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

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

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.

US Army War College

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

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

Canadian Military Review

http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/

Foreign Exchange

http://foreignexchange.tv/

Why Poor Countries Are Poor

http://www.reason.com/news/show/33258.html

Appropedia

http://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia

Luttwak on Poverty & Foreign Aid in Africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ex4aC5z_XA

Key to COIN

Be polite;
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

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.

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

Whole of Community Conflict Prevention

Whole of Community Conflict Prevention by 3D Security

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjatVwtxoP8

The Visa Ad I'd Like to See

www.theseminal.com/2008/12/06/the-visa-commercial-id-like-to-see/