The New York Times recently posted reports about the U.S. military's trial of soldiers accused of randomly killing civilians in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, “for sport.” Apart from the horrors of the alleged crimes, there is a terrible irony in the stories. This goes beyond the fact that these kinds of incidents are hardly news. They are completely predictable in any war, even among the best-trained and most disciplined armies—let alone...
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A gulf in understanding?
Last week I participated in a workshop at the Al Jazeera Center for Studies in Doha, Qatar, which brought to an end the ESRC’s Radicalisation & Violence programme of research projects, led by Prof. Stuart Croft. I was one of several researchers invited to present recent research on ‘terrorism, resistance and radicalisation’. My fledgling experience of academia has thus far been that debates rarely get politicised. It is noteworthy when it...
Homeland Security Heads Roll in Pennsylvania—But the GWOT Keeps on Rolling
Two weeks ago, I wrote about Pennsylvania’s Perverted War on Terror. This week the state’s Homeland Security Director James Powers, Jr. resigned. Governor Ed Rendell had refused to fire him, saying Powers was not the only one responsible for hiring the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR). True, enough: Rendell had command responsibility, and Robert French, director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency,...
Fun and Games in Delhi
The Commonwealth Games begin tomorrow in Delhi, which offers a good excuse for some thoughts on two neglected topics in contemporary international relations – India and the Commonwealth. With 54 nations involved the Games are a major international sporting event, and were bid for by India as a way of demonstrating their emerging significance in the world, a kind of Olympics in a minor key that would do for the Indian bit of the BRIC nations...
The Case Against the Case Against Blast Weapons
A (way) while back Charli posted a link to a report by Landmine Action. The short version is that it is calling for a ban on so-called ‘blast-weapons’ as a method of warfare.From the outset I’m going to admit that it’s simply not easy to defend things that can blow innocent civilians to smithereens. And I don't intent to defend the weapons themselves as some kind of fabulous invention. I do, however, wish to take on some of the thinking and...
Negotiating with the Taliban
He's not alone, of course, but scholar Gilles Dorronsoro is quite pessimistic about the Afghan surge and ongoing counterinsurgency campaign:The current counterinsurgency campaign shows little signs of accomplishing its mission. The surge is not enough to reverse the Taliban’s gains, or the quick decline of the Karzai government. Pakistan’s lack of support makes the Taliban sanctuary there a major strategic problem.More troops and the latest...
The Calculus of Counter-narcotics
$250 million = the amount spent just by the US in FY2010 to counter narcotics in Afghanistan$100 million = the amount earned annually by the Taliban from narcotics trafficking304,000 acres = the number of acres devoted to opium in 2009304,000 acres = the number of acres devoted to opium in 2010$64 per Kg = the price of opium in 2009$169 per Kg = the price of opium in 2010Total production of opium did decline, but mainly because of a disease...
Flashback: Afghanistan “Mission Accomplished”
I've been teaching Af-Pak in my security class these past few weeks. The war has been going on for so long that many "highlights" now seem like distant history.For instance, everyone remembers the farce that was George W. Bush's May 1, 2003, celebration of the end of major combat operations in Iraq. The image of the "Mission Accomplished" banner is engrained in our brains, as is the picture of Bush in flightsuit strutting to deliver his...
Austerity, unicorns, and political economy
Mark Blyth waxing enthusiastic about why "austerity" is not commonsensical economic policy at all. Food for thought.WatsonMedia presents Mark Blyth on Austerity from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.
You can’t create national security policy in a vacuum
Stephen Biddle has a spot-on piece over at Foreign Policy on how Presidents, and Obama in particular, must take into account domestic politics when setting national security strategy. With the release of Bob Woodward's latest book, Obama's Wars, many have jumped on the President's alleged quote that he can't lose the entire Democratic Party to justify the need to set a troop draw-down date for Afghanistan as evidence that he's putting politics...
Applied Signaling: Pajamas and 3-year olds
Every night, about 15 minutes or so after we've put my 3-year old daughter to bed, we inevitably hear a knock at the door. She's typically knocking because she needs to go the bathroom. She's also knocking because she wants to scope out what we are doing, find out if she is missing anything. One thing that bothers her is if me or my wife leaves the house after she goes to bed. In order to go to sleep she needs some kind of guarantee that we...
Prisoners of America’s Wars (A shameless self-promotion kinda morning…)
My (first) book, Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo is now shipping on Amazon.com (or Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, etc.). Considering that this would be the closest thing to offspring that I have ever produced, I thought that I would post it in the hope that it may be of some interest to some Duck readers. I've pasted the abstract below for that very reason:Prisoners of war have been a significant feature of...