My little World Of International Relations

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

A Ukrainian army helicopter was shot down by separatists on Thursday, killing 14. 

Ukrainian musicians respond to the unrest. 

Politico asks why we (the West) failed to listen to the fears of Eastern Europe.

Former military chief Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi has won in a landslide in Egypt’s presidential election.

Meftah Bouzid, editor of the Libyan weekly paper Burniq and critic of extremism, was gunned down and killed in the center of Benghazi.

On his visit to Palestine and Israel, the Pope invited Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas to pray for peace at the Vatican. Both accepted - and will meet on June 8th for the joint prayer.  

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asked his prime minister Rami Hamdallah to form a unity government involving Hamas and Fatah.

40 hunger-striking Palestinian inmates were hospitalized after refusing food for a month — the total on strike is about 240, according to Israeli Prison Services. 

Faouzi Mohammed Ayoub, a Hezbollah senior operative on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list, was reportedly killed fighting in Syria.

Syria will miss the June 30 deadline for chemical weapons eradicaton. 

A convoy of chemical weapons inspectors and UN staff were attacked on their way to investigate the reported site of a chlorine attack. All are reported to be safe and well. 

Jordan expelled the Syrian ambassador.

Syria’s financial losses during the first 3 years of the ongoing conflict have been tabulated at $144 billion (or 246% of the GDP in fixed prices in 2010).

Bahrain freed human rights activist Nabeel Rajab after two years in prison for organizing and taking part in illegal gatherings. 

The White House accidentally revealed the name of the CIA chief of station in Kabul by including it in a list of participants at a briefing sent to the media.

The Taliban has released 23 police officers kidnapped last week in northern Afghanistan.

All but 9800 American troops will be pulled from Afghanistan by the end of the year — and the rest will be out by the end of 2016.

The AP reports that the CIA drone program in Pakistan is winding down. 

AG Eric Holder has hinted that New York Times reporter James Risen, who has defied a subpoena in order to avoid discussing confidential sources in the case of Jeffrey Sterling, may not serve jail time. 

NBC aired a long interview with Edward Snowden — his first US television interview. It covered a range of subjects, from 9/11 to his former intelligence work, his opinions on the value of mass surveillance and whether he would come home (he would).

One of the most newsworthy moments in the interview was Snowden’s statement that counter to official claims, he had actually pursued channels inside the NSA to raise his concerns before taking more drastic action. The NSA responded by releasing an email from him to the Office of General Counsel that does not relate directly to the programs in question. It is important to note that simply because that email exists does not mean others do not. 

Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke told Democracy Now! that the Bush administration’s actions in invading Iraq qualify, in his opinion, as war crimes. 

Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani, a 35-year-old Yemeni inmate at Guantánamo Bay who has spent 12 years in detention without charge, has been approved for transfer (“as soon as practicable”). 

At the West Point commencement, President Obama outlined a conception of US foreign policy.

Reverse engineering D-Day technology. 

Mary Edwards Walker — the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor — was an incredibly cool lady.

German photographer Dietmar Eckell documents wartime relics decaying and being claimed by natural surroundings. 

Photo: Bambari, Central African Republic. A young boy stands in front of a barricade in a protest after French troops opened fire on protesters on May 22. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters.

G7 countries snub Putin and refuse to attend planned G8 summit in Russia

Western countries and Japan have suspended their 16-year collaboration with Russia in the G8 group in response to the annexation of Crimea and have threatened sweeping sanctions in the event of any Russian military moves in the region.

The move, a clear and deliberate break from the post-Soviet status quo, was intended to underline Russian isolation. Leaders from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan met in The Hague as the G7 for the first time since Russian was brought into the group in 1998 to seal east-west co-operation and lay the cold war to rest. Read more

Brazil to order army into Rio slums as violence escalates before World Cup

Brazil is poised to send the army into the slums of Rio de Janeiro less than three months before the World Cup. The move follows a spate of attacks on police that has resulted in the most tense standoff for years in the favelas.

The Rio state governor, Sérgio Cabral, has requested the reinforcements after attacks on police bases, apparently co-ordinated by the city’s biggest gang, Comando Vermelho.

An escalation of fire-bombings, murders and revenge killings have prompted talk of a war between the police and gangsters. Favela residents and NGOs say the situation is now more tense than at any time since 2010, when the authorities began a “pacification” programme to regain control of communities from armed traffickers. Read more

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at [email protected].

Boko Haram attacked the northeastern Nigerian town of Bama on Wednesday, killing 47.

The planned visit of a UN aid official to the Central African Republic was disrupted by more violence. 

Clashes between government and rebel forces in South Sudan on Tuesday are the most significant ceasefire violation yet. 

Egypt put three Al Jazeera journalists on trial.

Leila Fadel looks back on the Libyan uprising on its anniversary.

The UN Security Council will vote on a Syrian aid resolution on Saturday.

The Syrian government has bombed Aleppo heavily over the past weeks, forcing hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee. Aid workers say this is one of the largest refugee flows in the entire war, with entire neighborhoods left empty.

Life in Beirut as the Syrian conflict expands.

Twin suicide bombings near an Iranian cultural center and the Kuwaiti embassy in Beirut left four dead. 

The murder of Bahraini activist photographer has gone unsolved.

Bahraini pro-democracy activist Zainab Al-Khawaja has been released from prison after nearly a year. She still awaits trial on other charges. 

Iraq is offering $25,000 (USD) bounties for killing or capturing foreign jihadists.

49 people died in a wave of car bombs in the Iraqi cities of Hilla and Baghdad earlier this week.

Iran and Britain resumed diplomatic ties. 

An Iranian court closed a pro-Rouhani newspaper for an activist’s commentary on Islamic law. 

P5+1 talks over the future shape of the Iranian nuclear program have begun in earnest now, and are expected to take six months.

Iran’s interior minister threatened to send forces into Pakistan if no actions are taken to free five Iranian border guards kidnapped by militants.

A think tank report prepared at the behest of the Pentagon says that Taliban insurgency will likely increase in the wake of US and NATO departure from Afghanistan.

A US soldier pleaded guilty to taking $57,000 to divert fuel trucks from FOB Salerno in Afghanistan and recording more fuel than was actually delivered.

The US is seeking out the possibility of a prisoner swap to retrieve Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Former Taliban minister Alhaj Mawlawi Abdul Raqib was assassinated in Peshawar.

40 people were killed on Thursday when Pakistani fighter jets bombed suspected militant hideouts on the Afghan border. 

The Pakistani government suspended peace talks with the Taliban following word that 23 paramilitary soldiers had been killed in militant captivity.

General Pervez Musharraf finally appeared in court. 

Abducted Pakistani drone activist Kareem Khan has been freed. 

Masked gunmen kidnapped a six-member WHO polio vaccination team in northwest Pakistan on Monday.

Violence escalated in the Ukraine this week, with dozens dead in the past couple of days alone as police turned to live ammunition to curb demonstrations. Some counts put yesterday’s dead at around 21. There is even strong evidence of sniper use.

Ukraine’s president says that a tentative deal has been reached.

What do geography and old history have to do with what’s happening now in Ukraine?

Spiegel looks at the global implications of the crisis in Ukraine. 

Members of punk protest group Pussy Riot, including Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who recently served prison sentences, were beaten in Sochi.

A UN inquiry calls North Korean human rights abuses similar to those of the Nazis.

Protesters and troops have clashed in Venezuela leaving six dead. 

According to Univision, Colombian intelligence intercepted emails between members of FARC and the media.

British high court has ruled that the Heathrow detention of David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald’s partner, was lawful.

The lead prosecutor in the upcoming court martial of Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair on sexual assault charges has abruptly left. 

A controversial fuel factory in South Carolina intended for use in getting rid of Cold War plutonium is expected to cost billions more than the Energy Department’s previous estimates and promises. 

Robert Malley has been tapped to join the National Security Council.

If Congress Won’t Raise the Debt Ceiling, Obama Will be Forced to Break the Law

Back in 2011, I found myself writing (and writing and writing and writing and writing) about Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment. Afterwards, it seemed like a bizarre interlude: The brief crisis about the debt ceiling surely would not repeat itself in our lifetimes. After all, President Obama was handily reelected, the Democrats held onto the Senate, and the Republicans must surely have learned their lesson.

Or not so much.

Regardless of how the current shutdown crisis ends, it seems there will be a second debt-ceiling crisis two weeks from now. And the questions are flying again: Is the debt-ceiling statute unconstitutional? Can Obama “invoke” Section Four of the Fourteenth Amendment and assert authority to breach the debt ceiling to pay “the public debt of the United States, authorized by law”? Or can one party, decisively defeated in a nationwide election and controlling only the lower house of the legislature, threaten the full faith and credit of the United states — and the health of the world economy — in pursuit of its short-term partisan advantage?

It’s Time for a New United Nations

In March of 2011 and just hours before the United Nations Security Council vote, Libyan dictator Muammar Ghaddafi promised citizens of Benghazi—his own countrymen—that he was “coming tonight” and that would show them “no mercy and no pity.” Gaddafi’s brazen statement telegraphed an impending attack with a high possibility massive civilian casualties.

In the Security Council immediately following Gaddafi’s threats, Russia and China—two permanent members with noted authoritarian governments themselves—abstained from voting on resolution 1973, which authorized “all necessary measures to protect civilians… including Benghazi.” (Germany, Brazil, and India, then-rotating members of the Security Council, abstained as well for their own reasons.)

In hindsight, Russia seems to have regretted its abstention. In January 2012, speaking about the growing civil war in Syria, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Australian TV that “the international community unfortunately did take sides in Libya and we would never allow the Security Council to authorize anything similar to what happened in Libya” in Syria.

That seems odd, because “what happened in Libya” was, on balance, a good thing: A sustained NATO air campaign unquestionably protected many more innocent civilians than it harmed and weakened Gaddafi’s forces en route to his downfall. What’s more, the Libya operation served as validation for those supporting the “responsibility to protect,” a 2006 Security Council mandate that called on parties involved in armed conflict to bear primary responsibility to protect civilians, approved by a unanimous 15-0 vote.

Obama and the End of the Imperial Presidency

In 1973, Arthur Schlesinger wrote about the tendency in American history for the president to assume sweeping powers in times of war and crisis. The balance of power established by the Constitution gets upended; Congress and the courts take a back seat; and the executive makes decisions about life and death largely unchecked. He called this “the imperial presidency.” Today, with President Obama turning to Congress to endorse a military strike on Syria, the imperial presidency is beginning to wane.

It’s about time. The 1990s seemed to presage a return to a more balanced government, with Cold War defense spending slashed and “the peace dividend” contributing to a more balanced budget. But then 9/11 happened; America launched a war on terror; and the rest, as they say, is history.

The imperial presidency has some justification in times of acute peril. The immediate aftermath of 9/11 certainly justified some degree of unilateral executive action, as did in its way the financial crisis in the fall of 2008. And few would argue that at times of all-out war, with the country fully mobilized to fight a genuine threat such as Germany and Japan during World War II, ceding powers to the executive branch is imperative.

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After fifty years, an honest look back at the March on Washington

It’s said that hindsight is often 20/20, but it also tends to create generalizations as we sift through the events of the past. Martin Luther King Jr.’s now-legendary “I Have a Dream” speech wasn’t immediately lionized like it is now, and for many, the jobs part of the demonstration was the central cause.

In the words of Vernon Watkins, who attended the march back in 1963:

"I didn’t go for the reason most people might think," Watkins pointed out. "I wasn’t there to see King."

He was 24 then; young and angry and black. He lived in a segregated Detroit neighborhood. He had a wife and three children, and worked at a printing plant. Getting a good job had tested him. Prospects for his future were uncertain.

"I had one thing on my mind in those days, and that was jobs," he said. "With the way we were treated because of the color of our skin, how was I going to keep providing for my family?"

But once Watkins began to hear King speak, he was amazed.

"He just leaned into the moment," Watkins said. "Looked out at the crowd the way Baptist preachers do and gave them what they needed: that idea of the dream. You might have to wait, but if you fight for dignity, everything is going to be OK."

Read more on Watkins’ experiences, and his views on whether the goals of prosperity and equality espoused in 1963 have been met in the fifty years since.

Does Russia Have a Secret Plan for Ukraine?

KYIV — It has long been known that Moscow is determined to prevent Ukraine from entering into an Association Agreement with the European Union.

And now, it seems, the Kremlin has a plan.

At least that’s what many in Ukraine are thinking after the newspaper “Dzerkalo tyzhnia” over the weekend published a 10-page document the paper claims was drafted by Moscow and its allies in Ukraine that outlines a multipronged effort to extend Russia’s influence in the country.

Opinions vary on the authenticity of the document. But former Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko said he had no doubt it reflects Moscow’s intentions.

"You probably noted such words as ‘coercion,’ ‘forcing,’ and so on [in the document]. This has been the core of Russia’s policy toward Ukraine for a long time," Ohryzko said. "This is nothing new — it is the continuation of the same imperialistic course.

"I hope this document will be read by as many Western diplomats in Ukraine as possible and that they will pass on the details to their capitals. Maybe it will help them reach the right conclusions and finally realize that there is a systematic ideological, political, economic, and information war being waged against Ukraine."

Terrifying Time Lapse

These time lapses document the change in the world over the past 30 years. Islands have popped up; forests have declined; ice has melted.

Such a terrifying, beautiful thing.

At least 2 dead, 23 hurt in Boston Marathon explosions

AP: At least two people are dead and 23 are hurt after two explosions rocked the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

An intelligence official says two more explosives have been found at the site and are currently being dismantled.

Follow the latest at Breaking News.