Vasilis Chronopoulos

With the all-out civil war in Yemen, the maritime security industry’s floating armories present a lucrative target for the AQAP-affiliated Anshar al Sharia.

Make up your minds that happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.

The already grave crisis in Macedonia has been reignited by clashes in the city of Kumanovo, which have resulted in the deaths of 22 people.

The next brawl of the century comes down to two scrappy opponents: the Taliban and ISIS. Regardless of who loses, we win.

As exciting as ‘anti-piracy operations’ may sound, or as adventurous as the film “Captain Phillips” may make it seem, the reality of the maritime-security industry is a bit more monotonous. Since the real Maersk Alabama incident, virtually every ship approaching the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor carries armed guards, and the Somali ‘Jack Sparrows’ have become […]

Greece has been at the center of global attention for a long time. Having been hit the hardest by the economic crisis of 2008 and seemingly incapable of showing any meaningful signs of recovery, it is often seen as Europe’s spoiled child—a bad pimple on the world’s arse. Even more, the January 25 elections provided fodder for speculation as […]

SOF soldiers around the globe have one thing in common: they always make do with whatever resources they have available. In Greece, we have been hit hard by the world economic crisis, and the money needed for a Fast Rope Insertion Extraction System (FRIES) was simply not available. A staff sergeant from the Special Paratroopers section designed […]

This is probably an article that would better suit my own personal blog, as it isn’t an opinion piece, an expert analysis, and certainly wouldn’t be considered special operations or intel. It’s simply a rant about society and the plague of conspiracy theories we’re faced with daily, coming from a soldier who has simply had enough. First of all, […]

Any modern country has a wide variety of assets to protect. Some of those assets are more necessary than others for the country’s security, welfare, and economy in general. Such critical assets include power grids, water supplies, public-transit systems, and telecommunications, to name a few. Critical infrastructure has to be protected from a wide variety of […]

In ancient Athens, when young men reached the age of 18, they presented themselves to the Ecclesia. There, during a ceremony, they received their weapons and pledged the vow of Athenian adolescents taking their place among the defenders of Athenian democracy. Here follows said vow: “I shall not disgrace the sacred arms, nor shall I abandon […]

Kurdish protests have been taking place recently in Turkey regarding the country’s inadequate response against ISIS, and the lack of support for Kurdish fighters in the town of Kobane, Syria. The protests were peaceful in contrast with the riots of October, which resulted in the death of more than 30 civilians—most killed by protesters fighting with […]

The 2011 revolution in Libya, a revolution that was part of what is now known as the Arab Spring, succeeded in putting an end to the 42-year rule of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and brought about the election of a transitional council. The fall of Gaddafi did not, unfortunately, bring an end to Libya’s suffering. The General […]