Category: Expert Analysis

Since the Vietnam War, the United States government has experimented with embedding development workers within military and intelligence teams to advance its work in counterinsurgency (COIN) missions with programs such as Civil Operations and Rural Development Support (CORDS) and Phoenix. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has always led the charge in providing […]

The 4/73 (Sphinx) Special Observation Post Battery Royal Artillery frequently deploys surveillance and target acquisition patrols, which often operate far from the primary force, behind enemy lines. They deploy fire support teams to brigade reconnaissance forces or other reconnaissance elements to aid in calling in accurate artillery strikes. The unit was established in 1982 predominantly […]

In July of 1947, something fell from the sky and crash landed in Mack Brazel’s ranch, just northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. According to the official story, it was an experimental weather balloon. If you listen to the long list of conspiracy theories surrounding the event, it was a spaceship from another world, crewed by […]

For at least a decade, military families have battled so-called Public/Private Ventures (PPVs) on Department of Defense installations which allowed private real estate firms to build housing for soldiers and their dependents, then collect rent directly from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in the form of the soldiers’ basic housing allowance. It was a […]

In response to the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand, which left 50 people murdered in cold blood, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged that her government would draft new firearms legislation and ban semi-automatic “assault weapons” such as the AR-15 pattern rifles the gunman used. The New York Times editorial board beamed with their headline, […]

“The Kurds have no friend but the mountains,” as the old saying goes. Yet there are few mountains in Northern Syria, where the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) formed a coalition with Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The […]

Chinese telecom giant Huawei filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, claiming the National Defense Authorization Act banning the installation of their hardware in federal defense systems is unconstitutional. The lawsuit complaint states: Plaintiffs Huawei Technologies USA, Inc., and Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (collectively, “Plaintiffs” or “Huawei”), by and through their attorneys, bring this action […]

Russia’s struggling economy may not make for a particularly effective military, but the Kremlin’s ability to mold public perceptions remains among the nation’s most comprehensive and powerful skill sets. While some within the United States are still content to dispute the idea that Moscow uses a combination of state-run media outlets and social media outreach […]

After nearly two straight decades of counter-insurgency and anti-terrorism warfare, the United States has found itself at a disadvantage compared to the smaller and less technologically advanced militaries of China and Russia in some circumstances. With these nation-level competitors enjoying the lead in hypersonic missile technology, long-range artillery technology, and even the development of new […]

While it could be said that every unit which falls under the “special ops” umbrella is comprised of operators who can move, shoot, and communicate with lethal efficiency, different units developed to address specialized challenges. As the years wore on, and particularly since the onset of the Global War on Terrorism, lines may have blurred […]

In 2010, Chelsea Manning, then US Army Specialist Bradley Manning, approached Wikileaks and was responsible for the largest leak of classified information in American history.  She claims to be ideologically motivated and felt that the American public needed to know what was in the leaked documents, a disclosure often compared to the Pentagon Papers.  President […]

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has replaced its commander and chief, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, naming Abu Abdullah Ibn Umar al-Barnawi as the new region commander. The former commander’s father was none other than Muhammad Yusuf, the founder of Boko Haram. It raises the question: has the Islamic State just killed al-Barnawi? Mamman Nur and al-Barnawi created ISWAP in late […]