Archive for March, 2014

Pipeline politics in Syria

A gas pumping station in Georgia near the Turkish border. The author argues that the tensions surrounding the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline shed light on the Syrian conflict. (Photo: Robert Thomson)

You can’t understand the conflict without talking about natural gas

By Maj. Rob Taylor

Much of the media coverage suggests that the conflict in Syria is a civil war, in which the …

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The psychology of operational planning

Planners from the U.S. military and Japan Self-Defense Forces discuss missile defense in a February exercise. (USAF)

How to reduce the effects of emotion on decisionmaking

By Cmdr. Tony Schwarz

As military planners formulate recommendations for their commanders, they draw upon many kinds of data: joint and service doctrine, …

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Cyberspace: What is it, where is it and who cares?

Signal and military intelligence NCOs watch for network attacks at the Army's Cyber Operations Center at Fort Gordon, Ga. (Army/Michael L. Lewis)

By Brett Williams

Assured access to cyberspace is a key enabler of national security, so the answer to the question in the title is: we should all care. Two of the defining …

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Stalin’s successor is teaching

Russian tanks roll on a street in Tskhinvali, Georgia, in 2008.  (Photo: AFP / Viktor Drachev)

Americans should learn

By Douglas Macgregor

President Obama warns that if Russia intervenes with military power to crush the new Ukrainian government in Kiev there will be a cost. Yet it’s hard …

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