Security & Defense

US defense spending on cyber, special ops stays flat

By Lolita C. Baldor, the AP

From Lolita C. Baldor, the AP:  Spending on two of the Pentagon’s top priorities, cybersecurity and special operations forces, would largely remain flat or dip slightly in 2013

Is China a Paper Tiger in Cyberspace?

By Adam Segal, the Council on Foreign Relations

From Adam Segal, the Council on Foreign Relations:  Two recent studies of national cyber power have placed China near the bottom of the table.

Head of US Army Cyber Command: ‘Cyberspace requires a world-class cyber warrior’

By Peter Apps, Reuters

From Peter Apps, Reuters:  With growing worries about the threat of "cyber warfare," militaries around the world are racing to recruit the computer specialists they believe may be central to the conflicts of the 21st century. But whilst money is plentiful for new forces of "cyber warriors," attracting often individualistic technical specialists and hackers into […]

NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission Becomes Permanent

By Ott Tammik, Estonian Public Broadcasting

From Ott Tammik, Estonian Public Broadcasting: NATO has decided to make permanent its Baltic air policing mission, in which larger member states patrol the region with their fighter jets on a rota basis.

Syria Cyber War Opens New Front In Russia

By Jonathan Earle, the Moscow Times

From Jonathan Earle, the Moscow Times:  The cyber front of Syria’s year-old civil war spread to Russia this week as pro- and anti-government bots splashed criticism and expressions of gratitude across the Russian Internet, and Syrian hackers attempted to commandeer the website of a Russian embassy.

Cyber battles over Syria raging across the Internet

By Abigail Fielding-Smith, the Financial Times

From Abigail Fielding-Smith, the Financial Times:  The conflict between supporters and opponents of the regime of Mr Assad is being fought just as urgently in the cybersphere as on the streets of Homs, and goes far beyond trading insults. Two shadowy transnational armies slug it out on a daily basis for control not of streets […]

Counter-Piracy Task Force: Strategic Approaches to the Piracy Challenge

By Adrienne Chuck

On February 8, 2012, the International Security Program and the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a meeting of the Atlantic Council Maritime Piracy Task Force, chaired by Atlantic Council Board Director Franklin D. Miller. This is the third in a series of meetings looking into the challenge of piracy and possible strategic approaches.

Afghanistan: End Game or No Game?

By Harlan Ullman

Last week was another roller coaster ride for international politics. Violence in Egypt; looming civil war in Syria; and threats and counter-threats over Iran’s nuclear intentions reverberated around the international security community intensifying the gathering sense of impending disaster. In Brussels at the NATO Defense Ministers’ meeting followed by the Munich Security Conference the next […]

Divisions within Obama administration growing over how to end Afghan war

By Karen DeYoung, the Washington Post

Is Chinese espionage responsible for the rising costs of the F-35?

By David Fulghum, Bill Sweetman, and Amy Butler, Aviation Week

From David Fulghum, Bill Sweetman, and Amy Butler, Aviation Week:  How much of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s spiraling cost in recent years can be traced to China’s cybertheft of technology and the subsequent need to reduce the fifth-generation aircraft’s vulnerability to detection and electronic attack?