Security & Defense

China suspected of Facebook attack on NATO’s supreme allied commander

By Nick Hopkins, the Guardian

From Nick Hopkins, the Guardian:  Nato’s most senior military commander has been repeatedly targeted in a Facebook scam thought to have been co-ordinated by cyber-spies in China

NATO signs largest contract to date for cyber defense

By NATO

From NATO:  The NATO Consultation, Command and Control Agency (NC3A) celebrated with a ceremony on 8 March 2012 the award of a contract for upgrading the NATO cyber defence capabilities.

Is it Time for a Nuclear Mutual Assistance Pact?

By Julian Lindley-French

Is it time for a Nuclear Mutual Assistance Pact? Yesterday’s ‘P5+1’ statement urging Iran to enter into “serious dialogue” on its nuclear program “without preconditions” suggests the danger of nuclear proliferation is now so real that something new is needed to prevent it. The statement is also an important precedent. The very fact that the […]

China testing cyber-attack capabilities, report says

By Ellen Nakashima, the Washington Post

From Ellen Nakashima, the Washington Post:  For a decade or more, Chinese military officials have talked about conducting warfare in cyberspace, but in recent years they have progressed to testing attack capabilities during exercises

Europeans’ Dilemma and Putin’s Pledge

By Ioan Mircea Pascu

From the three “tenets” of Lord Ismay – NATO has been created to keep the Americans in, the Germans down and the Russians out – the most important one has proven to be the first: to keep the Americans in!

Lessons from Our Cyber Past: The First Military Cyber Units

The Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative held a workshop examining the early history of cyber conflict through military units that were established to operate in this new domain of warfare on March 5.

Putin’s Return and NATO-Russia Relations: Back to the Future

By Jakub Kulhanek

Shocking no one, Vladimir Putin will return to the Russian presidency following Sunday’s election. While it remains to be seen how the people who already took to the streets after the Duma elections respond to his return to the Kremlin, there is little doubt that Russia is entering uncharted waters of domestic uncertainty and possible […]

Why Wars Start and Why Wars Are Lost

By Harlan Ullman

As the White House defuses efforts to restart a 21st-century variant of the ancient Persian wars through a pre-emptive, presumptive Israeli military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities, history offers several stark warnings and lessons about starting and losing wars to be ignored at our risk. After the 10-month-long Franco-Prussian war of 1870 in which the […]

Rasmussen: ‘In good times and bad, NATO has been the best investment Allies have made’

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

From Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO:  We cannot tell how long this economic turmoil will last. But its consequences will be with us for a long time to come.