Brought to You by the Members of the U.S. Naval Institute
Sharing information on dangerously addictive prescriptions is one of the ways the Pentagon and the Department Veterans Affairs efforts to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic, Defense Department health officials told a House Armed Services subcommittee Wednesday. Read More
Army Lt. Gen. Austin S. Miller testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on June 19, 2018. DoD Photo
The nominee to lead American and coalition forces in Afghanistan said the key to safely withdrawing U.S. and coalition troops lie in reaching a political solution among the disparate parties and not simply disrupting Taliban operations or hunting down terrorist groups like the Islamic State, al Qaeda or the Haqqani Network. Read More
Kremlin
The Russian strategic decision to value information dominance over cyber warfare is reaping major dividends in sowing distrust among the Western democracies, a former director of the CIA and NSA said on Monday. Read More
Several U.S. military-industrial projects in cooperation Turkey are in question – including the production of the F-35 – if Ankara goes through with the acquisition of a Russian S-4000 air defense system, a senior State Department official said on Tuesday. Read More
Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning underway. PLAN Photo
Through its navy, coast guard, a loose collection of armed fishing vessels, and a network of military bases built on artificial islands, Beijing has gained de facto control of the South China Sea, a panel of Indo-Pacific security experts said Friday. Read More
Undated Photo of Taiwanese troops using U.S. equipment.
Taiwan, faced with a more aggressive China, is talking a good game of ramping up the island’s security with its own submarines, buying sophisticated fighter aircraft and exploring asymmetric defenses, but President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration has not made the hard choices to raise a defense budget that already is being consumed by higher personnel costs, an expert panel agreed on Wednesday. Read More
Head of Mission of People’s Republic of China to the European Union Hailong Wu, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarifat, an unidentified Russian official, British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pose for a photo following negotiations between the P5+1 member nations and Iranian officials about the future of their country’s nuclear program at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland on April 2, 2015. US State Department Photo
The Trump administration’s decision to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal leaves the European Union with the difficult choice of continuing to trade with Iran to keep up its end of the accord but also faces the loss of doing business in the United States, the EU ambassador to Washington said Wednesday. Read More
A U.S. Marine with Task Force Southwest (TFSW) provides security for Marine advisors during an advising mission with 1st Brigade, Afghan National Army (ANA) 215th Corps as the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces conduct Operation Maiwand 12 at Camp Shorserack, Afghanistan, March 12, 2018. US Marine Corps Photo
The United States, NATO and coalition partners indirectly created more warlords “who were just as bad as the terrorists themselves” for Afghans by pouring huge amounts of money into grandiose projects without proper oversight and coordination, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said Thursday. Read More
Pro-Russian separatists at a check point in Kharkiv in Eastern Ukraine on 2014.
The ongoing strife in Ukraine is the on the top of NATO’s agenda in dealing with Russia, agreed alliance representatives from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom on Wednesday at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Read More
Russian solider in Syria in 2016. Kremlin Photo
While the Kremlin’s newly professionalized military is armed with top-of-the-line ship-launched cruise missiles, flying more capable strike aircraft and firing precision munitions Russia, “does not have the ability to sustain forces far from the border,” a military expert said on Wednesday. Read More
