No Secretary of the Army
So, we don’t have a Secretary of the Army. Not entirely surprised if one or more of the various nominees has to withdraw. It is the nature of pulling from the outside and the nomination of successful business people; that…
Excellence in Historical Research and Analysis
Excellence in Historical Research and Analysis
So, we don’t have a Secretary of the Army. Not entirely surprised if one or more of the various nominees has to withdraw. It is the nature of pulling from the outside and the nomination of successful business people; that…
Kind of mystified why things are suddenly being stirred up in Ukraine. To me, this does not seem to work to Russia’s advantage, as they are trying to convince the new U.S. administration to remove some sanctions. Anyhow a couple…
Hard to ignore this one. According to White House reports 14 members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) were killed. We lost one person, three four injured and a $70 million Osprey. There were 10, 15, or 16 civilians killed. According…
This is a continuation of my previous post: Economics of Warfare 11. It is based upon a review of Michael Spagat’s lecture: The Fearon and Laitin study on the “Determinants of Civil War Onset” (link to paper on slide 5) had…
Examining the eleventh lecture from Professor Michael Spagat’s Economics of Warfare course that he gives at Royal Holloway University. It is posted on his blog Wars, Numbers and Human Losses at: This lecture discusses analysis of cross-country datasets, correlations, and then…
By the way, there is still a very complex conflict in Ukraine. This article does a nice job of summarizing the problem: Russia is Hoping to Freeze Ukraine into Submission Some major points: Ukraine has avoided using Russian natural gas for…
By the way, the defense budget is supposed to be going up (maybe). Now, it has been in decline a while. We were told by a U.S. Army director back in 2009 not to expect continued support because of upcoming…
The South China Sea has moved front-and-center as a major issue (along with the one China policy): prevent-china-taking-over-territory Just a few notes: Tillerson’s statement on Jan. 11 during confirmation hearings was “We’re going to have to send China a clear…
By the way, amid all the discussion in the news on crowd sizes, Eastern Mosul fell, sort of. Article here: Iraqi-forces-complete-control-eastern-mosul Highlights: “The deputy parliament speaker [of Iraq] announced the capture of the east of the city.” “Mopping-up operations were…
Examining the tenth lecture from Professor Michael Spagat’s Economics of Warfare course that he gives at Royal Holloway University. It is posted on his blog Wars, Numbers and Human Losses at: This lecture starts with a discussion of coups and…