Comdt. Pat Quinlan, far left, poses with soldiers of A Company, 35th Infantry Battalion, in Elisabethville, before the siege.4 The siege of Jadotville was an armed conflict that happened in September of 1961 (at the peak of the Cold War), during the Congo Crisis, when the "A" Company, 35th Battalion, of the Irish Army's United... Continue Reading →
The altarpiece of the Independence of Mexico ("El Retablo de la Independencia de México"), is a fresco on a wall by Juan O'Gorman, painted from the year 1960 to 1961. "What has characterized the Latin American state is not its concentration of power, but the very dilution of power." - Miguel Angel Centeno (2002, Loc.... Continue Reading →
Whenever the objective has been to disrupt, sabotage, rescue, gather intelligence, combat irregular enemy forces, etc. Special forces have always played a key role throughout the history of warfare. Top of mind commando forces include Britain's Special Air Service (SAS) and, in the United States, the Green Berets, Rangers and Delta Force. In the case... Continue Reading →
The Ratification of the Treaty of Münster, 15 May 1648 by Gerard ter Borch "The real difficulty is that through history the use of force in statecraft has had different meanings, and if this is so, the sources, causes, or correlates of war in one period cannot be easily transferred to another." - Kalevi J.... Continue Reading →
Naval diplomacy, the peaceful use of the possibility of force... "Naval diplomacy is about what navies actually do, rather than what they train for.” - Kevin Rowlands Naval diplomacy, a maritime, non-violent state’s activity that pursuits the national interest; an old practice, even observed by Thucydides’ when accounting of the power of the Athenian Fleet... Continue Reading →
Coalition partners and security force members aim towards the location of concealed opponents during a drill on navigating difficult terrain during military training in Erbil, Iraq, Jan. 23, 2018. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Anthony Zendejas IV) “Insurgents tend to ride and manipulate a social wave of grievances, often legitimate ones, and they... Continue Reading →
Is is true that democracies do not come to the rescue of other democracies? Are democracies more likely to win wars? Are democracies better administrators of resources than non-democracies in times of armed conflict? Overall, this D. Reiter & A. Stamm III's book is an "interesting" one. Nevertheless, a couple of affirmations significantly damaged my... Continue Reading →
Test shot of the French M51 strategic ballistic missile on July 1, 2016 "The US tactical nuclear weapons are in Europe, let us not forget this. Does it mean that the US has occupied Germany or that the US never stopped the occupation after WWII and only transformed that occupation troops into the NATO forces?"... Continue Reading →
A Syrian forces' artillery observer looks through a scope as smoke plumes rise on the horizon, near the town of Qumhanah in the countryside of the central province of Hama, on April 1, 2017. Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images. Bottom line: this book is interesting. John Vasquez affirms that around 70% of wars happen because of territorial... Continue Reading →
Graham Allison is a prominent American political scientist. He is a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In 1971 he became internationally renowned after the success of his book Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Then, Remaking Foreign Policy: The Organizational Connection, co-written with Peter Szanton, was... Continue Reading →
Grande stratégie 