United States and Canada

If Caucasus erupts, war could spread

By Timothy Heritage and Francesco Guarascio, Reuters

From Timothy Heritage and Francesco Guarascio, Reuters:  Sporadic firefights have intensified along the front line around Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan in the South Caucasus controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war in the early 1990s that killed about 30,000 people.

NATO Secretary General on impact of 9/11 on transatlantic alliance

Repost from Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO:  [Eleven] years ago today in the United States, terrorists killed nearly three thousand men, women and children. Citizens of 25 NATO Allied and partner countries died that day.

Russian meddling in Georgia’s desire for NATO membership

By Urmas Reinsalu, the Wall Street Journal

Cyber Weapons: A New Kind of Warfare

By the Editors of the New York Times

From the Editors of the New York Times:  [F]aced with rising intrusions against computers that run America’s military systems and its essential infrastructure — its power grid, for instance, and its telecommunications networks — the military here (and elsewhere) sees disruptive software as an essential new tool of war.

Putin calls missile deal more likely if Obama wins

By David M. Herszenhorn, New York Times

NATO SecGen: ‘achieving security in the 21st century must be a truly cooperative endeavour’

By Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO

From Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO:  All Allies share the same fundamental values of liberty, democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights. 

Coming soon on demand: Cyber weapons

By John Reed, Killer Apps

From John Reed, Killer Apps:  Last month, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) gave six firms contracts valued at up to $300 million under a program called Agile Cyber Technologies (ACT), which will essentially keep these companies on retainer to provide cyber weapons on-demand under a form of contracting known as Indefinite Delivery-Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ).

Report: US unable to get Iraq to stop deliveries of Iranian weapons to Syria

By Bradley Klapper and Lara Jakes, the AP

From Bradley Klapper and Lara Jakes, the AP:  Iraq’s acquiescence in possibly allowing Iranian weapons deliveries to the Syrian regime demonstrates Washington’s limited influence in postwar Iraq, its inability to halt Syria’s 18-month conflict and its continued struggle against Tehran for supremacy in the region.

Missile defense unit in Germany gets state-of-the-art tactical operations center

By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes

From Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes:  Called a tactical operations center, the maze of tents set up on Rhine Ordnance Barracks holds state-of-the-art technology, such as computers that can pull up imagery of any place in the world with clarity and share that data almost instantaneously.