In recent years, hard-line views once limited to ultra-nationalist Russian politicians like Vladimir Zhirinovsky have increasingly been espoused by the highest levels of the country’s leadership. How has this happened?
Can the West still provide the arsenal of democracy?
The war in Ukraine has proven that the age of industrial warfare is still here. The massive consumption of equipment, vehicles and ammunition requires a large-scale industrial base for resupply – quantity still has a quality of its own. The mass scale combat has pitted 250,000 Ukrainian soldiers, together with 450,000 recently mobilised citizen soldiers against about 200,000 Russian and separatist troops. The effort to arm, feed and supply these armies is a monumental task. Ammunition resupply is particularly onerous. For Ukraine, compounding this task are Russian deep fires capabilities, which target Ukrainian military industry and transportation networks throughout the depth of the country. The Russian army has also suffered from Ukrainian cross-border attacks and acts of sabotage, but at a smaller scale. The rate of ammunition and equipment consumption in Ukraine can only be sustained by a large-scale industrial base.
At the June summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, maintenance of support to Ukraine, the applications for NATO membership by Finland and Sweden, and the rollout of the new Strategic Concept will appropriately be front and center. But, if NATO is to maintain its long-term capacity for deterrence and defense, it will be equally important to take actions to implement four key operational priorities, each derived from initial lessons underscored by the Russia-Ukraine war. Specifically, effective deterrence and defense requires: upgraded force capabilities immediately focused on readiness and sustainability, and supported by the requisite funding; additional forward force deployments, including a substantial European component; enhanced cybersecurity resilience based on zero-trust architectures for critical infrastructures necessary for defense mission assurance; and long-term limitations on trade with Russia to limit its capacity to modernize its armed forces.
NATO should have a few objectives for its summit in Madrid later this month, said former NATO Secretary General George Robertson: “weapons, weapons, weapons—and a free, democratic Ukraine.”
Robertson joined three other former NATO chiefs—Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and Javier Solana—at an Atlantic Council Front Page event on Wednesday where the group discussed NATO’s response to the war, enlargement, and the next plays in Alliance’s playbook.
Kurdish units and Iranian-affiliated factions in Syria have formed a joint operations room under Russian supervision to counter a possible Turkish military operation in northern Syria.
Several Syrian groups and battalions with different affiliations announced on May 25 the formation of a joint operations room ahead of an imminent Turkish operation in northern Syria.
People didn’t believe that the war would break out, political experts and even intelligence officers doubted it would happen. Only they knew for sure, owners of the US military-industrial complex.Back in January, Lockheed Martin head Jim Taiclet told investors that the military conflict between the US and Russia over Ukraine would bring significant profits for the company.
Not without reason the US military-industrial complex had employed more than 2000 lobbyists since 2017.
The first Jews arrived in Morocco in the Vth century BC. A certain amount of interbreeding occurred with the exchanges with the Berber communities, which led to a “Judaization of the Berbers” and conversely a “Berberization of the Jews”. (1)
Settlement of Jews in North Africa and particularly in Morocco
Berber Jews or Jewish Berbers (in Tamazight: Udayen imaziɣen), are the Jewish communities of the Maghreb that historically spoke Berber languages and/or are of Berber origin. (2)
We have published our estimates of OPEC production capacity and surplus capacity every month since 2002 in our Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO). This data series is a useful indicator of global oil market tightness. Large surplus production capacity numbers suggest that OPEC has restrained crude oil production in the past to avoid over-supplying markets, which would result in large inventory builds and lower prices.
Juneteenth was a people’s holiday with deep meaning for the descendants of enslaved people. But the declaration of an official federal holiday has turned it into an opportunity for corporate exploiters and cynical politicians to show pretend concern for Black people. At best Juneteenth provides a history lesson and an opportunity for much needed political education.
More than two years after the pandemic struck and long since the last lockdown forced people to turn their work life upside down, a great number of workers worldwide still think about quitting their job or moving to other positions.