May 13, 2013

By Dan O’Shea, INSCT Research & Practice Associate (Republished from the Tampa Bay Times) Like many Americans, I watched the entire Benghazi testimony this past week, and despite the noble efforts of some State Department whistle-blowers who attempted to speak the truth, I don’t believe their testimony will ultimately change anything. The divide in our [...]

May 7, 2013

By Isaac Kfir On May 1, 2013 Afghan and Pakistani security forces engaged in heavy clashes,[1] during which an Afghan Border Police officer was killed and three injured.[2] It is unclear if there were any injuries on the Pakistani side. This latest border clash[3] serves as a reminder of the turbulent relations between the two [...]

May 6, 2013

May 6, 2013 | By Jonathan Panikoff (INSCT almunus) (Republished from Small Wars Journal) The devastation resulting from the Syrian crisis thus far is staggering. As of mid-February, the United Nations estimated close to 70,000 people had been killed and more than 950,000 refugees had fled Syria. Both numbers are undoubtedly higher now, more than [...]

April 23, 2013

April 23, 2013 | By William Synder (Re-posted from National Security Law Blog) I have been this question a lot from students: Professor: I have a question regarding the charges and trial of the Boston bomber. I took your Prosecuting Terrorists course two years ago, and I vividly recall the semester long debate over how [...]

April 19, 2013

April 19, 2013 | By Isaac Kfir On May 11, 2013, Pakistanis will potentially head to the polls to elect a new government. The importance of the election stems from the fact that the new administration will need to address many structural problems that Pakistan faces, from power shortages and pervasive insecurity to water politics [...]

April 18, 2013

April 18, 2013 | Republished from Small Wars Journal Octavian Manea: Why do you talk about variety of insurgencies?  Should we see Baghdad, Anbar, and Basra as different insurgencies? Roger D. Petersen: Different countries and different regions possess certain qualities that form the potential “building blocks” for sustained insurgency.  Whether that potential is realized or [...]

March 28, 2013

March 27, 2013 | By Nick Armstrong (Republished from Security Governance Group Blog) The RAND Corporation recently published a monograph on United States security assistance efforts since the end of the Cold War. The monograph questions how the U.S. Department of Defense can increase its effectiveness in building partner capacity, and what approaches are effective [...]

March 27, 2013

March 27, 2013 | By Casey Carey (Republished from Small Wars Journal) Tensions in Tallinn, Estonia had been building for weeks when Hillar Aarelaid—director of Estonia’s Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT)—detected an unusually volume of web queries toward government and commercial websites on 26 April 2007. He was not particularly surprised.  The ethnic Russian minority [...]

March 14, 2013

March 14, 2013 | By Isaac Kfir The latest set of statements and decrees from Hamid Karzai accusing the US of colluding[1] with the Taliban, and his recent banning of a US special operation in Wardak Province[2]—though infuriating because they sully the memory of those men and women who have fought to rebuild Afghanistan at [...]

March 6, 2013

March 6, 2013 | By Mike Haynie & Nicholas Armstrong (Reprinted from the New York Times) Stand on the corner of H Street and Vermont Avenue in Washington, D.C., and in every direction you’ll see the ways and means of American government — the White House in front, the Treasury to the left and the huge Office of [...]