Security & Defense

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?

NATO clears funding hurdle to buy five Global Hawks

By Stephen Trimble, Flight Global

NATO Doesn’t Yet Know How To Protect Its Networks

By Spencer Ackerman, Danger Room

From Spencer Ackerman, Danger Room:  Here at NATO Headquarters, the 2007 denial-of-service attack that took websites of member nation Estonia offline forms something of a template for worry.

What Is NATO Good For?

By Robert Haddick, Foreign Policy

From Robert Haddick, Foreign Policy:  In a briefing delivered at NATO headquarters on Jan. 30, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen declared that "NATO is the most successful alliance in history."