Monday, May 4, 2009
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
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.
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
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
Leadership and Conflict Resolution
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BAMntG01-lwC&oi=fnd&pg=PA304&dq=%22use+of+force%22&ots=uVsVHLqiTN&sig=ziRbYHnJT0s6MlImewTDTYa46Vg
Violent Entrepreneurs
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=lq2aaG29EzYC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=%22use+of+force%22&ots=4zerOTRG4q&sig=OcaCfjgXdsdymSt3A-HhQa9Hvoo#PPA46,M1
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Key to COIN
Be polite;
be professional;
be prepared to kill.
- LtCol Nagl
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=92011
be professional;
be prepared to kill.
- LtCol Nagl
http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=92011
Centre for a New American Security
http://www.cnas.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_a_New_American_Security
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/29729804#29729804
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_a_New_American_Security
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/29729804#29729804
Monday, March 2, 2009
Col Iron & the Charge of the Knights
Iron...is an unusual officer. He joined the army in 1975 and graduated from staff college near the top of his year. Two episodes in his career were decisive to his conduct in Basra. As a young captain in the 1980s, he served for two years in Oman. He describes this as the “key experience” since he learned how to speak Arabic and to “respect Arabic culture and the Arab way.” Then in the early years of this decade he was sent to Sierra Leone as an expert military witness for the country’s special court. He spent months in the jungle with the Revolutionary United Front and other ex-guerrillas, learning how insurgency movements think and operate.
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10635
Slightly flawed story - why was Col. Iron, fascinating as he is, pivotal to the success of Operation Charge of the Knights? But a very interesting article nonetheless.
http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=10635
Slightly flawed story - why was Col. Iron, fascinating as he is, pivotal to the success of Operation Charge of the Knights? But a very interesting article nonetheless.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Financial Crisis
THE global financial crisis is the biggest threat to Kevin Rudd's grand ambition for the new defence white paper, due in late April.
The white paper is in its final drafting stage and is due to go before cabinet's national security committee next month for an endorsement by the Prime Minister and senior ministers.
While Mr Rudd is sticking to his election pledge to lift defence spending by 3 per cent a year in real terms to 2019, the rapidly deteriorating global economy could force the Government to pull back on firm commitments to future multi-billion-dollar defence purchases including warships, submarines and fighter aircraft.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25070989-31477,00.html
The white paper is in its final drafting stage and is due to go before cabinet's national security committee next month for an endorsement by the Prime Minister and senior ministers.
While Mr Rudd is sticking to his election pledge to lift defence spending by 3 per cent a year in real terms to 2019, the rapidly deteriorating global economy could force the Government to pull back on firm commitments to future multi-billion-dollar defence purchases including warships, submarines and fighter aircraft.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25070989-31477,00.html
Friday, February 13, 2009
Whole of Community Conflict Prevention
Whole of Community Conflict Prevention by 3D Security
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjatVwtxoP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjatVwtxoP8
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
People of 2008 Finalist: José María Prazeres Pós-de-Mina
WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (OneWorld) - The mayor of one of Portugal's smallest and poorest municipalities has launched one of the largest green business initiatives in the world, and now he's spearheading an eight-country project to create communities run entirely on renewable energy.
http://us.oneworld.net/perspectives/peopleof2008/358732-jos%C3%A9-mar%C3%ADa-prazeres-p%C3%B3s-de-mina
http://us.oneworld.net/perspectives/peopleof2008/358732-jos%C3%A9-mar%C3%ADa-prazeres-p%C3%B3s-de-mina
Does Force Composition Matter?
The preliminary findings of this policy brief therefore suggest that:
• Increased numbers of peacekeepers from fewer contributing countries
are more effective than fewer peacekeepers from a larger
number of contributing countries.
• The forces in these five cases that consisted of cross-regional
peacekeepers were more effective than those comprised of
peacekeepers from one region.
• The stability of a force seems to be a critical factor. The longer a
peacekeeping force is deployed, the more time it has to establish
itself as an actor in the conflict.
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/FORD_DoesForceCompositionMatter.pdf
• Increased numbers of peacekeepers from fewer contributing countries
are more effective than fewer peacekeepers from a larger
number of contributing countries.
• The forces in these five cases that consisted of cross-regional
peacekeepers were more effective than those comprised of
peacekeepers from one region.
• The stability of a force seems to be a critical factor. The longer a
peacekeeping force is deployed, the more time it has to establish
itself as an actor in the conflict.
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/documents/FORD_DoesForceCompositionMatter.pdf
Counterinsurgency Field Manual: Afghanistan Edition
...
1-3. Although all development is critical in this impoverished country, roads are the single most important path to success in Afghanistan. In Ghazni province last summer, one of us spoke with an Afghan road builder whose shirt was covered in dried blood. He’d been shot by the Taliban a day earlier for working with the coalition, but he was back the next morning with his paving crew because he thought that finishing that road was the best way to bolster security in his village. Indeed, the U.S. general who was critical of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan pointed at Afghanistan’s ring road from the window of his Black Hawk helicopter, and declared, “Where the road ends, the Taliban begins.”
...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4587&page=1
1-3. Although all development is critical in this impoverished country, roads are the single most important path to success in Afghanistan. In Ghazni province last summer, one of us spoke with an Afghan road builder whose shirt was covered in dried blood. He’d been shot by the Taliban a day earlier for working with the coalition, but he was back the next morning with his paving crew because he thought that finishing that road was the best way to bolster security in his village. Indeed, the U.S. general who was critical of U.S. counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan pointed at Afghanistan’s ring road from the window of his Black Hawk helicopter, and declared, “Where the road ends, the Taliban begins.”
...
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=4587&page=1
Sunday, January 4, 2009
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