Indian Strategic Studies

30 April 2015

ISIS AND THE PRINCIPLES OF WAR

By Robert N. Hein

April 28, 2015

Ever since the Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu outlined principles required for the conduct of war in the fifth century B.C., military strategists have opined on what those principles are, and whether currently accepted principles need revision. A strong case exists for the principles laid by the 19th century Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz: mass, objective, offensive, surprise, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command, security and simplicity. Although there is a realization that Clausewitz’s principles do not cover every situation a modern military must face such as humanitarian crisis or counterinsurgency – the actions of ISIS to date – demonstrate Clausewitz was right.

It is unlikely that a group of renegade jihadist extremists would abide by the principles, or even be aware of them; however, the invasion of Iraq by ISIS is a textbook example of the timelessness of the principles and a worthy example of their effectiveness. ISIS’ successes demonstrate how adherence to the principles can lead to success on the battlefield. Denying ISIS the ability to adhere to the principles will likewise lead to their defeat.

HOW THE MILITARY CAN KEEP ITS EDGE: DON’T OFFSET — HEDGE

Ben FitzGerald and Scott Cheney-Peters

April 29, 2015

The current debate about how the U.S. military can maintain its technological superiority is dominated by offset strategies — use of an asymmetric advantage to mitigate an adversary’s advantage. The elegance and efficacy of prior offset strategiesmakes them attractive as a reference point. But given the United States’current and future strategic circumstances might a hedging strategy be more effective?

Previous offset strategies focused on tightly defined threats, in a small range of locations, against one primary adversary. The Soviet threat was so significant that it required the majority of the attention and resources of the U.S. military, meaning that prior offset strategies, particularly the second one, were by necessity technological superiority strategies. This is not the case today. Additionally, while previous strategies were successful in overcoming their threat of focus, the Department of Defense’s inability to quickly adapt its capabilities to different threats like those in Vietnam or Iraq highlights the danger of concentrating attention and resources.

Watch Out, Asia: Russia Tests New Anti-Ship Missile System

April 28, 2015

On Tuesday Russia’s Pacific Fleet tested a new mobile, coastal missile unit, according to local media.

Tass media outlet (formerly ITAR-TASS) reported that Russia’s Pacific fleet— whose area of operations covers the Asia-Pacific—conducted its first test of the Bal-E modern coastal missile system (CMS).

"Deploying the system from the move, the personnel carried out a missile launch on a sea target complying with the specified standards," a Pacific Fleet spokesman, Captain First Rank Roman Martov, is quoted of saying.

Earlier, TASS had reported that the Bal-E CMS “consists of a self-propelled command control and communications centre, self-propelled launchers, a transport and reloader machine and communications vehicle, a total of- up to 11 special vehicles.” It added that the system “is capable of hitting targets at ranges up to 120 kilometers at any time and under any weather conditions.”

5 Epic Battles That Changed History Forever

Akhilesh Pillalamarri

April 29, 2015

Battles can make or break states and change the destiny of nations forever. As such, they represent some of humanity’s most important events. While there have been dozens of important, interesting battles over the past five thousand years of recorded warfare, here are five that changed history forever, though by no means is this list exhaustive. Instead, I have selected a wide range of battles from across different regions and times and have specifically avoided focusing on more well-known modern battles, many of which will be covered by The National Interest soon to mark the end of the Napoleonic Wars and World War II.

Milvian Bridge (313)

This seemingly random skirmish should have been just another battle in a series of long-forgotten skirmishes in the civil wars that consumed the Roman Empire during much of the third century. However, the fact that Constantine the Great won the battle to become the Roman Emperor was a major event in world history.

US, Japan Agree to New Defense Guidelines

April 28, 2015

Monday morning, Japan and the United States announced that they had finalized a set of updated guidelines for bilateral defense cooperation, concluding a process that began last year. The new guidelines (available here) take into consideration Japan’s revised defense posture, including the Abe government’s decision to reinterpret a constitutional provision to allow for Japanese participation in collective self-defense. The changes reflect Japan’s worries over China’s rise and enduring concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program.

The announcement comes on the first day of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s week-long visit to the United States; Abe will meet U.S. President Barack Obama tomorrow and become the first Japanese prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress on April 29.

India’s Special Forces: An Appraisal

Amit Kumar

April 2015

At a time when the battlefield has been progressively transforming from the conventional to unconventional, the role of Special Forces will become critical in shaping its outcome. Conflicts in the past decade have established the primacy of such forces. Their role has evolved and today special operations are meant to be decisive and achieve strategic objectives. The Indian security establishment has also been taking notice of these changes and by and large making right moves. As India embarks on the path of high economic growth and becomes a power to reckon with, its troubled neighborhood poses the biggest challenge to it. The role of Special Forces will thus be critical in outwitting adversaries’ moves in the neighborhood and areas of India’s strategic interests, and in promoting India’s security.

Download Complete

Journal of Defence Studies

Journal of Defence Studies, Vol. 9, No. 2, April-June 2015

The issue covers varied themes: leadership attributes for counterinsurgency operations, strategic importance of the Bay of Bengal, the 1971 USS Enterprise incident, benchmarks for naval ship building, China’s biological warfare programme, and India’s Special Forces. It also features an assessment of the Parliamentary Defence Standing Committee (16th Lok Sabha).

Perspective

Standing Committee on Defence (16th Lok Sabha): Striking Old Notes on Debut

-- Amit Cowshish

Focus

Fit for Command: Leadership Attributes for PSO–COIN Operations

-- Ivo Moerman and Paolo Tripodi

Revisiting the 1971 ‘USS Enterprise Incident’: Rhetoric, Reality and Pointers for the Contemporary Era

-- Raghavendra Mishra

VOICE Don’t push me!: How being on the CGSC faculty is sending me right over the edge

BY THOMAS E. RICKS

APRIL 23, 2015

For the past couple of years, I have read the articles regarding the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC) on your blog. I have agreed with almost all of them, but have been reticent to add my two cents. Unfortunately, several recent events at CGSC have recently pushed me over the edge.

Since many of CGSC’s problems are systemic, it is difficult to know where to begin, so let’s start with organization. CGSC is organized into five teaching departments: Department of Tactics (DTAC), Department of Joint, Interagency, and Multinational Operations (DJIMO), Department of Logistics and Resource Operations (DLRO), Department of Command and Leadership (DCL), and Department of Military History (DMH).

To my knowledge we are one of the only staff colleges in the world who teach tactics. The purpose of a staff college is to prepare officers for staff duty. Since we are the Command and General Staff College, we are supposed to prepare officers for staff duty and higher command. Tactics is a subject that field grade officers should already be quite familiar with by the time they reach CGSC.

Viet Cong Commandos Sank an American Aircraft Carrier U.S. salvage crews raised the ship in 17 days

PAUL HUARD

It was shortly after midnight when two Viet Cong commandos emerged from a sewer tunnel that emptied into Saigon Port, each man carrying nearly 90 pounds of high explosives and the components needed to make two time bombs.

Their target was the largest American ship in port, USNS Card. An escort carrier that saw distinguished service as a submarine-hunter in the North Atlantic during World War II, during the early morning hours of May 2, 1964,Card was part of U.S. Military Sealift Command.

The ship supported an escalating military commitment of the South Vietnamese government that occurred well before the Tonkin Gulf Incident. Since 1961, Card had transported both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to the beleaguered nation as well as the U.S. pilots and support crews need to operate them.

The commandos swam toward Card, where they spent about an hour in the water attaching the charges just above the waterline near the bilge and the engine compartment on the ship’s starboard side. They set the timers and quickly swam away.

Getting Aid To A War Zone In A Swarm Of Drones

By Catrin Nye

How do you deliver food and medicine to people in an area where a cargo plane would be shot down? It was a question that kept US Air Force pilot Mark Jacobsen awake at night after he met Syrian refugees in Turkey. Then he had an idea – a swarm of tiny drones, each delivering 1kg or 2kg at a time.

On an airfield in Sacramento a group of aircraft enthusiasts make noisy toy helicopters perform stunts in the air. US army vehicles sit nearby. It’s a baking hot California afternoon, everyone is wearing caps and chasing children to smear sun cream on them as they stare up at the sky.

But next to the regulars is another group, testing custom-built drones. They catapult them into the air at regular intervals and make them circle repeatedly for kilometre after kilometre.

The Battle of Gallipoli A watershed moment in the history of modern warfare

https://medium.com/the-bridge/the-battle-of-gallipoli-17880bfb6fdd

Captain B. A. Friedman, USMC is a field artillery officer and author of 21st Century Ellis, as well as numerous articles and posts. He is also a founding member of the Military Writers Guild. Views contained in this post do not represent the United States Marine Corps, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense.

The Battle of Gallipoli was a watershed moment in the history of warfare. Few other battles were initiated with such high strategic hopes that were then dashed so quickly. Its influence carried far beyond the war in which it occurred. Simultaneously, it spurred some observers to proclaim that the amphibious assault was impossible and others, notably then-Captain Earl “Pete” Ellis of the United States Marine Corps, to completely reexamine the amphibious assault in a modern context and design modern forces to accomplish it. Even in defeat, the battle was a defining moment for Australia and New Zealand whose sons exhibited superhuman courage and endurance in horrific conditions and against desperate odds. Sir Winston Churchill, whose strategic vision was the impetus behind the attempt, faced political exile once the effort failed. He has been both criticized and praised for it since.

29 April 2015

How to meet a quake

By Gopalkrishna Gandhi

April 29, 2015

http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/how-to-meet-a-quake/

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reflexes in rushing aid to quake-struck Nepal have been perfect. He knows about earthquakes from the time of the Bhuj tragedy, on January 26, 2001. He was not chief minister of Gujarat then, but he was on his way to assuming that office when Bhuj shook not just Gujarat but all of India out of seismological complacency.

And so our prime minister knows what an earthquake is and does. Also, how help comes pouring in from all over the country and beyond as well. Especially from neighbours.

We like to think of Sri Lanka as our “small neighbour”. But when Bhuj jolted us out of our smugness on Republic Day in 2001, then President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar did what any neighbour, small or big, would have done — they lost no time in offering and indeed, giving us help. For a nation that was battling, 24X7, a most brutal form of terrorism, had no foreign exchange reserves worth the name and was, in fact, in need of every kind of help from other nations, Sri Lanka’s response was noteworthy. Colombo rustled up a money contribution and a sizeable quantity of blankets and clothing for distribution to the quake-affected. “No used clothes”, Kumaratunga made clear. “Only factory-fresh items”.

In Nepal, it was more than violent geology

SHAHEEN CHUGHTAI

April 28, 2015

Kathmandu was ever a disaster-in-waiting. The densely populated capital of one of the world’s poorest countries clings to the slopes of the seismically unstable Himalayas. The city was nearly levelled and 8,500 killed in its last great earthquake 81 years before. It had history. On Saturday the long-feared calamity struck.

I first arrived in Kathmandu in 2007 to begin a new job with Oxfam. I’d been with the charity two years earlier as part of the international aid effort following the Kashmir earthquake. I saw towns there razed by the shifting tectonic plates that lie beneath that mountain range. More than 75,000 people were killed then, 85,000 were injured, and more than 3 million were made homeless.

With the Kashmir tragedy fresh in my mind, I remember looking at the thousands of flimsy shacks and hovels lining Kathmandu’s dusty slums and the sturdier, but still precarious, multi-tiered family homes, the cheaply built apartment blocks and ornate temples that collectively give the city its colourful, distinctive appearance. We all understood and feared what a big earthquake would surely do there.

Affairs & break-ups

Inder Malhotra

Apr 29, 2015

http://www.asianage.com/columnists/affairs-break-ups-188

Nawaz Sharif owes a huge debt of gratitude to the Saudi royal family... The Saudi monarchy rescued Mr Sharif from life imprisonment to which Gen. Pervez Musharraf had sentenced him in 1999.

To say that China and Saudi Arabia are the closest friends and biggest benefactors of Pakistan would be to stress the obvious. Nor can anyone deny that, but for Beijing’s consistent nuclear and missiles aid to, and the Saudi monarchy’s generous financing of, Islamabad’s clandestine nuclear programme there would have been no Pakistani bomb. The reason for mentioning these familiar facts today is an exquisite irony: the strikingly opposite manners in which Pakistan’s two mentors have treated their protégé during the last few days.

Arriving in Islamabad after several postponements of his visit, China’s President Xi Jinping gave such a big boost to his country’s strategic and economic relations with its “all-weather friend” that many were surprised but not those who have been duly watchful of the nuances in the relationship that is sometimes called “higher than the Himalayas and deeper than the Indian Ocean”.

Killing a country’s ecology

COLIN GONSALVES

April 29, 2015

The Environment Minister insists on clearing all hydro projects, even when the government itself earlier agreed that the Himalayas must be avoided for development work.

A battle of epic proportions between the hydroelectric power companies and the people of Uttarakhand has now culminated with the struggle shifting to the office of the Prime Minister of India. It began with the extraordinary and far-sighted 2014 decision of the Supreme Court in the Alaknanda Hydro Power Company case, where the Court said it was concerned with the mushrooming of hydroelectric projects adversely affecting the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins.

The cumulative impact of dams, tunnels, blasting, the construction of power houses, garbage creation, mining and deforestation on the eco system has not yet been studied. The June 2013 tragedy that affected the Char Dham area of Uttarakhand, where thousands of people were killed and there was massive damage to property, forced a rethinking on projects.

India Still Lacks Modern Battlefield Communication

By Franz-Stefan Gady

April 27, 2015

The Indian Army’s Tactical Communication System (TCS) is facing additional delays, Defense Newsreports. In February 2014, India selected two domestic development agencies (DAs) to compete for the TCS project, which is worth over $2 billion. However, “since the selection of the DAs in early 2014, no headway has been made in the development of a TCS prototype,” a defense ministry source told Defense News.

The TCS — an interfacing mobile tactical communication system — is intended to replace the obsolete radio communication network (the Plan AREN system) of the Indian Army for offensive operations. The Indian Army is also planning to introduce the new Battlefield Management System (BMS) integrating all surveillance resources, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and ground sensors providing soldiers on the ground real-time information on enemy troop movement and the disposition of friendly forces, along with information on terrain features.

With AIIB, US Shot Itself in the Foot on Indian Infrastructure

By Raymond E. Vickery, Jr and Michael Kugelman

April 27, 2015

During his first year in office, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has articulated his vision of Indian economic development to almost anyone who would listen – perhaps most notably to presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping. “Make in India,” electricity in every village, modern sanitation, and rising standards in health, education, and individual prosperity are all part of the Indian future according to Modi. With Obama’s visit to New Delhi earlier this year, U.S. support for this vision is now the cornerstone of U.S.-Indian relations. However, when Modi visits Xi next month, they will discuss India’s benefits from China’s new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and what India may receive from the $62 billion China has just announced for its “new Silk Road” infrastructure initiative.

Under these circumstances, the U.S. Congress has blocked the effectiveness of the most vital institutions for U.S engagement with India on infrastructure development. The Obama Administration has compounded the error through a futile effort to hamstring China’s attempts to provide a source of additional infrastructure financing through the AIIB. The U.S. effort has been rejected by India and 55 other nations, including some of America’s closest allies. Surely, this constitutes a self-inflicted wound—a shot in the foot.

India's Infatuation With the UN Security Council

By Kabir Taneja

April 27, 2015

While on a recent visit to Paris, France, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, made a clear pitch for the country’s bid for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The UNSC is one of the world’s most prestigious “big boys group,” in which all permanent members (the U.S., U.K., China, Russia and France) combine the organization’s collective elitism with questionable results leading the biggest multilateral forum for peace, justice and prosperity in the world.

Certainly on some levels, India’s aspiration makes sense. The country represents more than 1.2 billion people, has the economic might to back its bid, and is now relevant enough in all aspects of global politics to hold its own in the UNSC. The point of distinction here is not to question if and why India should become a member, but rather to ponder the relevance of the UNSC in today’s world.

Gallipoli 1915, a tale of Indian bravery buried in history

Manimugdha S Sharma

At daybreak on August 9, 1915, a young lieutenant of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, British Army, watched in awe as an Indian Army battalion almost ended the stalemate at Gallipoli. Men of the 1/6 Gurkha Rifles rose from their positions and pressed up the Sari Bair ridge, crested the heights between Chunuk Bair and Hill Q, and drove back the Turks after some desperate hand-to-hand fighting. The Gurkhas looked down at the waters of Hellespont—the original objective of the Gallipoli campaign. No Allied unit would repeat the feat ever again.

With no backup coming, the Gurkha commander, Major C G L Allanson, decided to go after the fleeing Turks. But they had hardly moved 200 yards when a murderous artillery barrage broke up the attack. According to Major Allanson, it was the Royal Navy that had shelled them, mistaking them to be Turks. The Gurkhas had to withdraw, but they did so in good order.

Violence in Afghanistan Delays Ghani on Trip to India

By Catherine Putz

April 28, 2015

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, traveling to India for a three-day state visit, left a few hours later than planned in order to meet with General John Campbell, head of the United States’ follow-on training and support mission in the country, Resolute Support.

Details haven’t been released as to the specific contents of last-minute meeting, but it is believed that Ghani, his top security advisors, and Campbell discussed the deteriorating situation in Kunduz. Over the weekend violence spiked in Kunduz, which is in northern Afghanistan and borders Tajikistan. TOLOnews reported that the Provincial Governor Mohammad Omar Safi said 40 insurgents and 12 members of the Afghan security forces had been killed so far but that fighting was ongoing. TOLOnews also reported that 2000 reinforcement troops have deployed to the area.

China Will Supply Pakistan With 110 New JF-17s

By Franz-Stefan Gady

April 28, 2015

China will sell 110 JF-17s Thunder fighter jets to Pakistan, the Economic Times reported.

The Economic Times cites Radio Pakistan as a source, which announced that Beijing will deliver the first patch of 50 planes over the next three years. Additionally, Chinese officials told local Chinese media that the total number of fighter aircraft delivered will be 110, although there is no set delivery schedule for the remaining 6o planes.

The apparent reason for the new delivery from China is that Pakistan’s military aircraft industry cannot keep up with its air force’s demand for new planes amid an intensifying campaign against Taliban insurgents in the country.

IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly summarizes the characteristics of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex/Chengdu Aircraft Industry Corporation (PAC/CAC) JF-17 Thunder combat aircraft:

Obama Secretly Gave CIA Waiver to Conduct Intensive Drone Strike Campaign in Pakistan

Adam Entous

April 27, 2015

President Barack Obama tightened rules for the U.S. drone program in 2013, but he secretly approved a waiver giving the Central Intelligence Agency more flexibility in Pakistan than anywhere else to strike suspected militants, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The rules were designed to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. Mr. Obama also required that proposed targets pose an imminent threat to the U.S.—but the waiver exempted the CIA from this standard in Pakistan.

Last week, the U.S. officials disclosed that two Western hostages, U.S. and Italian aid workers Warren Weinstein and Giovanni Lo Porto, were killed on Jan. 15 by a U.S. drone strike aimed at al Qaeda militants in Pakistan. If the exemption had not been in place for Pakistan, the CIA might have been required to gather more intelligence before that strike.

And though support for the drone program remains strong across the U.S. government, the killings have renewed a debate within the administration over whether the CIA should now be reined in or meet the tighter standards that apply to drone programs outside of Pakistan.

Pakistan military's move on Karachi seen part of 'creeping coup'

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik

Apr 27, 2015

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - The chief of Pakistan's main spy agency is spearheading a campaign to wrest control of the teeming port city of Karachi from a powerful political party, the military's latest, and some say boldest, foray into civilian life in recent years.

According to military officials, police officers and members of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) party which has traditionally dominated Karachi, Rizwan Akhtar has decided the time for policing the city from the sidelines is over.

"There is a quiet, creeping takeover of Karachi by the military," said a government official close to Akhtar, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, which traditionally acts as an extension of army power in Pakistan.

Chinese president Xi is making a $46 billion move in Pakistan

KATHARINE HOURELD

APR. 20, 2015

China and Pakistan launched a plan on Monday for energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan worth $46 billion, linking their economies and underscoring China's economic ambitions in Asia and beyond.

China's President Xi Jinping arrived in Pakistan to oversee the signing of agreements aimed at establishing a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor between Pakistan's southern Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea and China's western Xinjiang region.

The plan, which would eclipse U.S. spending in Pakistan over the last decade or so, is part of China's aim to forge "Silk Road" land and sea ties to markets in the Middle East and Europe.

PRESIDENT GHANI’S VISIT TO INDIA: NEW BEGINNINGS – ANALYSIS

By Dr Shanthie Mariet D Souza

APRIL 26, 2015

Thirteen months after the then external affairs minister Salman Khurshid promised to deliver helicopters to Afghanistan, New Delhi has transported three Cheetal helicopters to Kabul. The training component of the transfer has been completed and the announcement of the delivery will be made during President Ghani’s visit to India. Cheetal is an upgraded Cheetah (Alouette) helicopter with a newer Turbomeca TM 333-2M2 engine. These choppers are capable of operating in remote and high altitude mountainous region with higher speed (more than 200 km/hr), range (more than 600 km) and payload. The Cheetal can be used for personnel transport, casualty evacuation, reconnaissance and aerial survey, logistic air support and rescue operations. As the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) face increasing insurgent onslaught, the need for airpower is critical gap that New Delhi intends to address in buttressing the capability of the Afghan Air force.

After Devasating Earthquake, China Rushes Aid to Nepal

By Shannon Tiezzi

April 28, 2015

Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal, registered atmagnitude 7.8 by the U.S. Geological Survey, has devastated the country, leaving at least 3,617 dead. The death toll is expected to continue to rise as rescue teams make their way to remote villages where damage is feared to be extensive. Survivors, meanwhile, must cope with shortages of basic necessities — food, water, shelter, and medical supplies.

Amidst the devastation, Nepal’s government is looking to the international community to provide desperately needed aid. In particular, Kathmandu will need help from its two powerful neighbors, India and China. China in particular, which is trying to bolster its presence in South Asia through the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, will find its actions heavily scrutinized by people wondering if China is really ready to play the role of a great power.

‘The Chinese Passport Demonstrates Its True Worth’

BY RACHEL LU

APRIL 27, 2015

HONG KONG — On April 25, a massive magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal near its capital Kathmandu, with the death toll topping 4,000. Thousands of Chinese tourists were among those who survived, and the vast majority anxious to flee would soon come to know the value, and the limits, of the passports they bore as they sought to return home.

Over the past few years, Nepal has become a popular tourist destination for China’s growing middle class; visitors pose with pigeons in the historical Dunbar Square in Kathmandu and trek in the foothills of the Himalayas to gaze at the snowy peaks. According to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, there were about 4,000 Chinese tourists in Nepal at the time of the earthquake. Almost all of them, in the chaotic aftermath, were anxious to get home. “Passengers can board [Chinese planes in Kathmandu] with or without a plane ticket as long as they have Chinese passports,” according to an April 26 Xinhua editorial, which concluded, “In a time of need, the Chinese passport demonstrates its true worth.”

What caused the Nepal earthquake?

The India tectonic plate moving north at about 45mm a year is pushing under the Eurasian plate beneath the Himalayas.

Two tectonic plates meet beneath the Himalayas along a fault line. The India plate is moving north at around 45mm a year and pushing under the Eurasian plate. Over time that is how the Himalayas were created.

Dr Brian Baptie, head of seismology at the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, explains the potential after-effects of the quake.

Saturday's catastrophic earthquake in Nepal occurred because of two converging tectonic plates: the India plate and the overriding Eurasia plate to the north, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Tectonic plates are the large, thin, relatively rigid plates that move relative to one another on the outer surface of the Earth.

Where Do We Draw the Line on Balancing China?

BY STEPHEN M. WALT

APRIL 27, 2015

Is it time for the United States to get serious about balancing China? According to Robert Blackwill and Ashley Tellis, the answer is an emphatic yes. In a new Council on Foreign Relations report, they portray China as steadily seeking to increase its national power, reduce the U.S. security role in Asia, and eventually dominate the international system. To deal with this clear challenge to U.S. primacy, they call for “a new grand strategy toward China that centers on balancing the rise of Chinese power rather than continuing to assist its ascendancy.”

In their view, success in this endeavor will require the United States to revitalize its economy, build preferential trading arrangements with Asian partners (such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership), deny critical technology to Beijing, and shore up U.S. and allied military capabilities in Asia. They also recommend that Washington strive to manage Sino-American relations through sustained high-level engagement with Beijing, and good things like that. But their overriding goal is to “limit China’s capacity to misuse its growing power.”

Saudi Arabia’s Air Attacks on Yemen

28 Apr , 2015

Saudi Arabia informed the Obama Administration in the fourth week of March 2015 of their intention to commence a ‘military operation’ against neighbouring Yemen. The situation in Yemen, from the Saudi perspective, was grave: the Saudi supported elected government of Abou Rabbou Mansour al Hadi had been defeated in an armed insurrection by Yemen’s opposition Shi’ite Houthi tribesmen, President Abou had fled to the main southern port of Aden from the capital Sana’a and Aden itself was under threat of falling to the Houthi tribesmen.

The Saudi air attack, functioning under the aegis of an Arab coalition, comprising the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, in addition to Saudi Arabia), Turkey and Egypt, followed on the early hours of March 26. Pakistan, eager to be associated with the causes of the mainline Sunni States of the Gulf and the Middle East, also made the cosmetic gesture of offering to join the bandwagon against the Houthis.

ISIS and the Principles of War

By Robert N. Hein

April 27, 2015

Ever since the Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu outlined principles required for the conduct of war in the fifth century B.C., military strategists have opined on what those principles are, and whether currently accepted principles need revision. A strong case exists for the principles laid by the 19th century Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz: mass, objective, offensive, surprise, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command, security and simplicity. Although there is a realization that Clausewitz’s principles do not cover every situation a modern military must face such as humanitarian crisis or counterinsurgency – the actions of ISIS to date – demonstrate Clausewitz was right.

It is unlikely that a group of renegade jihadist extremists would abide by the principles, or even be aware of them; however, the invasion of Iraq by ISIS is a textbook example of the timelessness of the principles and a worthy example of their effectiveness. ISIS’ successes demonstrate how adherence to the principles can lead to success on the battlefield. Denying ISIS the ability to adhere to the principles will likewise lead to their defeat.

USAF Has Many Options to Destroy Iranian Nuke Facilities

April 27, 2015

Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told CNN the United States military has the capability to “shut down, set back and destroy” Iran’s nuclear program.

The highly-publicized yet classified weapon Carter was referring to is the Massive Ordnance Penetrator — a behemoth, 30,000-pound bunker bomb introduced specifically to destroy Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities.

In January, we told you the Pentagon was modifying and testing the bomb as the diplomatic push for a nuclear settlement with the pariah state intensified. But of course, that’s not all the U.S. military has been up to in the background.

For some Muslim youth, Islamic State's allure is a meaningful alternative to Western values

By Timothy Phillips and Nir Eisikovits

BOSTON — As the "Islamic State" takes its murderous Blitzkrieg across the Middle East, analysts and policymakers have struggled to understand how the organization attracts so many young people, especially from the heart of Western Europe.

While precise numbers are elusive, recent studies (including, notably, Stern and Berger’s excellent book “ISIS: The State of Terror”) suggest that foreign European fighters are dramatically over-represented in the ranks of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS).

Some point to the group’s social media savvy. But this explanation confuses the means of gathering support with the reasons behind it. Twitter and Facebook offer outstanding ways for organizing, but they do not generate the will to organize.

Ukraine’s existential struggle: Russia employing scare tactics

As Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko met European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk, Kiev’s military reported intensifying attacks by pro-Russian rebels in the east and south-east.

The EU-Ukraine summit was the first since a political and free trade association agreement was signed by Poroshenko’s pro-Western leadership after the ousting of the Moscow-backed Viktor Yanukovich in a public revolt in Kiev in February last year.

The EU particularly is pressing Ukraine to take radical moves to rid itself of endemic corruption and reform its corruption-prone energy sector, give regions more power to run their own affairs and improve the business and investment climate.

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