Martin Forgues

Much has been written about the counterinsurgency (COIN) strategies and tactics being used in Afghanistan and Iraq—or rather not. Back in 2007-2008, during my army days in Kandahar, I remember  commanders endlessly bragging about how “we totally nail that COIN thing,” always gargling out quotes from the likes of COIN scholar David Galula. He was a […]

Author’s note: “They’re Still At War” will be a multi-part series dealing with underreported or fully ignored low- to medium-intensity conflicts around the world. Over the next few weeks, we’ll cover countries such as Central African Republic, Congo, Yemen, and others. The first part deals with Mali. France’s military intervention in Mali has been mostly over for […]

War and electoralism have become exceedingly close, marking the return of a temptation politicians can’t quite resist.

From Turkey’s point of view, ISIS isn’t their biggest threat. The Kurds are.

We look at why the Canadian military is far too extended to back any action resulting from the Harper/Putin staring contest over Ukraine.

The Canadian government recently voted to expand and extend the Canadian Special Operations Regiment’s “training and advising” mission in Iraq as well as the air bombing campaign, which will now extends to the Syrian portion of ISIS-controlled territory. With a first soldier killed as a result of friendly fire which revealed that CSOR has been […]

PSYOPS tactics have been used against ISIS in Syria. While a commendable effort, there’s much room for improvement.

With ISIS demonstrating state-of-the-art propaganda techniques drawing thousands of foreign fighters into their ranks, PSYOPS units should be deployed on the first line alongside SOF advisors and the Kurdish forces they support.

Since French combat forces gave way to the current 9000-strong United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali, war has continued raging in the desert north of the country with no signs of peace on the horizon.

I was amused by Loren Schofield’s satirical article about the Army making PSYOP an “all-women trade.” Even DuffelBlog referred to PSYOP soldiers as “highly-trained radio guards” for Special Forces ODAs.

Canada took the world by surprise when Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced a 4.5 million-dollar military aid package to be delivered to Ukraine around the same time Russian strongman Vladimir Putin revealed his country’s plan to send in a mysterious “humanitarian aid convoy” consisting of over 250 vehicles that suspiciously look like military trucks painted […]

Traditionally, threatening a neighbouring nation to rain down fire on them used to be the stuff of official channels and quite obvious foreign policy actions – recalling ambassadors, cutting off diplomatic ties, saber-rattling speeches in Parliament, broadcast on all major radio and TV networks. On August 7, Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev took the game to […]