Monday, May 4, 2009

US Army Centre for Military History

http://www.history.army.mil/

Statecraft.org

http://www.statecraft.org/

Centre for Security Policy

http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.xml

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

American investors attempt to spur Iraq’s private sector

Business in Iraq

It's the economy, stupid
Apr 16th 2009
From The Economist print edition

American investors attempt to spur Iraq’s private sector

Reuters

Out with the tanks, in with the tomatoesIN 2005 on a dusty road in Tuz, Iraq, an American solder was killed by a roadside bomb. His fellow soldiers soon discovered that the assassin was no hardened terrorist, but an unemployed father of six who had been paid $200 to plant the explosive. Such situations are not uncommon in Iraq, where high unemployment spawned many “economic insurgents”—often unideological Iraqis in need of cash, who became easy recruits. It was, in part, in response to examples like this that a trio of former military officers created the Marshall Fund, a private-equity fund making only non-oil investments in smallish firms in Iraq. “Without thriving businesses and the jobs they create, Iraq will never be stable,” says Dan Rice, who founded the fund along with Wayne Culbreth and Andrew Eberhart. Late last year it closed on its first investment, a tomato-processing plant in the northern region of Harir.

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=13496648&source=hptextfeature

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Armed social workers

Last month, the humanitarian news agency IRIN reported that thousands of people living in refugee camps in southern Somalia have run out of food since UN food aid deliveries ceased due to rising insecurity. In addition to certain UN operations, numerous groups providing critical aid in the East African nation have been forced to suspend activities as humanitarian workers have increasingly come under attack over the last year.

http://us.oneworld.net/article/361700-somalia-political-progress-humanitarian-stalemate

I propose that this is a situation that would benefit from a military - or paramilitary - solution.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

US Army War College

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Who Gets a State, and Why?

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/64872/stephen-d-krasner/who-gets-a-state-and-why