Category: Quick Post & Links

  • The Mujahideen Network in Spain: Supporting Fighters in Iraq

    Quick Post In Jamestown Foundation’s Terrorism Focus (11/21/06), there are reports that “agents of the Spanish National Police in Madrid arrested four men because of their involvement in a document falsification ring that had, as its primary mission, the objective of providing documentation cover to “mujahideen” leaving Iraq and trying to enter Spain and other…

  • Energy Security: Interdependence or Independence

    Quick Post: Towards a Broader view of Energy Security? Sebastian Mallaby of the Washington Post does an excellent job in “What ‘Energy Security’ Really Means” on broadening the general public’s view of energy security. Read on. What everyone thinks about energy security: “For many American leaders, energy security means producing energy at home and relying…

  • Culture and Decision Making: Avoiding Mirroring

    Introduction Tyler Cowen (from Marginal Revolution) presents an excerpt for this interesting paper: Results of the experiment demonstrated dramatic cultural differences in financial value estimations, as well as on the influence of variables such as framing effects. Chinese participants made higher object value estimates than Americans did, even when adjusting for differing national inflation rates.…

  • Weekend Reading: Econobrowser and the Ethanol Challenge in the US

    Econbrowser’s Menzie Chinn Menzie Chinn, while discussing the new appointed Sec. Treasurer Henry Paulson, puts out to a laundry lists of major and mounumental challenges the U.S. economy is facing. His full article, “Does a new economic team mean a new economic policy?“, is worth the read. the economy has both underperformed along a number…

  • Long Road to a Post-Bush Administration World

    The Signs Pile Up StratFor’s George Friedman writes in “Civil Liberties and National Security” (05.16.06): “The release of the data-mining story to USA Today obviously was intended as a means of shooting down his nomination — which it might. But what is important here is not the fate of Hayden, but the fact that the…

  • Quickpost: London Bombing – Self-Start Terrorism, No Al-Qaida Needed

    The Observer reports leaks regarding the July 7 London subway bombing inquiry by the British Government: The official inquiry into the 7 July London bombings will say the attack was planned on a shoestring budget from information on the internet, that there was no ‘fifth-bomber’ and no direct support from al-Qaeda, although two of the…

  • QuickPost-Commentary: Rewritting the Geneva Conventions – John Reid

    Special Note: With Internet finally here, this is my first posting in 3-4 weeks. I am looking forward to ramping-up to normal blogging operations soon… This week John Reid, the British Defence Sec, called for a revamp of the Geneva Convention due to the changing nature of modern (post-modern?) warfare at the Royal United Services…

  • Quick Post: Update on India, US and Anglosphere – The Economist Writes

    Quick Post: Update on “Getting India Right : Recreating the Anglosphere” The Economist Writes on US-India relations The StrategyUnit has recently posted several articles relating to India, with the strongest being “Getting India Right : Recreating the Anglosphere“, where it is declared: “There has been discussion that just as Great Britain gracefully passed its world…

  • What’s at Stake with the UAE Port Deal: US Bases, Force Projection, Defense Contracts

    Spook86’s “In From the Cold” is a blog folks need to check out. Spook86 mentions some possible motives behind Bush Administration’s support for the UAE port deal: From Port Call: Cancelling the port deal could mean the end of U.S. basing rights in the UAE, strained relations with other regional partners, and the potential loss…

  • “Netwar Nightmare: Mexican Narco State” – Update

    Introduction Back in November, StrategyUnit wrote on the “War on Drugs” escalation in Mexico and the great danger it poses for US security: The U.S. and its “War on Drugs” is partially the cause of the escalation of the drug war. The US and other states have escalated the war, only to encourage the development…