Security & Defense

Stuxnets are Not in the US National Interest: An Arsonist Calling for Better Fire Codes

By Jason Healey, the New Atlanticist

From Jason Healey, the New Atlanticist:  The United States government has apparently struck a blow against the Iranian nuclear enrichment capability by using Stuxnet to disable centrifuges.

New Militia Clashes Endanger Transition in Libya

By Karim Mezran

This morning’s clashes between members of the Tarhouna militia and the Zintani militia at Tripoli’s main airport demonstrate just how unstable Libya’s security situation really is.

A Light in the Mire

By Julian Lindley-French

Edward Gibbon, in his masterly Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire wrote, “all that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.” Having just come back from a two day NATO meeting in the Eternal City one is beginning to see that in the fabric of the people and the place.

Operation Unified Protector: The Libya Air Campaign Revisited

On June 4, the Atlantic Council hosted Lieutenant General Ralph Jodice, commander of air operations for Operation Unified Protector, the NATO campaign in Libya in 2011.

Stuxnets are Not in the US National Interest: An Arsonist Calling for Better Fire Codes

By Jason Healey

The United States government has apparently struck a blow against the Iranian nuclear enrichment capability by using Stuxnet to disable centrifuges.   While this cyber weapon destroyed centrifuges and seized up the enrichment process, the cost in American cyber power ultimately will not have been worth these limited gains.

Cartwright: “We built the F-35 with absolutely no protection for it from a cyber standpoint”

By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., AOL Defense

From Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., AOL Defense:  [Former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff James] Cartwright fears the Pentagon’s most expensive program, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, might prove to be as vulnerable to enemy hackers as the old under-armored Humvees were to roadside bombs.

Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran

By David E. Sanger, the New York Times

From David E. Sanger, the New York Times:  From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities

NATO’s Many Challenges

By Joshua Foust

I had the privilege of attending the Young Atlanticist Summit, sponsored by The Atlantic Council, during the NATO Summit last week in Chicago. It was a fascinating experience, getting to hear NATO officials discuss their plans with an oftentimes skeptical crowd. NATO tried to sell the summit as a watershed moment for the alliance – […]

Mission Taliban

By Bharat Karnad

There are certain immutable laws of military history that repeated attempts at disproving them only end up confirming their veracity. One such law has to do with certain countries being simply intolerant of interventions by foreign powers. Vietnam and Afghanistan come readily to mind; they are the fabled “graveyards of empires”.