of the driving factors for the updated regulation, which was dated February 2016 and effective March 19, 2016, was the expanding nature of cyber and the need to integrate capabilities into new operations. “As CEMA includes Spectrum Management Operations (SMO) and Cyber in addition to EW, there was a need to expand the scope of software reprogramming support to include all three components of CEMA,” Jason Juliano, a program officer within the Army’s reprogramming analysis team, wrote in a memorandum of the new regulation sent to C4ISRNET. “The effort to revise AR 525-15 took approximately 12 months. It began when HQDA G-3/5/7 Electronic Warfare (EW) Division and the Army Reprogramming Analysis Team Program Office (ARAT-PO) recognized the relevance of mission software reprogramming to the Army’s CEMA concepts outlined in Field Manual (FM) 3-38. Since its inception in December 1991, the ARAT’s primary software engineering focus has been on EW systems, primarily Aviation Survivability Equipment.”

** For a Few Tanks More

By Claude Arpi

22 Jul , 2016

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/for-a-few-tanks-more/

The Chinese are not happy!

You may wonder why again?

Last week, it was about the announcement of the verdict of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).

The International Tribunal in The Hague had given its ruling on a reference by the Philippines over the South China Sea (SCS): China has no historic ‘rights’ to the natural resources in most of the areas of the SCS, further these rights must not exceed what’s permitted by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Now, China is upset again.

This time, it is because the Indian press reported the deployment of T-72 battle tanks in Ladakh.

The Tribute said that its correspondent visited key locations “across the length and breadth of this strategic frontier, geographically defined by the military as the area from the Karakoram Pass in the north to Demchok in the south-east,” from where he mentioned about “a possibility exists for China and Pakistan to launch a collusive two-front war against India. …In the past four-five years, ground troops have been added to pre-positioned locations along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), or the de facto border, that is not marked on the ground. In the past 36 months, additions to mechanised forces and artillery guns have been made, backed by the T-72 Russian-origin tanks. Another tank unit is slated to move to eastern Ladakh. This adds a new dimension to any future war in the area that is marked by an average height of 14,000 feet, where oxygen is scarce.”

The Global Times objected to this move: “Deploying tanks on Indo-China border hinders potential for Chinese investment.”

Fight For Turkey: The Gateway To India – Analysis

By Shelley Kasli* 

JULY 22, 2016

http://www.eurasiareview.com/22072016-fight-for-turkey-the-gateway-to-india-analysis/

An article published in March on the American Enterprise Institute’s website titled Could there be a coup in Turkey?, considered the possibility of a military coup transpiring in Turkey. Its author, David Rubin, explains Turkey’s predicament:

The situation in Turkey is bad and getting worse. It’s not just the deterioration in security amidst a wave of terrorism. There is a broad sense, election results notwithstanding, that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is out-of-control. He is imprisoning opponents, seizing newspapers left and right, and building palaces at the rate of a mad sultan or aspiring caliph. His son Bilal reportedly fled Italy on a forged Saudi diplomatic passport as the Italian police closed in on him in an alleged money laundering scandal. His outbursts are raising eyebrows both in Turkey and abroad. Even members of his ruling party whisper about his increasing paranoia which, according to some Turkish officials, has gotten so bad that he seeks to install anti-aircraft missiles at his palace to prevent airborne men-in-black from targeting him in a snatch-and-grab operation.

President Erdoğan’s paranoia and apprehensions were not without reason. Just after four months on 15–16 July 2016, an unsuccessful coup d’état is staged against the Turkish President and his government by a faction within the Turkish Armed Forces. The coup was launched when Erdogan, the country’s leader was on ‘vacation’ and away from both Ankara and Istanbul. A snatch-and-grab operation by airborne men in Helicopter was launched at the Grand Yazici Club Turban hotel at the Turkish Riviera port town of Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast where the Turkish President was supposed to be staying. Around 25 soldiers in helicopters descended on a hotel there on ropes, shooting, in an apparent attempt to seize him.

According to British tourist Richard Holland, 47, who was woken up by the early morning blitz:“We didn’t have a clue the President was nearby. We looked on the balcony and the helicopter was on the waterfront. There were Black Hawks with no lights. Twenty minutes later gunfire started outside our room, semi-automatics and small arms. Then a grenade went off in the room underneath us. We didn’t want to stick our heads out of the door. The force made pictures fall of the wall in our room. The hotel staff told us rocket-propelled grenades got fired at the helicopter we saw but missed it.”

Re-Building Peace Through Educational Interventions: Hope From ‘Youth In Kashmir’ – OpEd

BY DR. SWALEHA SINDHI 

JULY 22, 2016

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It is a known fact that education has a great potential for bringing peace in conflict zones. Education can play a constructive role in development of peace building perspective and thereby promoting socioeconomic development and preventing the recurrence of violence. But unfortunately in the recent violence in Kashmir, when all the educational institutions are closed down, there is hardly any concrete plan or action undertaken to bring education back to track or strengthen stakeholder coordination or initiate, promote and implement educational initiatives in support of peacebuilding. On the contrary newspapers carried angry reaction of the disturbed Director (School Education) Mr. Shah Faisal, who threatened to resign from his post. It is heart touching and seen by many as an emotional outburst of a vibrant Youth Icon, (first to qualify Indian Administrative Services) from the Valley.

Being an academician I feel very sorry and deeply touched by the pain of this officer. I feel very regretful that we have failed miserably to motivate the brilliant brains. These young brains have potential to do wonders in their work area and thereby promote peace in conflict zones. Not going into who is responsible for this agony of Mr. Shah Faisal, I feel it is high time we all act responsibly and not hurt sentiments of people to the extent, that they lose their inner peace, as it is simply inhuman. Instead of including all levels of society in peace building and preparing a strategy for post conflict, it is regretting that the Director of Education is compelled to think about resigning from the post.

How must India respond to Geopolitical Challenges?

By Sanjeev Nayyar

22 Jul , 2016

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The people of Kashmir Valley refuse to accept responsibility for their plight but blame the Central Government for their woes. They will not accept that Valley Muslims dominate and rule the State, hold maximum number of government jobs, are responsible for widespread corruption, terrorism drives away tourists and employment generating industry, contribute negligible revenue to State by way of taxes, be sensitive to the needs of people of Ladakh and Jammu regions. An apology for killing of Pandits and driving them out of their ancestral homes is out of question!

In Pakistani eyes India cannot be seen as succeeding because it would mean question the reason for Pakistan’s birth as a nation. This means as long as Pakistan exists, India has to be opposed.

Kashmir on the boil again. According to a July 8 report, “The Jammu and Kashmir police have initiated the process of withdrawing cases against 634 stone-throwers, out of the several thousand who have been charged with the crime during the past eight years, following the state’s government amnesty order. The state government had earlier this week approved amnesty to 634 persons facing charges of stone-throwing following the Home Department’s approval to withdraw 104 cases dating from 2008 to 2009.[1]” Look what happened thereafter!

Every time there is violence in the Valley commonly heard phrases are – situation returning to the 1990′s, youth unemployed, human right violations by security forces, dialogue is the only way to resolve the Kashmir dispute, separatists leaders reiterate their importance, outpour of sympathy for the innocent injured or dead. This is followed by high level meetings held in Delhi/Srinagar. With time the situation appears peaceful on the surface, so tourists visit the Valley, only to erupt again.

The sequence is familiar. Kashmir has become a pawn in the chessboard involving China, India and Pakistan.

Kargil Controversy: IAF on the Ghosts of Kargil

By Air Marshal Narayan Menon

22 Jul , 2016

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/spotlights/kargil-controversy-iaf-on-the-ghosts-of-kargil/

When the Pakistani Northern Light Infantry, officered by the regular Pak Army, reeling under incessant day and night attacks, both from air and surface, fled in complete disarray from the occupied heights during the Kargil war, they left behind the bodies of their comrades-in-arms, an act considered most shameful in the annals of warfare. The bodies were later buried with full military honours, in an exceptional demonstration of humanitarianism, by the Indian Army, because the perpetrators of this failed campaign refused to even acknowledge them.

It would have been appropriate if the restless spirits of these abandoned souls had risen fom their graves to trouble the collective conscience of the Pakistani Army. In an ironic twist of events, it is the Indian military, which came out victorious from this short but bloody conflict, that is being haunted by the ghosts of Kargil. And going by the space accorded to this issue in all forms of media, it is unlikely that these ghosts will be laid to rest anytime soon.

The Attack Helicopter is a potent and effective weapon, but not for the terrain and altitudes that obtained at Batalik and Kargil heights. 

Two articles on Kargil, written by senior army officers, were published in the Apr–Jun 2010 issue of this magazine. The article byLt Gen Harwant Singh, while responding to Air Mshl Bedi’swritings, atempts to look at IAF’s performance over the years and focusses on the Kargil operations at some length. He points out a few factual errors in Air Mshl Bedi’s article and pays backhanded compliments to the IAF, though his displeasure in general about the Air Force permeates the article.His comments about the 1947–48 war need correction. The Dakotas flew a total of 28 sorties on the 27th October, 1947, ferrying 400 troops into Srinagar and that saved the day for India. One aircarft force-landing at Jammu made no impact on the overall operations.

“Make In India” Is On Track With Win-Win Partnerships In The Defence Sector Under Discussion

Surajit Dasgupta 

July 20, 2016

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Boeing, Lockheed Martin and SAAB-AB have been looking for Indian partners to manufacture their respective aircraft in this country which means Modi’s “Make in India” initiative, in the defence sector, is on track

This is filling in the crucial gaps in our preparedness, taking care of the original equipment manufacturers’ finances and, of course, promising millions of jobs in India

Boeing, Lockheed Martin and SAAB-AB have been looking for Indian partners to manufacture their respective aircraft in this country. This means that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” initiative is well on track, having crossed the phase of initial diplomatic and bureaucratic glitches. These business propositions follow the government’s decision to relax FDI norms in the defence sector— allowing up to 100 percent investment by foreigners in some cases— and a meeting between Commerce & Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Lockheed Martin Corp Chairperson, Marillyn A. Hewson.

In the meantime, Tata Advanced Systems Limited has signed an agreement with Bell Helicopter. The Indian business group’s Tata Boeing Aerospace Limited (TBAL) has a deal with Boeing AH-64 to co-produce fuselages of multi-role combat helicopters, Apache. Boeing is also training our fighter pilots at its C-17 Globemaster III simulating centre. And Larsen & Toubro has successfullyindigenised Samsung’s mobile howitzer, naming it K9 Vajra. This list is not exhaustive. Amid all these deals, India and Japan not been able to iron differences over the procurement of 12 US-2i ShinMaywa amphibious search-and-rescue aircraft for the Indian Navy, is a rare eyesore.

Economists in India: Endangered species?

July 21, 2016 
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The pipeline for well-qualified and experienced policy economists at senior levels of government has broken, leading to a growing dearth of suitable candidates for top economist positions, says Shankar Acharya. 

India has lots of good economists. And quite a few good ones in government too. Right? Wrong! On both counts.

First, consider academic economists. Remember the mid-1960s when the Delhi School of Economics alone boasted a galaxy of stars, including Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati and Sukhamoy Chakravarty? 

Well, that was then. The 1970s witnessed an exodus of India’s best academic economists to greener pastures in the US and UK. 

The list is long and includes Amartya Sen, Jagdish Bhagwati, T N Srinivasan and Pranab Bardhan, to name a few. 

In the words of the last exemplar, they became “winter Indians”, living and working in universities in the West and visiting their homeland in the salubrious winter months. 

In time, their acolytes and students followed suit. By the 1980s the pattern had become common: many of the best students of Indian MA economics programmes would typically go to universities abroad for their doctorates, mostly to the better American universities.

Few would return to India, except for short stints.

The good and bad news about India's nuclear programme

Pallava Bagla
July 21, 2016 
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While nuclear engineers cheer the KNPP's first full operation, on nine other sites which house atomic reactors, scientists spend sleepless nights, reveals Pallava Bagla.

At India's highly-guarded and walled atomic establishment, there are cheers in southern India, but tears in the western part of the country.

Much to cheer about at Kudankulam, as India's largest nuclear power park situated not far from the tip of India, Kanyakumari, is now operational.

The twin 1,000-megawatt atomic reactors have nuclear fission reaction running in them for the first time. The first unit started supplying electricity in 2013 and the second unit became operational last week and will start feeding electricity to the grid in a few weeks.

At the same time, some 2,000 km away, some grief and tears since the indigenously made Kakrapar Atomic Power Station in Gujarat remains shut for nearly four months after a leak in the nuclear island of the reactor forced an emergency shutdown of a fully operational plant.

The bigger headache for the Indian nuclear engineers is that even after several months of investigation, the exact reason why the 'leak' took place remains a mystery.

The usually mild mannered but vigilant nuclear watchdog of India -- the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board -- issued an ominous statement which said 'the incident of leak from a coolant channel at Kakrapar Atomic Power Station Unit 1 at an early stage of its life has raised some concerns.'

Kudankulam: The vanvas ends

Pakistan’s New War Cry: ‘Blowback on Pakistan if we target Terrorists’

By Farooq Ganderbali

22 Jul , 2016

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That Pakistan’s international isolation on terrorism is near complete is clearly visible. Statements emanating from Islamabad, first from ISPR chief Asim Bajwa and then from Advisor on foreign affairs to the PM, Sartaj Aziz, suggest that Pakistan is getting desperate, like a drowning swimmer, not to drown in its own sorrows. Gen Bajwa, normally not usually known for his emotional outbursts, claimed recently that the world had left Pakistan alone in its fight against terrorism. Sartaj Aziz on the other hand, spoke of not targeting the jihadis in Pakistan because it would lead to a blowback.

So much for emotional outbursts! The fact of the matter is that Pakistan is living presently in the past and the past has a bad habit of catching up. After all, with the jihadi culture in Pakistan being more a matter of State news, it is but natural that the likes of Hafeez Saeed continue to rant against India and threatening the Pak Government with dire consequences if they did something against him. The JuD leader is certainly a brave cleric for he moves around Pakistan with state protection. Therefore, it is strange that Sartaj Aziz should tell the world that moving against terrorists ‘fast’ would lead to a blowback. Obviously, this would be the case for a nation steeped in skulduggery and black operations.

The skeletons are coming tumbling out of the closet as Pakistan seeks to balance its governance structures. The problem is that it has allowed the radical Islamic elements to take over virtually every aspect of governance, particularly education. Thank god for the military, which remains wedded to the concept of using the jihadis for making them stronger against India. Otherwise it would be possible to visualise a wholly bearded Army where radicalism would be the norm. That was perhaps what Gen. Zia had in mind in the early days of his tenure. That said, one must question the rationale of ISPR chief Bajwa making a political statement at a time when the Prime Minister of Pakistan is recuperating from a heart surgery in London.

Is Pakistan Heading Toward a Coup?

Umair Jamal

July 21, 2016

A week ago, banners requesting the military’s takeover of the country were put all across Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. The banners were read as asking the military chief, General Raheel Sharif, to impose martial law in the country.

On Sunday, Imran Khan, the leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) said that “the people will celebrate and distribute sweets if the army takes over the country.” Imran Khan’s party runs a coalition government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.

About two weeks ago, the United States Senator John McCain reportedly gave a statement (the authenticity of the report is unclear), asking for General Sharif’s extension as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) which is due to complete later this year. The U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner a week ago refused to either acknowledge or deny the context of the Senator’s statement.

Besides, the campaign to invite the military for a direct rule by overthrowing the democratically elected government in the country has been going on since the advent of the current government more than three years ago. In the wake of afailed military takeover in Turkey, the coup debate in Pakistan has taken an intriguing turn with many warning that the latest episode of democracy in Pakistan may be nearing its end.

While the threats of a military takeover may overtly appear serious, a direct coup in the current milieu is not likely to take place. The objectives behind running such campaign are meant to achieve other ends that doesn’t require overthrow of the civilian government; rather, a direct coup might have serious implications for the military as well.

It's Time to Ignore China's Nine-Dash Line

Gary Sands

July 21, 2016

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/its-time-ignore-chinas-nine-dash-line-17071

The “so called nine-dash line,” previously “the eleven-dash line” and also referred to as the “ten-dash line,” the “U-shaped line,” the “cow’s tongue” and the “ox’s tongue”: however one chooses to refer to China’s claims of some 80 to 90 percent of the South China Sea, the demarcation no longer holds water, following last week’s ruling issued by the arbitral tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The tribunal ruled China’s expansive claim under the nine-dash line had no legal basis, and that any claims must be made on the basis of maritime entitlements from land features. With the definitive ruling from The Hague, can we now finally lay these ill-defined terms to rest?

The case before the tribunal was brought by Manila in January 2013, following the seizure and occupation of the Scarborough Shoal by Chinese forces in 2012—reneging on an agreement brokered by Washington that both sides would pull back. Despite its treaty obligations to defend the Philippines, the United States did not come to the rescue, perhaps in retaliation for having had its military forces summarily dismissed from their bases at Clark and Subic.

The Hague’s ruling was widely expected to find in favor of Manila, despite a last-minute lobbying effort by Beijing to curry favor with a number of countries. The findings of the court were unexpectedly numerous, with rulings that the maritime features occupied by China were rocks, low-tide elevations, or submerged banks and thus were not entitled to the surrounding waters. The court also declared there was “no legal basis for China to claim historic rights to resources,” as China had never exercised exclusive authority over the waters. The tribunal also accused Beijing of interference with fishing and oil exploration, “severe harm to the coral reef environment” and of its failure to prevent Chinese fishermen from harvesting endangered sea turtles and other species “on a substantial scale.” Finally, the court also declared China’s nine-dash line did not comport with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Beijing ratified in 1996.

Deliberate, Not Desperate: Philippine’s National Strategy With Respect To South China Sea – Analysis

BY FSI 

JULY 22, 2016

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The Philippines did not simply bring China to court. Even before filing the case, the government had already wisely chosen to settle the dispute with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) rather than with the other international courts listed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Unlike in those other courts, states influence the ad hoc selection of the judges in the PCA: disputants each choose one tribunal member and agree on the remaining three from a closed list of potential members, for a total of five tribunal members. The Philippines naturally appointed a judge who espoused an aligned jurisprudence. Meanwhile, China refused to participate in the entire process, thereby also relinquishing its privilege to appoint a judge. The President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) appointed the other four tribunal members instead, as per UNCLOS.

As it awaited the decision, the government also enlisted the help of the international community to make China abide by the eventual ruling. Since the submission of the case to the arbitral tribunal in 2013, Philippine diplomats had been engaging their counterparts in their countries of assignment to support the country’s position. By asking support, the Philippines created an international pro-compliance constituency that China cannot ignore now that the tribunal had released its decision. The strategy had been historically tested: rallying the international community can tame intransigent states. In Nicaragua v. United States, Nicaragua successfully lobbied the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution that the United States comply with the ruling of the International Court of Justice. Similarly, in Netherlands v. Russia, Greenpeace, in whose behalf the Netherlands filed a case at ITLOS, generated enough international attention on the case, which pressured Russia to eventually release the detainees.

China’s One Belt, One Road: Will it reshape global trade?

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One of the biggest stories in Asian business is China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, an economic and diplomatic program that could transform trade. 

The future of trade in Asia could depend heavily on what becomes of China’s expansive One Belt, One Road initiative, which calls for massive investment in and development of trade routes in the region. In this episode of the McKinsey Podcast, recorded in May, McKinsey senior partners Joe Ngai and Kevin Sneader talk with Cecilia Ma Zecha about One Belt, One Road—what it really means, what it needs to become a reality, and why people should take it seriously. 

Podcast transcript 

Cecilia Ma Zecha: Hello, and welcome to this edition of theMcKinsey Podcast. I’m Cecilia Ma Zecha, an editor with McKinsey Publishing, based in Singapore. Today we’re going to be talking about one of the biggest stories in Asian business, China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, arguably its most ambitious economic and diplomatic program since the founding of the People’s Republic. 

China’s One Belt, One Road: Will it reshape global trade?

To explain One Belt, One Road and what it means to business, I’m joined today by Kevin Sneader, McKinsey’s chairman in Asia, and Joe Ngai, managing partner of McKinsey’s Hong Kong location. Kevin, let’s start from the very beginning, particularly for anyone listening outside of Asia. But frankly, for many of us who live and work in the region, behind the diplomatic language and the policy speak, what exactly is One Belt, One Road? 

Kevin Sneader: At one level, One Belt, One Road has the potential to be perhaps the world’s largest platform for regional collaboration. What does that actually mean? There are two parts to this, the belt and the road, and it’s a little confusing. The belt is the physical road, which takes one from here all the way through Europe to somewhere up north in Scandinavia. That is the physical road. What they call the road is actually the maritime Silk Road, in other words, shipping lanes, essentially from here to Venice. Therefore it’s very ambitious—potentially ambitious—covering about 65 percent of the world’s population, about one-third of the world’s GDP, and about a quarter of all the goods and services the world moves. 

What's At Stake In China's Claims To The South China Sea?

-- this post authored by Scott L. Montgomery, University of Washington

posted on 18 July 2016

It's now official: the South China Sea does not belong to China.

Official, that is, according to a new ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitrationunder the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Not so official, however, for China itself, which has summarily rejected the ruling, saying it "will neither acknowledge it nor accept it."

The court ruled that China has no standing to claim the vast area within the famous "nine-dash line," encompassing roughly 90 percent of the South China Sea and thus all the resources that may exist within it.

The court's decision, announced on July 12, was widely anticipated and, in some quarters, eagerly awaited. The case had been brought in 2013 by the Philippines after China refused arbitration regarding its territorial claims.

While the South China Sea has been a source of territorial dispute for many years, involving all of its bounding nations, China has been particularly aggressive of late, building artificial islands, installing military facilities, drilling for oil and gas, andchasing off the boats of its Southeast Asian neighbors from waters UNCLOS says they can operate in. With the Philippines, it has been especially belligerent over the Scarborough Shoal, a fishing ground roughly 125 nautical miles from Luzon and 1,435 nautical miles from China.

China's claims also reach well within the 200-nautical-mile limit of several other nations' EEZ. In the case of Malaysia and Brunei, the nine-dash line even reaches operating oil and gas fields, suggesting that China might one day think about seizing them for its own use.

MANAGING THE POWER WITHIN: CHINA’S STATE SECURITY COMMISSION

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Marking the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), state-run CCTV News ran a three-part series, “Understanding the [Chinese Communist Party]”, stating that “to understand China, one has to understand the [CCP].” Making sense of the CCP, however, is not just about leaders, policy, and bureaucracy but about power and its use. Since President Xi Jinping announced the creation of the Central State Security Commission (CSSC, 中央国家安全委员会) in November 2013, foreign observers have tried to track its creation, membership, and operations in search of a Chinese equivalent to the U.S. National Security Council staff. This search has led most researchers toward Chinese discussions of international crisis management and away from the issue of power and thesocial governance framework within which the Chinese government placed the CSSC.

The CSSC can only be understood through the lens of power and the efforts of the party-state to wield that power to meet a growing set of “state security” (国家安全) challenges that, in the words of President Xi at the first publicly-documented CSSC meeting, “are more complex than at any time in history.” The CCP’s driving objective is to remain in power, but as obstacles to ensuring this objective inevitably become more complex so does the need to self-regulate. The CCP is constantly engaged in a process of ensuring its own legitimacy, which, having never truly outgrown its revolutionary past, the CCP perhaps fears it never fully possessed. While ensuring legitimacy includes objectives like maintaining economic growth and preserving stability, it also includes wielding the party’s power to administer the country effectively and prevent the emergence of a Chinese future without the CCP at the helm. The need for effective governance explains the objective of efforts such as the anticorruption and party loyalty campaigns, especially in places like the military, propaganda, and security services that would seem self-evidently loyal.

China is our bitterest enemy today

July 13, 2016 

'Today the Chinese think they can slap India, and there will be no consequences.'

'China must be made to feel the consequences through any and all means,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Ahmedabad, September 2014.

It has all the makings of a pantomime story or even a Bollywood potboiler: The hero reaches out a hand in friendship, the villain slaps it away.

Instead of learning from this mistake, the hero, once again, reaches out and tries to make peace, but no, the villain doesn't want it. Then, finally, after all other options are exhausted, the hero is forced to take a stand and fight for his rights.

That's roughly how things are between India and China. Time after time, India attempts to make friends with China, but each time there is bitter disappointment. But yet, the next time, not having learned from every previous experience, India tries again.

Didn't we learn anything from Tibet, 1959, the India-China War, 1962, the screwdriver-job Pakistani nuclear bomb, 1989, the interminable and infructuous border talks, 1962 till today, and now, NSG, 2016? Or even from the experience of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata, thwarted at every turn by Kaurava hostility and recalcitrance?

I couldn't believe it when the foreign ministry spokesman tweeted on July 2 how India would not retaliate against China by blackballing it in MTCR (the Missile Technology Control Regime) just like China, alone, just thwarted India's entry into the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers Group).

Why do we make these entirely unnecessary, unilateral concessions? This is like the grand statement that India will abjure the first use of nuclear weapons. Yes, it's good moralising, but that gets us nothing. Better to be coy.>

IS: Enemy at the Gates?

By Sameer Sharan Kartikeya

21 Jul , 2016

http://www.indiandefencereview.com/is-enemy-at-the-gates/

14 Jul 2016, France yet again suffered the dastardly terrorist attack carried out by a lone wolf in the truest sense. The French were enjoying the Firework celebrations at Nice commemorating the storming of the Bastille, in Jul 1789. In the following August feudalism was abolished, with the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen”. Ironically the same citizen two centuries later look more vulnerable than ever before. In fact humanity today stands at the cusp of a violent organized disorder.

A plotting of terror activities around the globe in the last two months give a decisive geographical orientation and leaves one wondering if India is in the sniffing distance of mindless pogrom based on misplaced sense of ideology no religion preaches. As the hapless world watches the carnage perpetuated by restless, misdirected, self styled saviors of Islam, India needs to stand up and take note, lest it becomes a case of too little too late. From Medina to Spain, Turkey ,Iraq, Afghanistan and right at the backyard in Bangladesh, the world is caught in the cauldron of sinister terrorist quagmire, many of these activities attributed to the IS and few though handiwork of locals, IS is quick to take credit.

The IS, scrounging for real estate have set their eyes on Afghanistan and Pakistan and are resorting to the outsourcing of local talent in expanding their area of influence. Many experts have reiterated that Indian Muslims, given the fabric of our society are unlikely to join the rag tag band wagon.

The data of numbers in terms of IS Recruits from the foreign countries is a testimony to this fact. Ashley Kirk in his report published in the Telegraph in March this year put the number of foreign fighters anything between 27000 to 31000 with 20 to 30 per cent having gone back home as IS cedes ground to the Syrian Forces, Kurds, Russians, Belgium and volunteers from around the world. The main contributors are Tunisia (over 6000), Saudi Arabia (approx 2500), Russia, Jordan, Turkey, France, Morocco Lebanon, Egypt, Germany (sub 1000).

ISIS: The Durability of Chaos

Scott Atran

Source Link

Empty beach chairs on the Promenade des Anglais, a day after the Bastille Day attack, Nice, France, July 15

Mass murder has again been visited upon France and shaken the world. Again ISIS has claimed credit, though this time the link to the group seems confusingly ambiguous, feeding new fears in the West about random violence by alienated or radicalized Muslims anywhere. It raises the urgent questions: What does the attack tell us about the changing face of jihadist violence today? And how might our own response, in turn, be contributing to it? 

The local driver of the truck that mowed down at least eighty-four people, including ten children, and wounded more than two hundred, on the Nice waterfront Thursday was a Tunisian citizen residing in France. He had a police record for road rage and wife beating, but was not on a terrorism watch list and had no known jihadi affiliations. Yet supporters of the Islamic State immediately celebrated his actions on social media, and French President François Hollande directly linked the attack to France’s war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. 

And on Saturday, the ISIS media outlet Amaq formally claimed the Nice truck driver as “one of its soldiers” who answered the call to kill anyone from a country in the coalition against it. Such formal claims have, until now, never been merely opportunistic but refer to those who have either sworn allegiance to ISIS (like the Orlando shooter) or have actually been involved in an ISIS plot (like the Paris and Brussels attackers). 

Op-Ed The Saudis can't rein in Islamic State. They lost control of global Salafism long ago.

F. Gregory Gause III

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Can a state be both the target of Islamist extremists and responsible for their actions? The attacks on July 4 in three Saudi Arabian cities, almost certainly perpetrated by adherents of Islamic State, have once again raised this question for drive-by analysts. They point out that the official interpretation of Islam in Saudi Arabia, which outsiders refer to as Wahhabism and Saudis refer to as Salafism, shares many elements with extremist ideology. Then they argue that Saudi efforts to proselytize Salafism played a role in the development of the global jihadist movement, and that the Saudis thus bear a special responsibility to rein in their support for Muslim institutions outside their borders and to moderate their practice of Islam at home. The implication is that if the Saudis would only change their behavior, the threat represented by the radicals would be greatly reduced.

This understanding of the relationship between the official Islam of Saudi Arabia and the contemporary Salafi jihadist movement, represented by Islamic State and Al Qaeda, misses as many important facts as it highlights.

It is undoubtedly true that Saudi Arabia, since the 1960s, has built a set of institutions and networks to spread its puritanical, narrow-minded views on appropriate religious practice, as well as intolerance of other religions or other interpretations of Islam. With the oil revolution of the 1970s, the Saudis had enormous resources to support that effort. In the 1980s, the Saudis (along with the United States) supported a campaign in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union that both they and Washington were happy to call a jihad.

At that point, the Saudis lost control of global Salafism, if they ever really had it.

A TRADE STRATEGY FOR UNITED KINGDOM INC: FOREIGN POLICY PRAGMATISM AND POST-BREXIT BRITAIN

DAVID MARTIN JONES AND M.L.R. SMITH

JULY 21, 2016

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In Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay wrote:

[I]n reading the history of nations, we find that, like individuals, they have their whims and their peculiarities; their seasons of excitement and recklessness, when they care not what they do. We find that whole communities suddenly fix their minds upon one object, and go mad in its pursuit; that millions of people become simultaneously impressed with one delusion, and run after it, till their attention is caught by some new folly more captivating than the first.

He continued: “At an early age in the annals of Europe its population lost their wits about the sepulchre of Jesus, and crowded in frenzied multitudes to the Holy Land.”

We might update Mackay’s memoir by noting that at a later age in the annals of Europe, its population lost their wits, fiscal credibility, and economic sense over the delusion of an ever-closer European Union.

Recovering from transnationalism

The regulatory behemoth of the European Union (EU), with its five presidents, high representatives, 28 commissioners, serried ranks of bureaucrats and courts of counselors, legal representatives and other functionaries has inhibited growth and, consigned a generation of youth in Southern Europe to unemployment (56 percent in Spain, 62.5 percent in Greece). It has committed poorer member states to debt, austerity, and destitution in its futile pursuit of a currency union leading to a federated European imperium.

THE LOGIC FOR (SHODDY) U.S. COVERT ACTION IN SYRIA

AUSTIN CARSON AND MICHAEL POZNANSKY

JULY 21, 2016

http://warontherocks.com/2016/07/the-logic-for-shoddy-u-s-covert-action-in-syria/

By most accounts, America’s efforts to covertly train and supply moderate rebels in Syria aren’t going so well. Apart from the obvious (Assad is still firmly entrenched in power and continuing to receive ever-growing external support),The New York Times recently reported that some arms provided by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Saudi Arabia haven’t quite reached their intended targets. According to the report, some individuals in Jordan’s intelligence bureau — ostensibly partnering to funnel weapons to Assad’s opponents — stole weapons destined for U.S.-backed rebels and instead sold them on the black market.

This is not the first time an American-led covert operation has gone awry, and it certainly won’t be the last. Consider Operation Cyclone, the covert U.S. arms pipeline to the mujahideen in their fight against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan throughout the 1980s. Long held up as a success story in Cold War proxy warfare, the mujahideen – supported by the United States, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia – fell on each other after the Soviets retreated, creating an environment where al Qaeda could later thrive. This White House is certainly no stranger to these lessons of history. During early debates on Syria policy, Obama commissioned a study on the CIA’s track record in covert aid that concluded such efforts seldom work.

What, then, is the rationale for U.S. policy in Syria? Why has the White House continued to draw on the tool of covert military aid despite its shoddy track record? Rather than praise or condemn the Obama administration’s approach, our goal is to shed light on some of the considerations that have driven what’s going on and why by drawing on ourown research on past covert aid programs. Our findings suggest that escalation dynamics and unique reputational concerns help to explain why the Obama White House finds itself stuck with a covert military aid program of questionable efficacy and impact.

The Origins and Evolution of “Timber Sycamore”

Article McKinsey Quarterly July 2016 Improving semiconductor R&D

By Gaurav Batra, Zach Jacobson, and Nick Santhanam

Using data-driven insights speeds up delivery time, helps change mind-sets, and allows companies to tackle more complex projects.

Research-and-development projects often miss their deadlines and exceed budgets. But by replacing instinct and guesswork with advanced analytics, companies should be able to better direct scarce resources, as well as speed up cycle times.

A case in point is in the semiconductor industry, where we have found that some 80 percent of R&D projects need this kind of help. Our study of more than 2,000 integrated-circuit projects showed that companies often drastically underestimate staffing requirements and have to play catch-up later in the life of a project.1

One company we know applied advanced analytics to 80 of the 209 projects in its R&D pipeline, statistically modeling their complexity to gain insights into optimizing staffing levels and speeding up completion across stages of the work. It found that by doing so, it significantly improved project delivery times over a five-year period. As the exhibit shows, the most dramatic result was achieved in year five, when schedule slippage dropped to near zero after management used the insights to change employee mind-sets. As the data on the right-hand side demonstrate, launching projects with more realistic schedules and resources—the result of data-driven insights—also reduced overall project duration compared with past practice. The company found that projects with similar levels of complexity were completed up to 10 percent faster when using advanced analytics. And analytics made more-complex projects possible. Of the projects that didn’t use advanced analytics, none had more than about 3.5 complexity units.2

Which Countries Contribute The Most To The United Nations?

by Niall McCarthy

Jul 18, 2016

According to a report, the UN system procured $17.6 billion worth of goods and services for its operational activities last year. Which nations contributed the most to the organisation's operations, projects and programmes? A recent report shows that the United States was the UN's largest contributor in 2015, supplying goods and services worth over $1.6 billion. India

This chart shows the top ten countries supplying the UN system in 2015.

U.S.-Russian cooperation in Syria can’t stop at counterterrorism

Steven Heydemann
July 19, 2016 

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U.S. Syria policy is in disarray. As the Obama administration enters its final months, strains over what to do about Syria’s civil war have reached a breaking point. In June, 51 diplomats signed a dissent channel memo challenging Obama’s handling of Syria and calling for deeper U.S. engagement to protect civilians, reduce violence, and improve prospects for a negotiated end to more than five years of devastating conflict. In mid-July, as Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated closer military cooperation with Russia against the Nusra Front and ISIS, Pentagon resistance has spilled into the media. Rifts over Syria within the State Department have deepened. The U.S.-backed Geneva process to negotiate a political transition in Syria, due to resume this month, is stalled and close to collapse. There is no diplomatic “plan B” in sight.

Amid turmoil in Washington, conditions on the ground in Syria are eroding the administration’s efforts to hand over a more tractable conflict to its successor. Despite a new U.S. commitment of $439 million for Syria relief, aid is not reaching hundreds of thousands of civilians besieged by the Assad regime—including in Daraya, where dozens of residents have starved to death. The partial ceasefire negotiated in February has broken down, only the latest in a string of Russian failures to ensure Assad’s compliance with internationally-brokered agreements. Instead, Russian air support has enabled regime forces to encircle Aleppo, trapping 300,000 civilians. If Syrian refugees are no longer streaming into Europe, it is because they are now stranded along the Turkish and Jordanian borders, refused entry into countries that were once safe havens for Syrians fleeing violence at home. Today, more than 150,000 Syrians are struggling to survive in harsh conditions, including exposure to attacks from Russian aircraft.

Russian and American myopia

Teaching the Police to Wage the “Three Block War”

by Gary Anderson

July 20, 2016 

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America’s urban police departments are in an information war, and they are losing. Anti-police groups have seized the narrative that cops are on a genocidal mission to kill young black men. The fact that black young men are killing each other by a multiple factor far exceeding police shootings has largely been ignored by the media in the current police related crisis era. The police need to learn how to fight an information war against non-state actors such as Black Lives Matter. Body cameras could help, but many cops see them as a problem rather than as the opportunity that they represent.

Police do thousands of good deeds every day ranging from saving kids from locked cars to defusing spousal abuse incidents (which most cops believe are the most dangerous calls they respond to). Body cameras could capture these day-to-day heroics and share them with the public as a way of showing the reality of what the police accomplish for their communities, but many cops see them as an intrusive device to gather evidence on them in criminal and lawsuits; this needs to change.

We no longer live in a 24- hour news cycle. Today, the cycle is hourly and everyone with a Smartphone is a potential reporter via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media outlets. Most police departments remain trapped in the 24-hour news cycle by their 20th century public relations approach. Body cameras offer them the ability to respond to the 21st century information cycle, but it will take a revolution in the way police operate and train to exploit the opportunity that social media offers. Body cams can show the lead-up to a shooting incident, but they can also record when incidents are peacefully defused as well as the myriad of community services performed by police throughout the nation that go unnoticed every day. Most cop reality shows are filmed months in advance and highlight only dramatic incidents of people acting badly and police intervening in dangerous incidents. That is not the day-to-day reality of policing.

** 10 The Most Dangerous Computer Viruses of the Decade 2007-2016 These Types of Viruses in Computer will Blow Your Mind

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Computer viruses may come and go irrespective of time, but they always exist. Some of them don’t get much attention, but the other ones do terrible damages to the computers and get famous among all computer users. Everyone is familiar with a computer virus nowadays, but it is hard to be completely protected by them, because in a single month thousands of new viruses are being created and over one million viruses are being circulated all over the world.

No doubt you could trace and delete almost most of the computer viruses by updating your antivirus software periodically, but in some cases you will even not be able to know that your computer is actually infected with a virus and that’s why we recommend you to keep updating your knowledge about the latest programs created in order to harm your computer data or even your existence by doing Identity theft.

In our past article we have already covered a lot about Top dangerous Viruses from all over the internet, till 2006. Here is another brand new list of dangerous viruses from the entire digital world so that you could understand that actually what is happening with your machine and how you could solve those issues the right way.

Storm Worm (2007)

Conficker (2008)

Daprosy Worm (2009)

Stuxnet Worm (2010)

Duqu (2011)

Shamoon (2012)

CryptoLocker (2013)

Regin (2014)

SMiShing (2015)

Tiny Banker Trojan (2016)

Winding Up