A brief history of armed conflict’s most controversial job Snipers play a key role in the world’s armies. They’re excellent scouts and can target commanders on the opposing side with an outsize impact. Working by themselves, they can pin down a group, creating fear and confusion. Thanks to movies such as Enemy at the Gates and…
Category: Asymmetrical Warfare
Russian Hybrid Warfare and Other Dark Arts
Following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, hybrid warfare has become conversational short form in the West for describing Moscow’s sneaky ways of fighting war. If there’s one thing you’ve learned over the past two years about Russia, it’s that it uses hybrid warfare, a dangerous Kremlin innovation the West must learn to grapple with. In two…
Military History: How the IED Rocked the Modern Battlefield
Brian Castner’s new book offers unflinching testimony of how the IED devastated the EOD community in Iraq and Afghanistan. The face of the man who wanted to kill me wasn’t immediately visible — the photo of him required close examination. My company commander took the picture while deployed to Iraq in 2005. On a…
The Rise of the Russian PMC (Private Military Contractor)
On Jan. 28, the Duma began discussing the possibility of legalizing private military companies in Russia. The law, which counts influential vice prime minister Dmitry Rogozin as a supporter, has one major goal — to ensure that Iraqi oil fields where Russian firms Rosneft and Gazprom operate no longer come under the protection of British…
STRATFOR Founder Warns: “Be Ready for War”
Interstate warfare is a thankfully unusual occurrence in the present day. State-assisted nonstate groups frequently fight governments, a scenario currently unfolding in Syria, Eastern Ukraine, and a host of other places. But you’d have to go back to the US-led invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2003, or the Eritrea-Ethiopia conflict of the late 1990s for an example…
What the 2016 Presidential Candidates Get Wrong About the Future of War
They fail, they lack, they misunderstand, they pander, they don’t get, and they just don’t know national security – not according to our Future of War roster of experts. “The President shall be Commander in Chief…” This clause that leads Article Two, Section II of the U.S. Constitution is without a doubt the most important of…
Russian Subs Are Reheating a Cold War Chokepoint
As the GIUK gap returns to importance, NATO must look to regenerate its anti-submarine force. The recent U.S. promise to fund upgrades to Iceland’s military airfield at Keflavik is no diplomatic bone thrown to a small ally. The improvements will allow the U.S. Navy’s new P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft to keep an eye on…
Stand with Israel: Hamas Boost Cooperation with ISIS in Sinai
The Gaza terror group’s armed wing is digging tunnels in broad daylight to smuggle in Islamic State jihadists for medical care The Egyptian soldiers stationed on the border of the Gaza Strip have encountered this sight more than once in the past few weeks: Hamas-owned bulldozers and tractors appear and begin excavations on the…
Iranian Basij Fighting Forces Bolster the Assad Regime in Syria
This fanatical Para-Military Volunteer pipeline stretches from Tehran to Damascus Tehran downplays its presence in Syria, but its volunteers are hard to hide. The most obvious clue as to their presence is the fact that Iranian troops have died in the conflict, including high-profile commanders such as Brig. Gen. Hossein Hamedani of the Iranian Revolutionary…
Going Inside the Ukrainian Power Grid Hack
IT WAS 3:30 p.m. last December 23, and residents of the Ivano-Frankivsk region of Western Ukraine were preparing to end their workday and head home through the cold winter streets. Inside the Prykarpattyaoblenergo control center, which distributes power to the region’s residents, operators too were nearing the end of their shift. But just as one…