Brought to You by the Members of the U.S. Naval Institute
Domestic economic growth and new terrorist attacks on American soil likely will dominate the 2016 presidential campaign; but China’s continuing cybertheft, its building islands for military use out of reefs or sliding the world into global recession through mishandling of its own economy—coupled with North Korea’s nuclear weapons testing—are international issues that could surface as the race heats up. Read More
U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2015, NASA Photo
The Defense Department is about three weeks from finalizing its Fiscal Year 2017 budget request and is coordinating with Congress on a final 2016 spending bill now that a two-year budget deal is in place, DoD Comptroller Mike McCord said Monday at a Center for Strategic and International Studies event. Read More
A naval soldier of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) views through a pair of binoculars onboard China’s first aircraft carrier Liaoning as it visits a military harbour on the South China Sea. Xinhua Photo
The coral reefs on which China is building airstrips are “not just a bunch of rocks, ”but the transit point for about half of the world’s maritime containerized cargo,” Michael Green, vice president for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Monday. Read More
The Russian Honor Guard stand-by as part of a ceremony in 2006. U.S. DoD Photo
Although “Russia is not a rising power . . . even in military terms,” Moscow can still “disturb and do harm,” one of the nation’s leading scholars on strategy told attendees at a Center for Strategic and International Studies forum Friday. Read More
U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2015, NASA Photo
Rethinking the role of the regional combatant commands, cutting the Pentagon’s support structure and putting the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff back in the operational chain of command structure were ideas offered to the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday as it revisited the almost 30-year-old Goldwater-Nichols Act. Read More
Lt. Gen. Robert Walsh, commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command on Aug. 27, 2015. US Navy Photo
The deputy commandant for combat development and integration described the Marine Corps’ “campaign of learning” as the way forward in assessing what the service will need in the future. Read More
Colombian commando in 2014.
Colombia’s ongoing push to curb violence and diminish the influence of drug cartels within its borders is the region’s “bright shining example,” the commander of Southern Command told attendees at a Washington think-tank forum Friday. Read More
One lesson Saudi Arabia took from its 2009 encounter with Houthis in Yemen, raiding its border posts and harassing tribes in that region, was the value of Saudi special forces in those conflicts. Since then it has built up those capabilities as part of its evolving military doctrine, Prince Sultan bin Khaled al Faisal said Thursday. Read More
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in an undated photo.
North Korea sees cyber operations as integrated with its irregular peacetime operations and valuable in disrupting the operations of its enemies, like command and control, the co-author of an upcoming report on the country’s cyber activities said Monday. Read More
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2013.
“Thanks to Vladimir Putin, it looks like the strategic holiday is over” for the United States and NATO when it comes to examining the role that non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe will play in the alliance, a leading expert on Russia’s foreign and military policy said Friday. Read More
