War and Conflict

NATO 2030: How to Make a Bad Idea Worse

Just when you thought the leaders of NATO could not push the limits of insanity any further, something like NATO 2030 is announced.
After helping blow up the Middle East and North Africa, dividing the Balkans into zones of war and tension, turning Ukraine upside down using armadas of neo Nazis, and encircling Russia with a ballistic missile shield, the leaders of this Cold War relic have decided that the best way to deal with instability of the world is… more NATO.

Finally, the EU and Trump See Eye-to-Eye on One International Policy: China

Both Trump and the EU are turning on China for very similar reasons but with different timescales ahead of them. The West still struggles with what it requires from China and whether it wants to get rich and become a big spender, or become poorer and flood western markets with cheaper and cheaper goods. Expect more devaluation of the Yuan.

Floundering NATO Tries to Surface by Confronting China

On June 8 Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of the U.S.-NATO military alliance, gave a speech at NATO’s new billion dollar headquarters in Brussels. It was followed by a selection of patsy questions, but in spite of the trite predictability of Stoltenberg’s statements and the eager friendliness of the questioners, enough was said to indicate that NATO is still on the lookout for enemies to attempt to justify its continuing shaky existence.

The Pentagon’s Battle Space Is Expanding

On 1 June the US Air Force Times reported that two B-1B Lancer nuclear bombers based in South Dakota had just completed a “long-range training flight” to the Black Sea during which they carried out manoeuvres to practice using “a long-range missile designed to target and destroy enemy ships.” This deployment was “especially important to prepare B-1 crews to counter new and emerging threats and to be ready for a conflict against a major power, as outl

Somalia: Erratic U.S. Policy Failure Doesn’t Get Noticed. But a U.S. Diplomat Struggling With an End-of-Career Crisis Might

Churchill is believed to have once said that “diplomacy is the art of telling people to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions.” If that is true, then can we assume that Washington’s man in East Africa has lost his edge? Or perhaps just his mind.
There is a fable of a senior foreign office official from London in colonial times visiting a ‘District Officer’ in East Africa. They both venture out into the dessert in a Land Rover and the official asks his khaki clad DO three questions.
“What is the name of the tribe in this area?”