Search: Human security,Intelligence,Covert activity,Foreign Affairs,War,Security,USA (9 materials)

American Jihadi: Why Westerners Fight with the Islamic State

... and immolation, understanding this process (and more importantly the failure of the intelligence community and state department to make inroads against it) requires one... ... seems more myth than reality. Reality in America, if you are not able to hook into upward mobility and access privileged success, is a fairly dull and even depressing situation:... ... beyond anything the West could ever think plausible. Against this backdrop, it is inexcusable that American agents find themselves at a loss to understand the appeal of that...

18.04.2015

America's National Security Schizophrenia

There is no stronger example of the schizophrenic nature of American foreign policy toward Russia than comparing statements written in the formal National Security Strategy (NSS) of President Obama with actual testimony given by the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. In 2010 the NSS asserted that the U.S. would endeavor to ‘build a stable, substantive, multidimensional relationship with Russia, based on mutual interests.’ What’s more, the NSS called Russia a 21st century ...

23.02.2015

U.S.-Russia Relations: The Problem of Intellectual Insincerity

... ease the far more standard approach to foreign policy formulation is to determine a country’s own national interests and security dilemma and craft an independent position that can best achieve optimal goals for said country. And that, not ironically,... ... endorse another country trying to force-influence its foreign policy. So why should Russia? It is this very simple and straightforward question that seems to never be asked by what are otherwise august media institutions and impressive political think tanks ...

03.02.2015

Twisting in Our Own Tortured Noose: American Verbal Duplicity and Torture

... techniques used on terrorist targets after 9/11 to glean greater intelligence and information. Since that release there has been ... ... Americans can be about their own people, country, government, and its foreign affairs. Let's just break this down in simple terms: ... ... that is supposedly now over, the one we used to call the Global War on Terror. So the 'shock' must be to learn ... ... alright, maybe I cannot prove that was actually the case, a direct causal link, but I am pretty sure SOME information EVENTUALLY came ...

15.12.2014

Prisoners of Preconception: The Problems of Bias in American Intelligence

Anyone who has worked through post-mortems on the Iraq war is familiar with the pitfalls associated with ‘groupthink’ ... ... information. Others pointed to embedded preconceptions within the Intelligence Community itself, making it impossible to jump off ... ... ‘factor wars’ designed to show that one favorite causal factor is more important than another, concentrating instead ... ... to develop degree programs focused on intelligence and national security, they have followed the military-friendly school model,...

08.12.2014

Targeted Killings Coming Back to Haunt America

... states have made attempts to explicitly fuse drones and targeted killing to already established norms, ethics, and rules of war, the United States has focused more on drones being something of a semi-covert tool of political means. In other words, drone ... ... undefined. The U.S. has a diplomatic habit of positioning its interests as something higher than pure foreign-policy and national security priorities. In so doing, it creates a de facto expectation whereby it has exclusive rights to exceptional behavior on ...

16.09.2014

Yemen's Special Interests, or, Horton Hears a Houthi

... country since 2004, meaning there has basically been war in Yemen as long as there has been war in Iraq.... ... guy hats’ and ‘bad guy hats’ into foreign affairs: BOTH sides were right in their descriptions.... ... these strikes are actually being done by the American Intelligence Community, namely the CIA, in an arena ... ... government has always made connections and leveled accusations of Iranian involvement and support to the ... ... and a potential danger to their sovereign national security interests in the Gulf and beyond. So while ...

23.07.2014

Saving Lives or Saving Face? Sanctions, Russia, and the West

... us who have followed this conflict for the past half year, we have had heard this accusation at least half a dozen times. Sometimes there has been evidence to partially... ... INTO UKRAINE OR LAUNCHED ANY OFFENSIVES. Given this indisputable evidence that even intelligence and diplomatic agencies in the West admit, it seems that Russia was punished... ... concern in the West is that they will try to hunker down for ‘extended urban warfare.’ The irony of course is that the force in Eastern Ukraine so far responsible...

17.07.2014

Washington's Perceptions about Russian and Chinese Cyber Power

... conventional military confrontation. Indeed, many Chinese and Russian actors suggest cyber warfare is considered an obvious asymmetric instrument for balancing overwhelming US... ... vehicles. With this state of military affairs, a Chinese and Russian perception of insecurity is not surprising. Even more logical is the Chinese and Russian resolve to... ... The United States invests heavily in cyber security and several members of the Intelligence Community work to create cyber weapons meant to preserve US military predominance...

01.06.2014

Poll conducted

  1. In your opinion, what are the US long-term goals for Russia?
    U.S. wants to establish partnership relations with Russia on condition that it meets the U.S. requirements  
     33 (31%)
    U.S. wants to deter Russia’s military and political activity  
     30 (28%)
    U.S. wants to dissolve Russia  
     24 (22%)
    U.S. wants to establish alliance relations with Russia under the US conditions to rival China  
     21 (19%)
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