TCS Daily June 26, 2007 Editor’s note: TCS contributor James Joyner recently interviewed John Robb of the Global Guerrillas blog on his new book Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization. Robb paints a picture of a resilient enemy that morphs into something new just as we develop ways to protect…
Category: Military Affairs
Washington Examiner May 23, 2007 James Joyner: Throughout the book, you point out how easy it would be for relatively small groups with minimal funding to create power blackouts, disrupt our oil distribution networks, or even stage 9/11-style attacks on a routine basis. Why do you suppose that hasn’t already happened? For that matter, we…
Washington Examiner May 22, 2007 REVIEW: John Robb, Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization (New York: Wiley, 2007). John Robb has spent his career studying terrorism, computer systems, and risk management. He has brought these experiences to bear in this vital study of global terrorism. The view is…
The New Individualist April 2007 “Perhaps there is no great point in recalling all the tragic and idiotic blunders, all the false optimism, all the unrealism of the first phases of the war, but it is not possible to appreciate fully the heroism of the Security Forces unless the stupidities of some of those in…
Washington Examiner December 6, 2006 Washington is eagerly awaiting the report from the Iraq Study Group to point the way out of the war in Iraq. Sure, there are tens of thousands of years of professional military experience at the Pentagon with every incentive in the world to get things right. But what do they know…
TCS Daily October 17, 2006 Next month, the Army and Marine Corps will unveil a revised counterinsurgency manual scheduled which incorporates lessons learned in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere. Thomas Barnett, author of two best-selling books on military strategy, summarizes its core principles: 1) The more you protect your force, the less secure you are (If military…
Reason August 16, 2006 Just hours after the cease-fire with Lebanon took effect Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert gave a speech to the Knesset acknowledging “deficiencies” in the way the war was conducted. Buffeted by critics on the left and right, he added that, “We will have to review ourselves in all the battles” and pledged,…
TCS Daily August 14, 2006 A front-page story in Monday’s Washington Post declared Hezbollah “The Best Guerrilla Force in the World” and noted that, “As the declared U.N. cease-fire went into effect Monday morning, many Lebanese—particularly among the Shiites who make up an estimated 40 percent of the population—had already assessed Hezbollah’s endurance as a military success…
TCS Daily June 8, 2006 Editor’s Note: Terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed. Images of Zarqawi’s face are making the rounds as you read this, reinforcing many of Dr. Joyner’s assertions below. The war in Iraq has had powerful images from the beginning and public perceptions of the war have shifted along with the prevailing images. The…
TCS Daily February 27, 2006 Blogger and TCS contributor Stephen Green argues that civil war in Iraq might not be such a bad thing, noting that, “A civil war is the nastiest way to get a good result.” He cites several examples, notably the Thirty Years War, the English Civil War, and the American war between the…